When you want a hearty meal for the beef lovers in your family, this is sure to please them. It takes a little time to get it to the table, but this is NOT a complicated meal to prepare.
I don't normally cook with wine or alcohol. Honestly, the two times I've attempted to cook with wine, the meal turned out disastrous. I know now what I was doing wrong and I have it SPOT ON in this Beef Stew Provencale.
A while back, I made Chicken Cacciatore that called for red wine vinegar. The directions said to simmer the vinegar for 3 minutes before going onto the next step. I thought, "maybe I should cook the wine down like I did the vinegar and see how that works." THAT WAS IT!!!
Unfortunately, the cookbook that gave me the list of ingredients for this meal DID NOT make any mention of reducing the wine. If I had not gone rogue, I would have had another disappointing meal in a pan. What's up with cookbooks that leave out important directions?
Anyhoo. Let's get cooking.
HERE'S ALL IT TAKES
- 1 1/2 pounds boneless, lean London broil steak, 1 inch thick
- flour, salt & pepper for coating meat
- healthy oil
- 1 cup dry red wine (Cabernet Sauvignon)
- 1/2 cup water
- 2 garlic cloves, crushed
- 6 medium carrots, cut into 1 inch pieces
- 1 large onion, cut into fourths
- 1 tablespoon dried parsley
Cut the steak into bite size pieces, about 1 inch cubes. Toss into a bowl with a few tablespoons of flour, seasoned with salt and fresh ground pepper.
Heat 1 to 2 tablespoons of oil in a large pot or dutch oven over medium high heat. Cook meat, turning once, until browned. Don't crowd the pan. You may have to work in batches. Remove the browned meat to a plate.
Pour off remaining oil and discard. Add one cup red wine to pan and return to heat to simmer. Scraping & stirring in the brown bits from the bottom of the pan (this is a great way clean the pan), keep simmering wine until it has reduce to half the amount of liquid.
Add the meat back, pour in the water, toss and coat the meat with the sauce. Heat liquid to boiling; REDUCE HEAT. Cover and simmer 1 hour.
Add carrots, onions and dried parsley. Cover and simmer until beef and carrots are tender, about 40 minutes. I served this with mashed potatoes, sweet peas and dinner rolls.
This makes enough to feed 2 adults & 2 kids for dinner, and 2 adults for lunch.
The dish looks inviting and indeed easy…add some Herbs De Provence for that added Francais taste!
Hey, I’m a young (22 yo) Australian recently married to an Indonesian and am adventuring on my own with cooking. I stumbled across your site, and am interested in this recipe. Small problem, we both don’t drink/consume alcohol in any form… is there any substitute for the wine? or does it just not taste as good? Thanks heaps
I had to do a little research to find consistent information to answer your question, Becca. Here’s what I found.
NON-ALCOHOLIC SUBSTITUTIONS FOR RED WINE IN COOKING
Non-alcoholic wine
Beef broth or stock
Chicken broth or stock
Vegetable broth
Diluted red wine vinegar
Red grape juice diluted with red wine vinegar or rice vinegar
Tomato juice
Cranberry Juice
Plain water.
Substitute equal amount of liquid.
Now of course, anytime we substitute ingredients, we are bound to have
a different result in our cooking. I made this dish again the other night and concluded that red wine does lend a hint of richness to the meat and sauce. However, I believe that I could come very close using half red wine vinegar and beef broth to produce a similar result.
Becca, do your best and just have fun with it. Use a lean cut of meat that is affordable to your budget. I chose a small cut called London Broil. I don’t know why it’s called that, but I can always afford it.
I’ve learned over the years that so long as I like each ingredient that I use in my cooking, I can’t go too wrong in the end.
Thanks heaps Jill!! I’m going to experiment tomorrow night
.
Try this: dice bacon and saute’ to render fat. Remove bacon and brown the beef, onions and garlic in the bacon fat. Add the bacon back to the stew during the last few minutes. The French thicken their wine and beef stew with a mixture of equal parts butter and flour and whisk little bits at a time into the liquid at the end. It gives it a lightly thickened, velvety, delicious finish. I also thought I wasn’t so hot with wine cooking. You’re right about the wine reduction. Another thing I discovered is that when you make a stew with wine, it is marvelously better the second day. It was transformed! Spent a long day making a complicated bouef bourguignon for company. I made it a day ahead in case it didn’t turn out–thank goodness. At the end of preparation I tasted it and didn’t think I’d serve it to the company after all. The next day I warmed it in the oven in a covered casserole and it was DIVINE. The company raved and ate till they popped and still wanted to take some home with them. Wine is very good with beef or chicken, but you have to know the tricks. Coq au Vin is the same basic dish but made with chicken and it’s even better. BTW, do you have all the kids you want? I would be in heaven if I could come home at the end of the day to your cooking. Wonderful Stuff!
LOL! Karela, you are too funny! Thank you for the laugh and sharing your experience with me. I can never get enough of hearing/reading about other cook’s experiences.
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