Beef Stew 烩牛肉

Tender beef, cooked in a flavorsome pot of stew, with root vegetables and spices.
This pot of beef stew is comfort food especially on cold weather. Serve with bread, rice or sides.

Beef stew is always a comfort food to warm tummy, and great choice for quick and easy dinner!

During days when I just want an one pot meal with minimal cooking and cleaning, I’ll usually choose to cook stews.

What Is Beef Stew?

This is a savory dish that combines beef with some other ingredients, usually potatoes, carrots or other vegetables, along with some herbs or spices.

Chunks of cut beef, usually coated with flour, will be seared in a hot pan with some oil. The meat is then simmered and braised in broth with ingredients mentioned above. Due to a longer cook time, the meat becomes very tender, well flavored in a rich, thickened sauce.

Red wine is also used most of the times in beef stew, to give it an even richer flavor. In this recipe, I have left out the red wine.

Frequently, beef stew is served as the main dish, together with bread or rice.

>> MORE EASY DISHES RECIPES:

• Easy Butter Chicken Pasta
• Chicken & Potato Stew
• Easy Chinese ABC Soup
• White Radish Soup

What Cut Of Beef Should I Get?

I’d tried getting pre-cut beef from the supermarket, which stated was for “beef stew”. However, it did not turn out well. The meat ended up still quite tough even after simmering for quite a while.

Some people may prefer to use good steak cut for beef stew; for me, I found chuck tender was great for tender meat. Was really happy to find that the stewed beef was fork tender and absorbed the flavors of the sauce. I got my chuck tender from an online grocer, Shinsen.

The key is also to look out for meat that have good marbles of fat around it – that is, having a good amount of white veins of fat through the meat. Fret not, the stewed beef will not be “fatty”. The fats in the beef will “melt” while simmering, resulting in a tender beef stew.

What Ingredients Do I Need For The Beef Stew?

Other than beef itself, we will also be adding some root vegetables, along with spices and seasoning:

• Beef Chuck Tender: Choose well marbled meat for tender cooked beef.
  
• Onion
• Garlic
• Carrot
• Potatoes
• Celery
• Mushrooms
• Plain Flour
• Beef Broth
• Seasoning: Salt, Black Pepper, Tomato Paste, Worchester Sauce, Soy Sauce, Bay Leaf

Beef Stew

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• Author: Cherie
• Prep Time: 25 Mins
• Cook Time: 75 Mins
• Total Time: 1 hour 40 minutes
• Yield: 1-2 Adults 1x

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Description

Tender beef, cooked in a flavorsome pot of stew, with root vegetables and spices. This pot of beef stew is comfort food especially on cold weather. Serve with bread, rice or sides.

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Ingredients

Beef Prep

• 400g beef chuck tender, cut
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
• Some flour to coat

Stew

• 2 tbsp oil
• 1/2 yellow onion, diced
• 1 large carrot, peeled and cut to chunks
• 1 rib celery, diced or cut to small pc
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 100g mushrooms, cut
• 1.5 tbsp plain flour
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 350 ml broth
• 1 tbsp worchester sauce
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 large potato, peeled and cut to chunks
• Parsley (fresh or dried)

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Instructions

1. Heat 1 tbsp oil in deep pan or pot. Once hot, sear beef on all sides till evenly browned. Do not overcrowd the beef on the pan. You may need to sear the beef in batches, depending on the size of your pan.
2. Once beef is evenly browned on all sides, remove onto a plate, along with browned bits in pan.
3. Heat another tbsp of oil. Saute onion and garlic till fragrant.
4. Stir in celery, carrot and mushrooms. Toss to cook for about 1-2 mins.
5. Add beef back into pan. Stir in flour and tomato paste. Stir to coat evenly.
6. Add in broth and bay leaf. Stir to cook. Bring broth to boil.
7. Once boiled, add worchester and soy sauce. Reduce heat to simmer for 40-45 mins.
8. Add in potatoes and continue simmering for 20-30 mins.
9. Taste and season with salt and pepper if needed.
10. Serve hot with bread, rice or sides.

Notes

I cooked the stew with my thermal pot: sear the beef in non-stick pan, and then following Step 4 onwards using my inner pot. Once broth boils, continue to let it boil for about 20 mins before removing inner pot to place in outer pot. Let stew continue cooking in outer pot for about 3-4 hours. Remove and place inner pot on stove. Add potatoes and bring stew to a boil. Simmer for about 20-30 mins further. Serve immediately.

If you do not have broth, use water and season with more salt at the end. The stew may not be as flavorful compared to using broth.

You can also add more water to the stew if it gets too thick towards the end.

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