Lately, I’ve been playing a lot of Red Dead Redemption 2. For those of you living under a rock, it’s an amazing game that takes place in the Old West. One of the many activities you can participate in is hunting for food to feed your encampment. After doing so the camp cook will make a stew for you to chow down on. Seeing this made me hungry for a stew of my own. While I didn’t have lots of different game meats to throw in there, as much as I would’ve liked that, I did have lots of options for veggies so I tried a variation of my typical recipe. I also had some great Chanterelle mushrooms my parents and I had foraged, and a lot of great Fall veggies were in season.
1/2 Jar Pearl Onions
1/2 Red Onion
1/2 lb Chantrelles
1 Rutabaga
1 Fennel Bulb
3 Carrots
8 Yukon Gold potatoes
3 Tbs Worcestershire Sauce
1/2 cup red wine
1 1/2 lbs beef, I always just make it easy and get the stew cubes. If you want get a piece and cut it yourself.
Flour
Salt and Pepper
Vegetable Oil
2 cups total Beef and Chicken broth.
Start by cutting up all of your veggies and separating them into the fryers and boiler. The potatoes and rutabaga are boilers and everything else is a fryer.
The season the meat with salt and pepper before coating it in flour.
Then get you dutch oven nice and hot and lay just a little oil in it. Brown the meat at medium high in about three to four batches. Don’t overcrowd the pan or you’ll end up with grey, nasty chunks of meat. Don’t worry about the stuff stuck to the bottom of the pan either. You want that and we’ll come back to it later.
Once all the meat is done set it aside for later. Next add all of your frying veggies to the still hot pan. Cook them until the red onions are translucent and fragrant. This is also the best point to add dry herbs if you want them, like thyme or oregano.
Once that’s done, carefully add the wine and scrape the pan to get all that good stuff off the bottom. This is called deglazing and not only does it help get the pan nice and clean, but the best flavor comes from it. Then add all the other flavoring liquids, Worcestershire Sauce in my case.
Once that’s done, add the broth and boiling vegetables, add back in the meat, reduce the heat to medium. Cover and simmer for about one and a half hours or until the meat is tender. You want tender, not disintegrating. Once it’s done, it’s ready to serve but it’s the kind of thing that tastes better a few days out. Enjoy!
