Once upon a time there was... French Beef Stew!

I am reminded of an old pig proverb: Sometimes, stews happen.

Today I'll be making a French Beef Stew from AllRecipes. Cal was lured into participating in my last beef stew, but that's because there was beer involved. Today, he refused, so I've asked my friend Millard (the Elephant) to make his Castle Farm Cookbook debut and help. He's great to have around for multi-ingredient meals because he always remembers to include everything.

Millard's note: Actually, I've been here before (scroll to the bottom). I never forget these kinds of things.




Ingredients
1.5 lbs cubed stew beef
1/4 cup all purpose flour
2 tbsp vegetable oil
28oz can diced tomatoes
14oz can beef broth
4 carrots
2 potatoes
3/4 tsp dried thyme
2 tbsp Dijon mustard
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions
1. Peel potatoes (and carrots, unless you use baby carrots like we do, in which case just get about 30 of them).

Chop the carrots and potatoes and put them in a bowl.

Cornelius' tip: if you ask an elephant to chop carrots, make sure you have some extras for him to eat.

2. Prepare the beef. (Even when you buy those stew beef packages that come in smaller pieces, you still may want to chop a few of them down. Who wants to use a knife in a stew?) Combine the cubed beef and the flour and toss to coat evenly.

 

3. Heat the vegetable oil in a soup pot or very large saucepan. When the oil is hot, brown the beef. Season with salt and pepper if you'd like. Browning takes about 6 minutes or until most of the pink is gone. It should look like this:

 

4. Add the tomatoes, broth, carrots, potatoes, and thyme. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and cover. Simmer for an hour.

5. Look inside the pot after an hour. Think to self, "That looks like liquid surrounding some stuff, not a stew. What is this pig talking about?"

6. Stir in the mustard and remove from heat. Witness beautiful stew. Think to self, "That is some pig."

Nutrition info:

Thanks to Millard's help, we have a wonderful stew to enjoy! And thanks to Cal baking two loaves of bread, we also have some baguettes to match perfectly!

Pig, out.