French Beef Stew

Kat in Texas's Note:

I have never, ever liked stew before trying this one. This has no onions and a nice "tart" taste, plus the meat and potatoes aren't cooked to mush. We loved it! Am printing the recipe as originally posted on allrecipes.com (submitted by Corwynn Darkholme) but I made some substitutions based on what I had on hand. Instead of fresh potatoes, I used two 16 oz. cans of whole potatoes (halved). Also used a coarse stoneground mustard in place of the Dijon. If your mustard is salty, be sure NOT to salt the beef when you brown it. The flavor of the stew was wonderful BEFORE adding the mustard, so you could definitely leave that out and still have a delicious dish. I served with cornbread, but warm crusty French bread would be great as well.

• Total Time: 1 hrs 20 mins
• Prep Time: 20 mins
• Cook Time: 1 hrs

Ingredients:

Servings: 8

• 1 ½ lbs cubed beef stew meat
• ¼ cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 (14 ½ ounce) cans Italian-style diced tomatoes
• 1 (14 ounce) can beef broth (low"er" sodium if possible)
• 4 large carrots , chopped
• 2 potatoes , peeled and chopped
• ¾ teaspoon dried thyme
• 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
• salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Combine meat and flour in a large plastic food storage bag and toss to coat evenly.
2. In a 6-quart saucepan or stockpot, brown meat in hot vegetable oil.
3. Season with salt and pepper, if desired.
4. Add diced tomatoes, beef broth, carrots, potatoes and thyme.
5. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium-low, cover and simmer for 1- 1 1/2 hours, until beef is tender.
6. Blend in mustard and serve.
7. If you like a thicker stew, mix 3 or 4 tablespoons of flour with some water and add to the pot.
8. Heat and stir for a few minutes more, until thickened.

Reviews

[ALH]

I made this exact recipe from Del Monte cookbook. It is a bit acidic from the tomatoes, but otherwise it is a really good stew. It isn't exactly like I would consider a normal stew, but considering it only takes an hour or so to cook I can't really expect it to exactly replicate a normal stew. Really enjoyed the taste though.

[CharJoyLet]

This was absolutely fanTAStic!!!! If I could give this 10 stars I would! My housmates and I now know what Beef stew should taste like. Instead of canned broth, I used Minor's Beef Broth Concentrate which gives it a richer meaty flavor to die for. If you can get Minor's in your area, I highly recommend it. (Unfortunately, my store stopped carrying it, so now I'll be trying to track it down and order it via the internet).I also "cheated" and used canned diced potatoes. The aroma of this stew has us all anxiously awaiting diner at least 45 minutes before it was ready, but it was definitely worth the wait! Served it with french rolls on the side to sop up the 'gravy'. Thanks so much for posting!