The Epicurean Esquire

My beef stew recipe

By request, here's my beef stew recipe. It's a combination of a few recipes that I've come across.

1.5 lbs. or less beef stew

1/4 cup flour

2 carrots, chopped into bite sized pieces

2-3 potatoes, chopped into bite sized pieces

3/4 cup frozen peas

2 onions, chopped

2 cups beef broth

2 cups red wine

1 bay leaf

~1.5 teaspoons marjoram

~1 teaspoon thyme

Salt and pepper to taste

Heat olive oil in large pot over med-high heat. Dredge beef in flour. Brown beef in pot
. Then add onions and saute until transluscent. Add garlic, then add wine. Boil wine and scrape up bit from bottom of pot. Add beef broth and spices, then carrots and potatoes. Stir up, then cook covered over low heat for 1-4 hours. Add peas 10 minutes before serving.

Day 4-Returning to normalcy

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So it's now Day 4 of Lyn-Genet Recita's "Plan" and I'm beginning to feel more like I'm returning to normal. Since I started on Saturday, I've lost 2.5 lbs and am feeling good.

Every morning, I make a fruit shake from a pear, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries and coconut milk (the pear is supposed to be my afternoon snack of fruit, but I forego the fruit from that snack and include it in my smoothie). I then snack on the bland flax granola that I'm not very fond of.

Yesterday's lunch was a salad and an apple. Today's was veggie soup (I didn't like it--it was far too bland and needed at least a tablespoon--or more--of salt) and rye crackers with goat cheese.

Dinner last night was chicken with Italian herbs, broccoli and carrots and beet and carrot salad. Tonight's will be chicken with mango salsa, a salad and broccoli.

The dinners have been quite good for the most part. And at this point I'm pretty much eating the same way I have been for the past few months, so I'm no longer feeling hungry.

I'm looking forward to the next stage, where we "test" new foods and see if I'm reactive to any of them. That's been my goal all along--to figure out which foods don't work for me and eliminate them from my diet. A weight gain of .5 pounds over one day is an indication of reacting to a food, so it will be interesting to see if/when that happens and what food might be the culprit. I hope it's not one that I really enjoy.

I'm also looking forward to working wines back in to my diet. I can't live without my vino!

So, that's the latest. Tune in tomorrow for more...

The Epicurean Esquire--Episode #21 lb

In this episode, I cook beef stew--my own recipe. It's a great stew recipe, if I may say so myself;) Here it is:

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 lb. stew beef, cut into bite-sized pieces
• 1/4 flour
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped or pressed
• 2 carrots, cut into 1/4" - 1/2" pieces
• 1 lb. potatoes cut into 1" pieces
• 1.5 cups frozen peas
• 2 cups red wine
• 3 cups beef broth
• 1.5 tspns marjoram
• 1 tspn thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• salt & pepper to taste

Dredge the beef in the flour. Heat the olive oil in a large pot over med-high heat. Brown the meat for 5 minutes or so. Add the onions and cook for 4 minutes or so until translucent. Add the garlic and the carrots and cook for 3 minutes or so. Add the potatoes and the red wine. Turn up the heat to high and boil the wine for a few minutes, then add the peas and beef broth. Heat the beef broth and add the spices. Cover and cook for 1-2 hours. Serve with crusty bread or over egg noodles.

The video where I cook the stew follows and underneath the video you'll find a photo of the finished meal.

 

The finished meal (it tastes better than it looks this time!):