Slow-cooker Beef Stew with Barley

 My husband really loves beef stew with barley and it has been forever since I last made it.  So, while I was out shopping last week, I found some beautiful beef tips and decided it was time to make it again.  Now, I will admit, I love beef stew, but I am not usually the best at making it.  It usually comes out too thin, like a soup instead of stew.  But this time I found a different recipe that I thought might help me do it right, and BOY was I right.  Now, I will reference the recipe here, but I really only took the base out of the recipe.  The rest is all me and what I prefer in my stew. 

Slow Cooker Beef Stew

Adapted from: https://www.ambitiouskitchen.com/moms-slow-cooker-beef-stew/

2 ½ stew beef (I used beef tips for this batch)

2 Tbsp Extra virgin olive oil

Salt & pepper to taste

3 medium carrots, cut into bite-sized pieces

8 oz mini bella mushrooms, quartered

1 lg red pepper, cut into bite-sized pieces

4 cups beef stock

1 cup red wine (I used pinot noir)

1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce

1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

3 sprigs fresh thyme

6 cloves garlic, minced

2 bay leaves

1/3 cup flour

½ cup pearled barley

1.        In a large frying pan, heat the olive oil over med-high heat.  Add beef in batches and sear until all sides are browned.  Remove to slow cooker.  Repeat until all beef is seared. 

2.        Add broth, wine, Worcestershire sauce, balsamic vinegar, thyme. garlic, bay leaves, carrots, mushrooms, and red peppers to the slow cooker and mix well. 

3.        Cover and cook on LOW for 6-8 hours (I needed 6 hours for the tips, probably need 8 hours for chuck stew meat).  After about 3 hours of cooking time, pull about 2 cups of liquid from the pot and mix in flour until smooth.  Then add that back to the pot and continue cooking on LOW.

4.        At the end of the cooking time, raise the temperature to HIGH and wait until the liquid starts to boil.  Add the barley and cook another 25 minutes, or until the barley is cooked through.

 

 

Beef and Barley Stew - Slow cooker

I have always preferred spring/summer to winter when it comes to vegetables.  But one thing I do love is a good Beef and Barley stew.  It's been a long time since I made one, but I just had a taste for it, so here is the recipe.

 

Beef Barley Stew for slow cooker (can be done on stove)

3 lb Chuck roast, fat trimmed and cut into ½ in pieces

2 Tbsp Olive oil

1 large onion

8 ounces sliced mushrooms

1 ½ cups red wine (may use broth)

2 sweet peppers, large dice (I used 1 red and 1 orange)

4 large carrots, peeled and cut into 1 inch pieces

6 small stalks celery and leaves, cut into 1 inch pieces

8 cups beef broth

1 tsp dried thyme (use 1 Tbsp if fresh)

2 bay leaves

1 Tbsp Italian seasoning

Salt and pepper, to taste

1 cup barley

 

1.      Trim chuck roast of fat and cut into bite-sized pieces.  Heat 1 Tbsp oil in large skillet over medium high heat and sear beef, in batches as necessary.  Place beef into base of slow cooker.

2.      Dice onions and and mushrooms (large pieces).  Heat rest of oil over medium heat in same skillet.  Add onions, cook until the onions start to look translucent.  Add mushrooms and cook another 5-8 minutes until liquid from mushrooms begins to evaporate.  Add garlic and cook for about a minute longer.  Pour vegetable mixture over beef.

3.      Turn off heat to skillet and pour wine into skillet to de-glaze pan (get all those good dark bits!).  Pour wine into slow cooker.

4.      Prepare peppers, carrots, and celery by cutting to large dice (bite-sized pieces).  Add to slow cooker.  Pour broth over all and add seasonings.  Mix well, then cover and cook on LOW for 8 hours.

5.      At end of cooking time, change to either SAUTE or HIGH to bring broth to a boil.  Add barley, cover and cook for 15 minutes.  Barley will continue to thicken the stew as time goes on.  Adjust seasonings and serve!

Note: I really prefer using my slow cookers for stews and soups.  However, this could be done in a Dutch oven by simmering for about 45 minutes to an hour after everything is added (except barley.  Test the vegetables and once they are cooked to taste, raise heat to bring back to boil and add barley.  

 

 

Party time!

Well, it is summer and time for deck parties.  I have been very remiss this past year keeping up with this blog for many reasons.  The first of which would be the fact that I have not cooked as much as I should be!  Second, it has been a crazy up and down year.  The down is the fact that my husband has been diagnosed with stage 4 prostate cancer.  The up is the living that I am making him do (plus all the traveling for school I've done).  This year, so far, I have been Lisbon, Portugal; Paris, France; Tampa, FL; Boston, MA; and Colorado Springs, CO.  Trips to be taken during the rest of the year: Tampa, FL; Stratford, ON, CA (for the Shakespeare festival); San Antonio, TX; and possibly back to Tampa, FL (to see my g'pa and meet with my colleague).  This along with working full time and all the art stuff I've been working on.  I am so proud of the fact that it seems I am getting a handle on painting and drawing now.  Most proud of this painting drawn and then painted from a picture I took outside Monet's house in Giverny, France:

Oh, and I forgot to mention that I adopted these two rascals:

So, yes, I think I have a few excuses, but I think we are settling down a bit now.  And, of course, the CSA has started for this summer, so it's time to start cooking again.  I got lucky in that the CSA started in time for my first party.  I didn't get pictures of the food, but I will put the recipes up because I used a LOT of what I got from both of my CSAs for this party.

