The Only Beef Stew I've Ever Loved...

[leene_chan]

...contains chuck roast, dried porcini mushrooms, salt pork, carrots, onions, fresh thyme, anchovies, kalamata olives (shoulda been nicoise), tomatoes, orange zest, chicken broth and an entire bottle of red wine. It's Provencal-style Beef Stew from Cook's Illustrated!

It takes almost three hours in the oven, so be sure to only make it on a weekend or a day off! I usually don't like beef stew at all. I'm not a huge fan of red meat; in particular, chuck roast is way too fatty. But this stew is something special. We've made it once before, and it even froze wonderfully. I hardly ever see a whole chuck roast on sale in the grocery store. Most of the recipes we have for stew call for blade steaks, but cutting up a chuck roast yourself works much better. At $2.99 a pound, who could complain?

If I were to change one thing about it for next time, I would add more carrots. You can either serve it over mashed potatoes or egg noodles. I think egg noodles work much better. You can't really do huge portions with this dish (unless you're a big eater)because it's very rich. It's very, very good, though.

I promise to post about something other than cooking soon! I think meals are the only projects I actually finish. ^__^;