Beef Stew

Mmmmmmmm, a perfect homestyle comfort food.  I usually like this on a chilly, cloudy day - but today ended up sunny and nice.  Oh well... the stew was still delish.  My husband doesn't like potato so I leave it out.  He likes his portion served over egg noodles and I like mine over mashed potato or brown rice.  There are many different vessels in which to make stew, but I prefer a porcelain coated cast iron dutch oven; one pot, stovetop to oven.

2 pounds stew meat
2 tablespoons light olive oil, divided
2 teaspoons butter (not margarine), divided
1-2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 onion, chopped
4 celery stalks, chopped
2-3 large carrots, chunked
4-5 cloves garlic, chopped
1 cup red wine
1 can diced tomato
1 1/2 cups beef broth
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
2 tsp italian seasoning
Salt and pepper to taste
Rice, potato or pasta for serving

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Mix flour, salt and pepper.  Coat stew meat well with flour mixture, set aside.  Add 1 tablespoon oil and 1 teaspoon butter in a 5 quart dutch oven over high heat.  Brown stew meat in 2 batches, adding more oil/butter between batches.  If you add all the meat at once it won't brown properly.  Set browned meat aside and add onion, celery carrot.  Cook for about 3 minutes, stirring often.  Add garlic, cook for about 1 minute more.  Add red wine, scrape up all the browned bits, and let it reduce by at least half, then add tomatoes, broth and seasoning.  Stir, cover and move to oven.  Cook for about 2 hours, checking for doneness at 1.5 hours.  Season with salt and pepper as needed.  If you got the meat coated well before browning, your stew should not need any thickening.  Serve stew over rice, pasta or potato.

~ Enjoy ~

General Tso Chicken

I don't make Asian food often, but I need to.  What's not to love about meat (chicken), fresh veggies and a light sauce all served over rice?  Last week I teased my husband by saying I'd make this dish, forgetting I didn't have any fresh broccoli or ginger.  So, tonight I was able to make this (for the 1st time) and oh boy it's good.  I originally saw this on The Chew, an ABC daytime cooking show.  Of course I made a few very minor changes.  Below is the recipe in order of the steps I took to make it....

Chicken
2 chicken breasts, cut into 1" pieces, set aside

Veggies
1 (very) large carrot, cut into bite size chunks
1 pound broccoli florets

I steamed the carrot and broccoli (separately) until crisp tender, then set aside. 

Sauce
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/2 cup cold chicken stock
4 garlic cloves, diced
2 teaspoons fresh ginger, diced/minced
3 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1-2 teaspoons red pepper flakes (I actually used 1 tsp this time, but could have gone with 2), use more or less to your taste

Mix together corn starch and chicken stock until smooth.  Add garlic, ginger, honey, soy sauce and red pepper flakes.  Set aside.

Add 2 tablespoons light olive oil to a large skillet.  Mix 3 tablespoons flour with 1/4 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper.  Coat chicken, shake off excess and place in the hot skillet, cooking 4-6 minutes.  Add the sauce and cook about 1-2 minutes until it just starts to thicken.  Add the veggies and cook an additional 2-5 minutes until warmed through and coated with the sauce.  Serve over a bed of rice.

Recipe adapted from: Clinton Kelly's General Tso's Chicken, The Chew

Enjoy!