Braised Pork 

For this batch, I used my time-honored braised pork recipe, but mixed up the herbs a bit because of what I had available:

• 1 3.5 pound pork shoulder roast*
• 6 sprigs fresh thyme
• 4 sprigs Thai basil*
• 1 can chopped green chiles
• water
• salt & pepper

Trim the fat on the roast.  Sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper.  Place in a large Dutch oven.  Add green chiles, thyme and basil.  Pour water over all until halfway up the roast.  Bring to a boil and then cover and reduce heat to simmer for about 3 hours or until the roast reaches an internal temperature of 180 - 190F.  Remove from the Dutch oven and cover with foil.  Allow to cool until able to be handled.  Pull pork, removing most of the fat as you pull.  Serve with BBQ sauce.

Homemade BBQ Sauce

I also prefer to make my own BBQ sauce when I make my pulled pork.  And I always get positive comments when it is all said and done.  Unfortunately, I no longer have my sorghum, so I substituted molasses.  It gave it a darker flavor which I wasn't sure about, but in the end, everyone liked it.  I would like to find sorghum again because it is perfect for my BBQ sauce.

•  3 cups ketchup
• 1 cup molasses
• 1/2 cup cider vinegar
• 1/2 cup honey
• 4 thyme sprigs

Place all ingredients in small saucepan.  Heat until boiling; reduce heat and simmer 1 minute.  Adjust flavors as needed.

 Memphis-style Coleslaw

So, if you are going to serve pulled pork, you need coleslaw, right?  I don't eat it myself (have never liked raw cabbage), but there is always someone who wants cabbage with their BBQ.  And, of course, I had just gotten cabbage from the CSA, so why not, eh?

• 1/2 medium head green cabbage*, shredded
• 1 small head radicchio*, shredded
• 2 carrots*, peeled and grated
• 2 Cups mayonnaise (I used olive oil mayo)
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 Cup seedy mustard
• 1/4 Cup cider vinegar
• 2 Tbsp celery seeds
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

Wash and prepare the vegetables and place in a large bowl.  Mix remaining ingredients in a small bowl and then pour 2 cups of dressing over the vegetables and mix well.  Add more dressing as needed.  Allow to marinate in refrigerator a minimum of 3 hours before serving.

Bourbon BBQ Baked Beans

 And of course, since I had BBQ sauce left over and other fresh veggies, I decided to go ahead and make baked beans as well.

• 4 (15-oz) cans Pinto Beans, drained & rinsed
• 8 oz bacon*, cooked & crumbled
• 1 onion, diced & browned
• 4-6 cloves garlic*, minced and browned
• 1 large red pepper, diced and sauteed
• 1 Cup BBQ sauce
• 1 Cup brown sugar, lightly packed
• 2 Tbsp molasses
• 2 Cups homemade chicken broth
• 1 Cup bourbon (I used Knob Hill)
• Salt to taste

Drain and rinse beans and place in crock-pot.  Saute the vegetables and add to crock.  Add remaining ingredients.  Mix well.  Cover and cook for 10 hours on LOW or until the beans are the consistency desired and the alcohol has cooked down.

*CSA ingredients. 

Beef Stew

I apologize for the lateness of this post.  I was in Ann Arbor running around all day yesterday before attending the second day of the Ann Arbor Folk Music Festival.  I suppose I could have found a coffee shop to camp in and write this entry (goodness knows there are endless choices of coffee shops in Ann Arbor).  But I decided to do some rare shopping while I was there.

John has been telling me he was craving beef stew with barley for a little over a week now.  And of course, since he brought it up, I started craving it as well.  Despite the fact that I had just made a batch of Brunswick stew, I felt this would be a good thing to keep him stocked up for the next week.

I did some research to try to learn how to make effective beef stew (mine usually turns out more like beef soup). Once I had cobbled together ideas for what I thought would be an effective recipe, I gathered the ingredients that I had on hand.  Then on the way to John's place, I stopped and picked up the rest.  I chose to use a red blend from my stash for the red wine, a decision I might rethink if I use this recipe again, however, it was tasty wine, so while not as hearty as I might prefer, still nice enough.

I wanted something that I could start on the stove, but finish in the crockpot.  This recipe worked very well for this purpose.

Hungarian Beef Stew with Barley

• 1 1/2 lbs stew beef
• salt & pepper, to taste
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 large sweet onion, diced
• 8 small (or 2 regular) red peppers, sliced
• 2 Tbsp all-purpose flour
• 1 Tbsp smoked paprika
• 1 tsp caraway seeds
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 lb red-skinned potatoes, large dice
• 3 carrots, coarsely diced
•  3/4 cup barley

1. Prepare the vegetables.  Season the beef with salt and pepper.  Heat olive oil in large Dutch oven over medium-high heat.  Add 1/3 of the beef to the pan and sear on each side.  Remove beef and set aside.  Repeat two more times with remaining beef.

