French Beef Stew

Name: French Beef Stew
Prep time: 12 h
Cook time: 2 h
Total time: 14 h
Yield: 6-8 serving(s)
Ingredients: 2 lbs stewing beef, cut into 1 inch chunks; 2 cups red wine; 1 bay leaf; 2 whole cloves; 1 onion, cut into quarters; 1 clove garlic; 4 tablespoons butter; 6 slices bacon, diced; 1/2 cup flour; 1 teaspoon thyme; 1 1/2 cups beef stock; salt and pepper; 3 tablespoons butter; 12 mushrooms, quartered if large; 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

Submitted by Carrie Ann

"This is my favourite stew recipe. It's a bit expensive to make and little fussy to prepare but well worth the time and expense. Besides, the smell alone while it's cooking is worth the trouble!"

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photo by Julie Bs Hive

Ready In:: 14hrs
Ingredients:: 15
Serves:: 6-8

ingredients

2 lbs stewing beef, cut into 1 inch chunks
2 cups red wine
1 bay leaf
2 whole cloves
1 onion, cut into quarters
1 clove garlic
4 tablespoons butter
6 slices bacon, diced
¹⁄₂ cup flour
1 teaspoon thyme
1 ¹⁄₂ cups beef stock
salt and pepper
3 tablespoons butter
12 mushrooms, quartered if large
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

directions

In a large bowl combine beef, wine, bay leaf, cloves, onion and garlic.
Cover and marinate in refrigerator for 4-12 hours.
Melt 4 tablespoons of butter in large skillet and cook bacon until crispy; remove and set aside to drain.
Remove beef from marinade and pat dry.
Discarde marinade, reserving onion and garlic.
Dredge beef with flour to coat.
Brown on all sides in remaining bacon drippings in skillet, adding more butter if needed.
Place browned beef in oven-proof casserole dish.
Add onion and garlic from marinade, the thyme, beef stock and salt and pepper to taste.
Cover and bake at 325 degrees for 2 to 2-1/2 hours or until meat is tender.
In skillet, melt 3 tablespoons of butter and cook mushrooms until golden brown.
Stir in crispy bacon and season with salt and pepper.
When stew is done, serve with mushrooms and bacon and sprinkle with parsley.

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Reviews

At step 1, I decided to cut the meat into large chunks, then by marinating it in a tall deep dish (rather than a shallow one) I was able to only use 2 cups of wine. I also reserved 3/4 cup of that wine marinade to use instead of some water-there by reducing the cost and waste of good drinkable wine(-; I think it was a good descision, and I think next time, a couple of tablespoons of tomato paste would deepen the flavour a bit more.

JustJanS
Used a good quality meat and a full-bodied wine but marinated just about 4 hours; would have been better marinated a full 12 hours or even overnight. Maybe next time. Smell just delicious while in the oven but I think next time, I'll try the crockpot too. TFS

Julie Bs Hive
Superb...the whole family purred at this one. Thanks Carrie!

Alan1 Bruce
This does smelll good, What I did was to make it in the crockpot. I added 1 can of beef brooth and the 2 cups of whine added my stewing meet still frozen. cooked the bacon. I then took a little bit of the broth and wine mixture and made a rue out of it with the flour. I then added everything accoding to the directions and cooked it for 8 hours on low. After it was done I added some tatos and carrots. Thanks for the recipe.

Kim19068
Hmmm! Great looking recipe!!! Besides the great combination of ingredients, I think that it must me a great traditional recipe since it mentions "twelve mushrooms" instead of a measure in ounces. I love some of the old French cookbooks. Like you say, the traditional method seems to be very labour intensive. Moreover, your instructions sound precisely along the same line of some of the older French recipes that I've read. Myself, I'm just becoming confidente enough to even attempt some of the classic French style recipes. Thank you for sharing your recipe. I can't wait to try this one on my good friends!

Mike Karase