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The French way to make beef stew!
Beef Stew The French Way
If you’re ready to up the ante on your beef stew, this is a recipe you’re going to love.
I won’t fib and say it’s a “dump-go-forget” type of recipe. This one does involve a bit more work than the usual, but once you taste the results I think you’ll agree the couple of extra steps is worth it.
There’s even a small secret that will improve the flavor of any stew you make. It’s interesting to note that the one small additional ingredient is responsible for the great taste it imparts even though it’s flavor by itself isn’t detectable.
The Meat Is Important
I know you’re thinking that this is a real no-brainer, but ordinary pre-cut stew beef you buy in your supermarket won’t work as well here.
What you’re looking for in this rustic stew is larger pieces. Funny enough, Julia Child always seemed to recommend top round (I believe this is called “topside” in UK). I had a top round roast in the freezer that I wanted to use, so I cut that up into largish pieces about 2 1/2-3-inches. Other good choices are a thick chuck roast or bottom round (silverside). Again, cutting them up yourself into big chunks.
Not only do the larger pieces look much more appetizing, they are easier to turn during browning. And yes, browning is necessary here.
I chose to cook my potatoes, carrots and turnips separately and not in the stew itself. One reason is that I didn’t want them to get mushy and yep, it looks better too.
The Special Flavor
In the French tradition, this stew uses a bouquet garni to flavor the juice. All that is is an assortment of herbs tied up in cheesecloth. If you don’t have cheesecloth handy, then a white paper towel will do. You need to contain the herbs and spices so they don’t actually go into the juice.
The bouquet garni contains fresh parsley–you can use the stems and reserve the leaves for something else–a bay leaf, some thyme and 2-3 whole cloves. Yes, cloves!!! And that’s the secret to the wonderful flavor of this stew. You don’t actually get a clovey taste. In fact, you couldn’t detect it’s flavor, but it imparts something so wonderful to the flavor. I might add that I’m not a lover of cloves so I was a bit skeptical when I saw the original recipe in one of Julia Childs’ books. However, I tried it and I’m glad I did. The flavor is outstanding.
The Recipe
French Beef Stew
Ingredients
- 3 lbs top or bottom round cut into large chunks
- 1 tbs butter
- 1 tsp oil
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 cup sliced onions
- 1 cup carrots
- 1 1/2 tbs oil
- 1-3 cups red wine
- 1 1/2 cups beef stock
- 1 cup chopped tomato
- 5 fresh parsley stems
- 3 whole peppercorns
- 4-5 sprigs fresh thyme
- 2-3 whole cloves
- 1 bay leaf
- 2 tbs cornstarch
- 2 tbs dry white vermouth
- 3-4 cooked turnips cut in quarters
- 5-6 small cooked whole potatoes
- 1 cup cooked baby carrots
Instructions
- Heat the 1 tbs butter and 1 tsp oil in a large heavy skillet over medium heat. Brown the meat on all sides. You may have to do this in shifts. Place meat on a plate and set aside.
- Heat a large (5-6qt/L) dutch/French oven over medium heat. Add the 1 1/2 tbs oil, sliced onions and carrots. Saute until onions are translucent. Add the meat to the dutch oven, then pour in the red wine, chopped tomatoes and enough beef stock so the meat is almost covered (it’s ok if it’s not completely covered).
- Wrap the parsley stems, peppercorns, fresh thyme, cloves and bay leaf in a piece of cheesecloth. Tie to secure and drop into the liquid in the pot. Bring to the simmer, cover and cook over low heat for 2-3 hours, or until meat is tender.
- Place a colander in a large bowl and dump the contents of the dutch oven into the colander, reserving juice. Discard the onions, carrots and bouquet garni (herbs in the cheesecloth).
- Place the meat back in the dutch oven and add strained juice. Mix the cornstarch and wine/vermouth until smooth. Mix into the hot juice and stir over low heat until thickened. Cook for 2 minutes.
- Add the cooked turnips, potatoes and carrots and heat through.
Kathi says
Sounds like a good recipe. Only I will cook it in my pressure cooker in about 18 minutes. Thanks for sharing.
Donna Nabess says
Oh my! I haven’t had beef in any form for over 2 years and I WANT to make this for sure. I didn’t stop beef because I didn’t like it 🙂 I have a lot of issues with different foods and beef was in my elimination diet when I started with LOW FODMAP.
I will let you know how it turns out. I phoned my Granddaughter as we make lots of things together. She is 33 🙂 She was very excited and we are going to make this together. She will be away until the day before Thanksgiving in Canada and a week or so after that we will be making this. THANKS so much! 🙂
Judith Hanneman says
Hope you really like it!!!
Sharon Powless says
I wonder why all the meat and vegetables are cooked separately? A lot of the flavor of beef stew comes from cooking things together. Helps the flavors to meld. I am sure the wines will add a different flavor to the stew. I also wonder about using baby carrots, but your picture shows regular carrots.
Judith Hanneman says
Baby carrots are easier, that’s why I specified them. Most beef stew’s I’ve seen where the vegetables are added at the beginning turn into mush. It may taste good, but it doesn’t look good. While it simmers, there’s carrots and onions in the sauce–that gets strained out when you make the gravy, so there’s plenty of flavor added. The tip about cooking the veggies separately came from a show Julia Child did on stews. That way you get great flavor and the carrots, potatoes, etc., don’t get mushy.
Debra says
Instead of throwing out the cooked carrots and onions, how about using an immersion blender to incorporate these softened veggies into the gravy of the stew rather than discarded them. By doing so you are definitely adding to the flavor of the stew!!! Thank you!!
Mikey says
Why not skip initial carrots, do not discard onions, & put veggies in the pot w/ an hour or so before the meat is done.
Judith Hanneman says
Basically with this, you want a smooth sauce/gravy–if you notice the liquid is strained after the meat is tender. The thing with the final vegetables is that mostly, they’re overcooked by that time (1 hour) because that’s way more time than they actually need to cook. The veggies stay whole and don’t fall apart and each one is done perfectly. They only warm up in the stew. On a personal taste note, that mushiness that most stews have I found very unappetizing. I won’t say what it reminded me of 🙂 but because everything is intact here and basically gorgeous looking, it’s pretty much fit for company. As they say, we eat with our eyes too.