2. Add onion and peppers to pan.  Cook, stirring, about 5 minutes or until vegetables begin to soften.  Add flour, paprika, caraway seeds and garlic.  Continue cooking for 1 minute.  Add wine and stir, cooking, until thickened, making sure all dark bits are stirred up from the bottom of the pan.  Add the remaining liquids, mix well.  Cook about 1 minute more and then remove from heat.

3. To assemble: Place carrots and potatoes into the bottom of the crockpot.  Place beef on top and then pour wine mixture over all.  Cover and cook on LOW for about 6 hours.  Adjust seasoning and add barley.  Mix well and then cook, covered, for another 1-2 hours on LOW, or until the barley is cooked.

 

A Different Bean Soup

I have been craving bean soup ever since my friend, Bill LaFevre, posted that he was making split pea soup a couple weeks ago. I even thawed a ham steak thinking I would make bean with ham soup. But at the same time, I thawed the beef shanks I got with my last CSA delivery and figured I would find something to do with those as well.

Because ham keeps better than raw beef, I decided to braise the beef shanks first. I braised them in chianti and port with onions and garlic. It made my house smell heavenly and the result was quite yummy. But even better than that, the wine/port mixture I braised the meat in became this beautiful wine stock. As soon as I tasted it, I abandoned the idea of bean with ham soup and decided to use the beef and stock to make my bean soup. I was not disappointed! This will probably become one of my go-to fall soup recipes!

Braised Beef and Bean Soup

2 beef shanks** (about 3 lbs)
1/2 bottle chianti
1 cup tawny port
1 lg sweet onion
3 cloves garlic
1 Tbsp Magique herbs***
1 Tbsp Olive oil
3 cups fresh "dried" navy beans*
32 oz beef stock
3 carrots
Water as needed
Salt and pepper, to taste.

Directions
Braising beef

Combine chianti, port and herbs in a zipped bag. And beef shanks and turn to coat. Seal bag and marinate in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours.

In a large skillet, heat olive oil over medium-high heat. Sear beef shanks on both sides, about 3 minutes.

Slice onion thin and place in crockpot with garlic. Place beef shanks on top. Pour marinade over beef and cook, on HIGH, for 1 hour. Once the liquid is boiling, reduce heat to LOW and braise 6-8 hours.

When meat has pulled away from the bones, remove shanks and vegetables to a plate. Allow to cool enough to handle and pull as much of the fat, plus bones, from the meat. Chop the rest.

Cool the remaining stock until fat sets. Remove the fat.

Assembling the soup

In a large Dutch oven, combine beef, wine stock, beef stock carrots, beef stock and beans.  Bring to a boil. Cover and reduce heat to simmer. Cook, covered, for about 2 hours, adding water ad needed, until beans are cooked. Adjust seasonings.

*farmers market ingredients
**CSA ingredients
***fleur de sel aux herbes de provence

Split Pea Soup

It has been a long cold weekend.  My brother passed this weekend and I spent most of the weekend in his house.  While there, I found that he had half of a smoked pork shoulder in his refrigerator.  And if there was one thing that everyone will tell you, he was a great cook.  I took it home both because I didn't want it to go to waste and because it was one last chance to have his cooking.  A friend posted that he was making split pea soup, which is usually made with ham or a ham hock.  I thought, what better way to use this pork shoulder, so this morning, I put together a split pea soup in the crockpot using the shoulder.  I just tasted it and it is so very lovely!  A fitting tribute to my brother who I miss so much!

Smoked Pork Split Pea Soup

• 2 cups smoked pork shoulder, diced to 1/2' cubes
• 16 oz yellow split peas, rinsed and sorted
• 1 cup chopped carrots
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tsp tumeric
• 1/2 tsp dried thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• 6 cups good chicken stock

Layer all ingredients into the bowl of a crockpot in the order given, ending with the chicken stock.  Cook, covered, on High for 4-5 hours, or until the peas and carrots are cooked.  Remove the bay leaf before serving.

Bean Soup

I finally managed to do some cooking today.  I actually remembered to soak beans last night. So today, I made 15 bean soup.  I had chicken leftover, so chose that as additional protein and used vegetables that I had as well. This is a rather Italian style soup (I used Italian seasoning), so I also decided to garnish with parmesan cheese.  Very nice combination!

Italian-style 15-bean Chicken Soup

• 1 lb 15-bean soup mix
• 2 cups leftover rotisserie chicken, shredded
• 2 carrots, diced
• 1 cup mixed sweet peppers, diced
• 1 cup fresh corn
• 1 can roasted tomatoes
• 1 can Rotel tomatoes with chiles
• 32 oz chicken stock
• 1 bag mixed baby greens (spinach, kale, Swiss chard)
• 1 Tbsp Italian seasoning
• Sea salt to taste

Soak beans overnight in about 6 inches of water.  Drain and discard soaking water.  Combine all ingredients except greens in Crockpot.  Cook on High for 3-4 hours or until beans are cooked.  Service with parmesan, if desired.