Slow Cooked Comfort

And by slow, I do mean slow...All tolled, there is about 4 hours that went into this meal. And that's not even counting going out shopping for the new dutch oven, which we had to have. This is the smoky beef stew from the latest Sunset magazine. It turned out absolutely amazing, completely worth the time it took to make. The longest step was the initial browning of the meat. It took at least an hour to brown all the cubed up beef, but I guess there is no way around this step. You see, the browning meat goes through the maillard reaction, giving it amazing flavors. It's also the reaction that barley goes through to become malted barley so it can become beer. All in all, it's a great thing, though time consuming. Things go pretty quickly once all the meat is cooked off. Then comes two bottles of wine for the meat to braise in with the onions and bacon.

In the oven it goes for an hour and a half, a long time to wait with growling bellies. Once it's out it goes back on the burner and the carrots and potatoes go in.

They cook until tender, and then it's time to eat! Top it with blue cheese crumbles and chives and serve.

-G