Warm your bones and your taste buds!
The leaves are changing color and the temperatures are dropping. I am starting to pull out my cozy knit sweaters and have been putting on the fireplace in the morning. Its that time of year again: autumn. And in honour of the new season, we thought to kick it off with a classic; a perfect Sunday stew.
Tips and Tricks
My mother is a great cook and I learned a lot from her. One thing she always told me was, "if you don't pat dry your meat, it won't brown!". She was right, and so was Julia Child. So when preparing your meat for your stew, remember to pat it dry with a paper towel for best results! Season generously with salt and pepper and brown the beef on all sides.
With the seared meat set aside, it's time to start layering in the flavours of our stew. I believe that at the base of any great soup or stew is the classic combination of onions, carrots and celery. Fun fact: this classic trio is known in French cooking as mirepoix! Sauté those veggies with olive oil and all the stew spices and herbs to get the aroma of Sunday stew started.
Next add the potatoes and the beef with all the plate juices. Deglaze the bottom of the dutch oven with some red wine and then fill the pot with broth until all of the stew is submerged in liquid. Put the lid on and take this pot to the oven for 2-3 hours at 160 C/300 F degrees. When you remove it from the oven give it a stir and add some chopped flat beans also known as Italian Romano beans and cook on the stove top for a few minutes. Also remember to do a taste test and check if it needs more salt or seasoning. Cook for 10 minutes to allow some liquid to evaporate and for the stew to thicken.
Once the stew has thickened to your desired consistency, you have two options. Option 1 is serve and eat. Option two is make this stew in the morning or midday and let it sit for a couple hours before eating for dinner. The longer it sits the better it tastes. The choice is yours! I know its going to be hard to resist eating it when your house smells of warm and cozy stew. We think its best served with a slice of buttered bread for dipping. Savoury, hardy, warming and delicious. No better way to finish off your week than with this Sunday stew.
The Recipe
How this works?
For those of you that are new to the twotocook family, our recipe structure deserves a little explanation. (For those of you who know the drill, skip on ahead :) The idea behind twotocook was to design recipes for a fun game-like experience. The idea is you and your partner decide who will be chef 1 and who will be chef 2. Following your selection you will be brought to your individual instructions. We will start with a split grocery list for those that maybe want to split the shopping and come together for the meal. Then you will find the recipe steps are written per person rather than chronologically. For example, one person can chop vegetables while the other is sautéing onion. The idea is for the recipes to be structured so working together in the kitchen is a seamless experience (and fun too!). We have game-ified cooking from start to finish (including clean up duty!).
If you guys try out this activity please let us know in the comments your experience doing it! We would love to hear from our twotocook community.
For those of you that prefer a pdf of the recipe with traditional structure of instructions click the link below:
Step 1: Pick your role!
Alright it's time to start. Between the two of you, decide who will be chef 1 and chef 2. It will be a surprise what tasks you will have to do and which lucky (or unlucky haha) winner will be on dishes tonight. Its all part of the fun!
Step 2: Grocery List
Step 3: Cooking
Thanks for making this recipe! We hope you enjoyed it and would love to hear your thoughts on our game-ified cooking adventure. Tag us on instagram and add in the comments your experiences making the dish.
Until next recipe!
- twotocook
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