Spring Beef Stew

I had a big package of "beef for stewing" in my freezer that I had gotten right before the baby was born when I was convinced it was going to be a long winter, ha!, so I needed to use because it wasn't going to stay good until next winter.  So what to do in the Spring? I only had made beef stew in the Winter.  I find few Spring beef stew recipes and so I pieced a few of them together.  No potatoes because that's decidedly Winter and doesn't fit into my effort to eat healthy.  I'm trying to go heavy on the proteins, veggies and fruits and seriously limit my carbs, starches and sugars.

It turned out quite well, and  I thought very Springy.

I think when it comes to beef that will be browned and stewed you should go a little crazy with the salt and pepper.

I'm every professional cooks worse nightmare. I had like 4 lbs of beef and didn't have the patience to brown them in batches to give each one the proper crust. Oh well.

I'm definitely in the camp of belief that the more color you can add in terms of herbs and veggies to a dish the better it will taste. I also decided that I prefer chopped onions to whole pearl onions.

I didn't have fresh tarragon, man that would have been awesome, but the dried worked very well, and I think going heavy handed with the tarragon is good in a heavy beef stew...it won't over power but you won't to taste it.

I cooked in for 4 hours with the lid on and then for the last hour I took the lid off to allow the juices to reduce and the stew to thicken up.

At the last minute throw in the frozen peas in and stir..they will be thawed and ready in a minute...you don't want mushy peas.

ta-da! It really was light and perfect for Spring.

Ingredients:

1.5 lbs of beef cubed

1 can (14.5 oz) of petite cut tomatoes

1 onion chopped or half a bag of frozen pearl onions

2 carrots chopped or a couple handfuls of baby carrots (my preferences)

1 cup of frozen peas

1 cup of beef stock/broth

1/2 cup of red wine

3 Tablespoons of fresh tarragon chopped or 1 heaping teaspoon of dried tarragon (taste the stew after a few hours and decide if you want more tarragon)

salt and pepper (after liberally seasoning the meat before browning, I used about almost a teaspoon of both to season the stew)

Instructions:

Pat dry the beef and then sprinkle salt and pepper all over the beef.  Heat two tablespoons of vegetables oil in a skillet or dutch oven on high. In batches brown the beef on all sides.  When browned put all the beef in a crock pot or dutch oven...and if you don't want to and you don't want to use more than one dish, you can skip the browning part but it does make a difference but I skip it sometimes.

Ok, now add all the ingredients except for the peas.  Give it a good stir. Put the lid on.  Walk away. Cook on high for 4-5 hours (that includes cooking on low in a dutch oven) or low for 7-8 hours.  A few minutes before serving toss in the peas.  

Stews should be tasted a couple times in the last two hours of cooks, in my humble opinion, so you can adjust the seasoning and still give it time to soak in.

Soo good.