Beef Stew With Dried Cherries |
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Prep Time: 45 Minutes Cook Time: 120 Minutes |
Ready In: 165 Minutes Servings: 8 |
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This is a fabulous stew that came from one of the Seattle Junior League cookbooks. I've tweaked it a bit over the years. It fills the house with an amazing aroma and tastes as good as it smells. This takes a while to make, so I often do it on a weekend afternoon and then reheat it later in the week. Although the recipe calls for dried sour cherries, I have also made it with dried bings. Ingredients:
3 lbs beef stew meat |
3 tablespoons flour |
1 teaspoon salt |
1/2 teaspoon allspice |
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon |
1/2 teaspoon black pepper |
1 tablespoon vegetable oil |
3 cups onions, thinly sliced |
1 cup dried sour cherries |
2 tablespoons sugar |
2 tablespoons water |
1 cup dry red wine |
1 cup beef stock |
1 lb mushroom, quartered |
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Cut beef into 1 inch cubes. Combine flour, salt, allspice, cinnamon and pepper in a plastic bag. Add beef cubes to bag and shake, coating pieces evenly. Spray a heavy nonstick skillet with nonstick vegetable spray and heat over medium high heat. Add 1/3 of the beef cubes and cook until browned on all sides, stirring frequently (about 5 minutes). Don't crowd the skillet. Transfer meat to a heavy Dutch oven. Repeat with remaining meat in two more batches, ending with all of the browned meat in the Dutch oven.
3. Reduce heat to medium. Add oil to skillet. Add onions and cherries. Cook over medium heat until onions are soft and light brown, about 10 minutes (you are basically making caramelized onions). Stir frequently, scraping up all the browned bits from the meat and incorporating into the onions. Mix in the sugar, vinegar and water. Increase heat to medium high and cook until onions brown, stirring frequently, about 5 minutes.
4. Add onion mixture to the beef in the Dutch oven. Mix in wine, stock and mushrooms. Cover and bake until the beef is tender, about 2 hours. Uncover stew during last 30 minutes of baking if the liquid is still too thin. Add a small amount of beef stock or red wine is it is too dry.
5. Serve with rice or noodles to sop up the great sauce.
6. Can be made ahead and reheated before serving.
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