Mistress of Delicious

I made you eat this.

A thing.

Or Beef and Orange Stuff Stew

Carnivorous. Serves sixish. Or two people for three or four meals.

Ingredients

  • 2 lbs gristly beef/stew meat cut into 1-2 inch chunks
  • 2 tbsp oil or ghee
  • 1/2 cup flour (or 1/3 cup cornstarch), mixed with salt, pepper, wasabi powder, mustard powder, garlic powder, onion powder
  • 1/2 cup dried mushrooms, ground (you’ll get about 1/4 cup total)
  • 2 superlarge carrots, bias cut into oblongs
  • 2 medium orange sweet potatoes, cut the same way
  • 1 large white onion
  • 2-3 heads of garlic, peeled and lightly smashed
  • 10 dried apricots
  • 1 tbsp dark soy sauce (or tamari)
  • A few splashes worchestershire sauce
  • 1 litre beef stock, and a cup or 2 of red wine or beer, if you’ve got it (5 cups total)
  • Little fingerling potatoes, if you want them and they’ll fit in your pot
  • More of the above spices to taste

Equipment

  • Dutch oven or heavy casserole with lid
  • Wooden spoon
  • Tongs
  • Knife
  • Cutting board
  • A couple of small bowls
And it’s nice to have the compost nearby

Instructions

Dredge 1/2 the beef in the flour mixture. Toss half the oil in the dutch oven and brown the onion and garlic. When they’re delightfully golden, scoop out and set aside. Brown the beef deeply on one side, then pull out of pan. Pour in one cup of liquid and scrape up all the delicious browned bits. Layer in wee potatoes if you’re using them, sweet potatoes, mushroom powder, garlic, carrots, apricots, beef and juices, onions. Pour remaining liquids over the top, cover tightly and cook in the oven for 4-5 hours in a 250-300 degree oven. Stir after a couple of hours to encourage the flavours to combine, and take the lid off around 2/3 of the way through. Serve with cheesy mashed cauliflower.

Why, hello there.

Get comfortable, maybe grab a snack, snuggle in your fuzzyblanket. Gosh, I love my fuzzyblanket.

There. That’s nice.

Welcome! I’m MizAnna. I like to cook things, and eat them. So I tend to spend time online, looking for recipes. And goodness, are there ever a LOT of ’em out there! And they usually have a little story about the recipe. A funfact. And an anecdote. And some meandering thoughts about some friend’s brother and the bullshit wisdom he picked up in Thailand on some yoga retreat. Occasional musings on the wood grain of this heirloom rolling pin, the little spice planter on the windowsill, and maybe something about the dog someone had as a kid. And then sometimes some waxing about the ingredients and/or implements and then, after multiple repeating photos of the food, you get the recipe.

Mm. Puddin.

MMMM. PUDDIN’.

So, I’m going to put the foods out front. Maybe an occasional educational one-liner above, but food first. If you’d like to read the adjacents, please do feel free. I’ll even make a little space for you to leave a little something. You know, chat some about the story surrounding the food. Or, if you made it, how was it? Did you eat it? Do tell! I especially adore when people entirely rework the recipe to make it into something it most assuredly isn’t. Then after replacing the mushrooms with celery and MSG or barley or whatever, bitch about how awful it was, usually, no, always with a pithy sniff of superiority. OMG that’s my favourite. Do that! DO THAT.

Seriously. Do that.

And now. Hello! Welcome! Let’s do a thing.