The Pleasant Peasant, beef stew edition

I guess any good cook generally thinks ahead a bit.  Cook a meal, or a dish, with some thought given to what the leftovers could be used in.

My Totes Fav for doing that is a traditional roast beef dinner, with an eye towards beef stew a few days later.   That's why I usually buy my beef roasts quite a big bigger than the pack here can down in one go, although the wolves  are not above taking a good shot at proving me wrong.

I cook the large Chuck roast in my Dutch oven, after browning the beef hard right in the same cast iron I'll low-and-slow it in.  

Once the Malliard Reaction has been used in good measure,  I turn off the burner and turn on the oven.  Into the Dutch oven goes a whole sweet onion, peeled and sliced in half, and enough rough cut (2") unpeeled carrots to feed the herd for dinner with a few cups left over.   A healthy double pinch of sea salt, and just enough fresh ground pepper to make you feel uncomfortable.

Add two cups of water, lid it, and into the oven at 350 for 90 minutes.

While that's roasting,  clean up a few pounds of new white potatoes and swish them around a bowl with olive oil, salt, and pepper.  Place them in a covered baking dish and into the oven with the roast they go.  Both dishes will need about the same bake time. A little extra hurts nothing.

When the timer goes off, take both out of the oven.  The roast should be 180-190 internal.  Yes, I know .... ERMAGERD TOO DONE....... and no it ain't.  It's basically been braised, and that's forgiving as heck.  It should be fall apart tender.  The potatoes should be just cracking open and very tender.

Move the meat to a covered dish to rest.  Remove about 90% of the carrots as well.   Put the Dutch oven back on a burner on medium high, and go after the remaining carrots and the onion with a potato masher.  In a few moments the carrots will be in little chunks and the onions all but vanished.

The thickening juices will be coming to a boil. As they do, put in a heaping tablespoon of good bullion and a half cup of slurry made from two heaping tablespoons of corn starch stirred into cold water.  Stir the pot till it comes back to a boil and thickens nicely.   Voila..... kick ass beef gravy.

Plate and serve as you like, but don't lose even a tiny bit of the leftovers.  Not a drop. When everyone is sitting back holding their bellies and groaning, sneak back into the kitchen and pile all of it right back into the Dutch oven.  When it cools, shove it to the back of the fridge for a day or two.

There is something magical about searing off a beef roast, then cooking it low and slow in moisture, and then chilling the remains in the fridge.  The next time that beef is cooked, the flavor is off the charts and its fall apart tender, like good stew been should be.

The day you want beef stew for lunch, pull out that dutch oven and set it on a low burner.  Spend a few minutes sliding a carving blade through the meat chunks, potatoes, and carrots. Do it right there in the pot.  Leave them in big hearty chunks.  If you have celery, now would be time to slice a few stalks on the bias, in about 3/8" slices. Add the celery if you have it.  Pour in about two cups of water. Cover, and walk away.

When it gets close to lunch time, spend a few minutes just stirring the pot.  The potatoes will be breaking up, and starch will come from them and thicken the whole mess.  In fact, everything will break up a bit.... and that's GOOD. Herself likes me to add a cup of frozen peas in the last 10 minutes of simmer. 

Serve as you like, But we usually do a home made bread to go with it.  That will be another article though....