Make This for Dinner Soon!

As promised, here is the new recipe I told you about. This came to me from a sweet friend who sends me the best recipes. She never lets me down! One of my all time faves from her is this wonderful Chicken Enchilada Casserole - it has black beans and fresh cilantro - yum.

Anyway, she e-mailed this a week or so ago, but I waited to make it until the weather was freezing and I was craving a hearty stew-type meal. It totally fit the bill and I just had the leftovers for lunch, putting the beef over mashed potatoes and just nuking it - very satisfying.

Braised Beef with Sun Dried Tomatoes

2 T. olive oil
2 lbs. stew meat, cut into 1 inch cubes
1 medium onion, vertically sliced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 T. flour
1 3/4 c. water
1 c. dry red wine
1 c. low sodium beef broth
1 c. sun dried tomatoes - packed without oil & chopped or cut into strips
1 T. brown sugar
1 T. worcestershire sauce
1 1/2 t. fresh rosemary, chopped
3/4 t. salt
1/2 t. pepper
1 bay leaf
1/4 c. flat leaf parsley, chopped

- Heat olive oil in large dutch oven over medium high heat. Add beef, cook 4 minutes, browning on all sides.
- Add sliced onions, cook about 7 minutes or until softened. Add minced garlic, cook 1 minute.
- Stir in flour, cook 2 minutes, stirring often.
- Stir in water and next 9 ingredients - through bay leaf. Reduce heat to medium low, cover and simmer for 1 hour.
- Uncover and simmer an additional 30 minutes or until beef is tender.
- Discard bay leaf.
- Ladle into bowls or onto plates, sprinkle each serving with fresh chopped parsley.

I planned to use fresh rosemary from my garden but my plant was dead from the cold. Shocking, as it thrived through all last winter! I was disappointed to use dry rosemary - it just reminds me of all the pine needles we have vacuumed up through the holidays! And while I had some lovely fresh parsley, I completely forgot to add it to the finished product. That might have had something to do with two men standing in the kitchen, waiting for plates of food so they could watch the Duke vs. Davidson game on the big tv in the basement. :)

I made mashed potatoes to go with this - you could do that or rice or pasta. The juice is so tasty, you'll want something to soak it all up. (I used rolls, but I'm not saying how many.)

I also could not find my dutch oven, so I simply used a skillet to brown the beef, onions & garlic, then poured it all into a large saucepan/stew pot for the rest. No problem, except for the 30 minutes I lost, searching high & low for the dutch oven. (Who loses their dutch oven? If you borrowed mine or I gave it to you, I would love to get it back.)

For those of you who might prefer using a crock pot, here are some thoughts on how to do just that: Reduce the liquids (3/4 c water instead of 1 3/4 c, and 3/4 c wine instead a full cup). Since the crock keeps so much moisture in, this will probably be about the right amount of liquid. Try 4 hours on low and about 1 or 1.5 on high. You could also add some root vegetables to this, potatoes, carrots, etc. to make it more stew-like.

This is just a really nice, tasty meal. Highly recommended. Enjoy!

Julianne