Community Pick
Mahogany Beef Stew

photo by Ashley Cuoco




- Ready In:
- 1hr 55mins
- Ingredients:
- 15
- Serves:
-
6
ingredients
- 4 tablespoons olive oil
- 3 1⁄2 lbs boneless beef chuck roast, trimmed, cut into 2 1/2 inch pieces
- 4 cups chopped onions
- 2 cups good-quality red wine
- 1 (14 1/2 ounce) can diced tomatoes, undrained
- 1⁄2 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1⁄2 teaspoon dried basil
- 1⁄4 teaspoon thyme
- 1⁄2 cup hoisin sauce (this is the critical ingredient, don't leave it out!)
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 garlic clove, minced
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To Finish
- 1 lb slender carrot, peeled, cut diagonally into 1 inch lengths
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch, mixed with
- 1 tablespoon water
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
directions
- Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in heavy large pot over high heat.
- Sprinkle meat with salt and pepper.
- Add meat to pot; saut� until brown on all sides, about 10 minutes.
- Push meat to sides of pot.
- Reduce heat to medium; add 2 tablespoons oil to pot.
- Add onions; saut� until golden brown, about 15 minutes.
- Mix meat into onions.
- Add 1 cup wine, tomatoes with juices, garlic, herbs, hoisin sauce, and bay leaves.
- Bring to boil.
- Reduce heat to low, cover pot and simmer 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Add carrots and 1 cup wine.
- Cover; simmer 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Uncover, increase heat to high; boil until sauce is slightly thickened, stirring occasionally, about 15 minutes longer.
- Reduce heat to medium, add cornstarch mixture and simmer until sauce thickens, stirring occasionally, about 8 minutes.
- Discard bay leaves.
- Season stew with salt and pepper.
- (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cool slightly. Chill uncovered until cold, then cover and keep refrigerated. Bring to simmer before serving, stirring occasionally.) Transfer stew to large bowl.
- Sprinkle with parsley and serve.
- Excellent with buttered egg noodles.
Questions & Replies

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Reviews
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This was a terrific stew!! The flavors went so well together, we loved it. I had served it over some garlic mashed potatoes....Yummy!!!! I did do a few changes though. I had dredged the chuck roast pieces in a mixture of flour, dry mustard, salt and pepper and garlic powder. Then browned it in batches and took it out and then caramelized the onions and then put back in the beef and the rest of the ingredients, simmered on stove for about 45 minutes. Then I added in the other ingredients with some peas and popped it in the oven for about 1 hour at 350. There was no need for cornstarch because the beef was coated in flour first, so it was a perfect thickness already. Thanks so much for sharing a wonderful recipe evelyn!!
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Absolutely delicious! We followed the recipe exactly to Step #8, using a nice cabernet. At that point, we put the cocotte in the oven at 250 for 3 hours. We then caramelized the carrots over high heat (not fully cooking them through) and set them aside. Everything smelled and looked so good, we also caramelized a package of frozen pearl onions and (separately) about a dozen quartered new potatoes. (Again, just for color, not fully cooked). We added the vegetables, along with the cornstarch slurry, after the meat had cooked slowly for three hours. 20 minutes later, the stew was perfect! The meat and sauce were divine, and the vegetables were just a bit al dente, with a very rustic appearance from the prior caramelization. (Sure beats mushy veggies the same color as the sauce!) When we poured the leftover wine with dinner, we realized the second cup (Step #11) had never made it into the dish. But, with the slow cooking and without that extra liquid, the sauce was the perfect consistency as it was. We ate it as a stew with some corn fritters, but plan to enjoy some of the leftovers over buttered noodles. We'll definitely be making this one again. Delicious!
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Amazing! Not overly complicated to make and the results are fantastic. Best Beef Stew I've ever had. I did add celery and potatoes to the recipe (with the carrots) and I also added a half can of beef broth to just "beef" up the flavor a bit. Everyone raved about this recipe. I absolutely will be making this again.
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I thought the flavor of this was fantastic. It is true comfot food. We served this over mashed potatoes. Mine turned out much thicker than how I think of beef stew. It was more likre beef tips in a very rich gravy. But very delish none the less. Thanks for sharing! UPDATE: For those who do not want to use wine. I have made this substituting grape juice for the wine. It was wonderful. I think you could also use a mixture of grape juice and wine. hope this helps someone. :)
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Great recipe, adapted it to my likes. Reduced beef to 2 1/2 pounds, added rutabagas and celery. I dislike Hoisin, but wanted to keep Evelyn's thread so reduced it to 1 tablespoon and added 1 tablespoon of dark soy and 2 tablespoons of vegetarian oyster sauce. Increased to 4 garlic cloves and also added a cup of beef stock as it was quite thick when braising. Also, I started this in the morning, simmered it for two hours and turned it off until I returned home from work. Didn't do the crock pot as it usually turns meat chunks into threads sitting in soup. Simmered it another couple of hours with the additional wine. Overall, I think I decreased the wine by about half as my glass was precariously close to the pot and some of the wine slipped into my glass. I also added fresh ground pepper to the meat as well as the stew while simmering and omitted basil and oregano. I also added about a half teaspoon of liquid smoke. This was excellent and a very versatile recipe. Kudos to Evelyn for sharing this!
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Tweaks
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Excellent! A gourmet stew with deep dark layers of elegant flavors. I made the recipe as directed using leftover Shiraz Cabernet and Tuscan (Antinori) red wine. I doubled the garlic and subbed 2 celery stalks for 2 of the carrots. I served the stew over mashed potatoes. I made the full recipe for just the two of us, expecting to freeze some, but at the rate it is disappearing - we will be fighting over the leftovers tomorrow! Great recipe Ev, goes right into my cookbook of "Special Tricks".
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OK, here goes. I live in Athens, Greece. I moved out here many, many years ago from Ottawa, Canada - so I am blessed in having two wonderful heritages!
I suffer from compulsive obsessive behaviour with regard to food and my psychiatrist thought it would be a good idea to find a 'society' where many have the same problem and try to find a cure.
So far, I've copied a couple of thousand recipes from this site and my psychiatrist has thrown the towel in and refuses to answer the phone when I call.
What did I do wrong?
Got 3 kids that keep me on the go - 10 and under at this point (2008) - I may not get round to updating this for a few years, so you'll have to do your own maths.
I teach English full-time and Greek Cookery part-time. I would like to make the cooking part of it full-time and the English Grammar part of it part-time.
That's all for now.