“I participated in a campaign on behalf of Mom Central Consulting for the Certified Angus Beef® brand. I received product samples to facilitate my review and a promotional item as a thank you for participating.”
Stew seems to becoming one of those forgotten foods from yesteryear. I attribute this to the rush of life and people wanting to be in and out of the kitchen in a jiffy. It’s all about the 30 minute meals. To me nothing says love and care for your family’s nutritional needs than a stew made with lovin’ from the Dutch Oven. It really doesn’t take anymore time to prep a hearty stew than a 30 minute meal, it just takes forethought and advance prep to give the stew time to simmer, letting all the savory goodness blend.
There are some tips to making your stew worth the effort and to give the ultimate comfort. When my mom was a little girl, she would get so excited for Sunday dinner, which would sometimes be a yummy beef stew. Then she would bite into what she thought was a potato, only to find out it was a turnip. She was sorely disappointed! Not to say turnips in stew can’t be a good thing, but putting great quality, and excellent tasting ingredients is the way to go. The Certified Angus Beef® brand is the first step toward the perfect stew. The CBS hit show, Recipe Rehab, knows a thing or two about combining just the right ingredients to give eaters a taste of flavorful tranquility. Straight from Recipe Rehab, I have two excellent stew recipes my family has tried and tasted, which I will now share with you.
The first stew recipe I tried was for Hearty Beef Stew by Chef Vikki Krinsky. Sounds pretty basic right? This version has a twist – in addition to the traditional beef, carrots and onions, you add shiitake mushrooms and serve the stew over boiled cauliflower. Then my favorite part – top it with a dollop of sour cream and a bit of kosher sea salt! YUM!
Then I prepared the second stew: Beef Stew with Barley by Chef Keoni Chang. At first I was apprehensive about this stew because the only large chunks are from the Certified Angus Beef®. You begin by sticking spinach, mushrooms, garlic and tomato paste into a food processor. Don’t create a paste, but slowly pulse ingredients into small bits. Add this to the beef, broth, onions and small amounts of celery and carrots, and you’ve got one delicious tasting stew! You are supposed to cook barley and add it at the end, but my store has been out of barley for 3 weeks! So, I had to skip it. I’m sure it would only add to the fantastic flavors! I asked my family which stew was their favorite and the majority (including me) voted for the Beef Stew with Barley! Some of the kids preferred the large carrot chunks in the first stew, but you really can’t beat the flavor here. It was so unbelievably delicious AND it is almost completely carb free! That means that if I just omit the carrot and onions then it is approved in my current diet! That is really saying something because I’m on a pretty strict diet.
Which stew do you think you’d like best? Be sure to watch award-winning Recipe Rehab on CBS Saturday morning, February 15, for the official winner; and to check local listings for air-time.
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