Hello, this is Chef John from foodwishes.com. We have the beef merlot. It’s like beef burgundy or beef burgonoign only with merlot. So here we go. We’re going to use a beef chuck. And don’t buy stew meat. Buy a chuck roast, that’s about 2 and three quarters pounds. And just cut it in cubes. And you can throw away the fat and you can make it the size you want, it’s just better. And you’re going to save a couple of bucks a pound, so do not buy stew meat. You don’t know what that stuff is. We’re going to salt and pepper generously. And then in a very hot dutch oven and some vegetable oil, you’re going to sear that until it’s nicely brown on all sides. Do not worry about the bottom getting too brown, because when we deglaze that with the wine it’s going to make the sauce have this beautiful color.
While the meat is browning, I’m going to cut up one large onion. I’m going to remove the meat and I’m going to throw in the onion and just let it sweat a little bit in there. I’m going to add a pinch of salt and a tablespoon of butter. And then, I’m going to put in two tablespoons of flour. And I’m going to cook that for just 3 or 4 minutes. And the onions are going to soften a little. The flour is going to cook a little. By the way, the dark brown on the pan is from the meat juice not the flour. So don’t let the flour burn, but it won't in just a couple of minutes.
Alright, as soon as that is cooked for, like I said, 3 or 4 minutes. I’m going to put in half a bottle of red wine. And I’m using merlot, you use whatever you want. No cooking wine of course. Alright, so half a bottle of wine is there’s 750 milliliters which is you divide that by two. What’s that? 375? And if you divide that by 30, it’s like two cups. Or you just put in the half bottle of wine. Then I’m going to reduce that by about half. That’s going to take you about 10 minutes. Alright, the flour the rue there we made is going to thicken that up a little bit.
I’m going to add two carrots that I chopped in like one inch pieces. Couple of ribs of celery I cut up. Alright, let’s throw that in, I’m going to add my beef back in with any accumulated juices. I’m going to give it another pinch of salt and we can adjust that later. A bayleaf, and I’m going to tie some fresh thyme sprigs together. This is just so I can pull them out and don’t have to fish the stems out. And I’m just going to cover that with two cups of beef broth. You’re probably not making homemade beef broth, I didn’t either for this. So use a all natural, low sodium, high quality, pay the extra dollar, no generic beef broth that may or may not be made out of beef. Use something nice. We’re going to bring that up to a simmer. We’re going to cover that and just let that simmer for an hour and a half on very low.
So an hour and a half later, that’s looking good. Now you see that it’s barely bubbling. The meat is almost tender. It’s not perfectly tender yet. So I’m going to leave this uncovered and I’m going to let it simmer and bubble away for another half hour. And you see right there the sauce got a little thicker. The meat is now perfectly tender. Our vegetables are nice and tender. And look at that sauce. It’s so shiny, and just beautiful and luxurious.
Alright, make sure you’re going to taste and adjust your seasoning. And I know what you're thinking. You forgot to put in the potatoes. No I didn’t. Alright, this beef merlot is so beautiful. I don’t want to mess it up with a bunch of chunks of potatoes. So what I do, I make some beautiful buttery Yukon gold mashed potatoes. These are actually garlic mashed potatoes. Make a little well. I spoon the beef stew in there. To me that is just the best of all worlds. You get that nice beautiful fluffy potato underneath. The succulent fall of our beef. The slow cooked vegetables. Beef burgonoign, beef burgundy, very old school recipes. This is a version of that, called beef merlot. Because you know, there’s more of a chance you make beef merlot than beef burgundy. Give that a try. Go to the site and you’ll have all the ingredients there. And as always, enjoy.
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