So much umami you’ll lick the sauce.
This stew is easily the favorite beef dish in my house. It is so full of umami you can never get enough of it.
The dish is inspired by the famous Beef Bourguignon, but with some changes making it easier to make and more suited to my taste. Also, the addition of potatoes make it a full meal, but if you don’t like them you can skip putting them in the pot and make mashed potatoes on the side instead.
To break the strong umami taste, a vegetable on the side is perfect – broiled asparagus (see recipe in this post) or broccoli.
Ingredients
- 1 kg beef, cut to cubes [2 lbs] (preferably a fatty cut, but no chunks of fat)
- 3 carrots, sliced
- 2 potatoes, sliced (medium size)
- 6 cloves of garlic, sliced
- ½ kg mushrooms. sliced [1 lb]
- ½ liter red wine [17 fl oz]
- 2 tbsp flour
- 100 gr tomato concentrate [3.5 oz]
- 1 tbsp chicken stock powder
- 50 gr butter [2 oz]
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- boiling water
- black pepper
- canola oil
Instructions
- Sauté the mushrooms in a pan with oil or butter until they loose their fluids.
- In a heavy based oven proof pot or dutch oven, sauté the beef over high heat with a bit of oil. The beef should brown on the outside, but doesn't need to cook on the inside. If needed, sauté the beef in parts. Don't crowd the pot with all the beef as it will lower the pot's temperature.
- Take the beef out of the pot and lower the heat. Add the butter and sauté the garlic for 1-2 mins until the fragrance turns from spicy to sweet, don't let it brown.
- Add the flour and stir until homogenous. Let it brown a bit for another minute or two, but don't let it burn.
- Pour the wine slowly while stirring to avoid creating clumps.
- Add the carrots, potatoes, beef, mushrooms, tomato concentrate, soy sauce, chicken stock powder and pepper.
- Add just enough boiling water to cover all the ingredients.
- Cover and put in an oven preheated to 180°C (360° F). Let it cook for 3-4 hours.
- Take the stew out of the oven and pour it to another pot through a strainer. Return the solids back to the original pot.
- Boil the liquids and evaporate it until it achieves thick consistency. Alterantively, if short on time add 1-2 tsp of corn starch – combine the corn starch with room temperature water in a cup and add slowly while stirring to the pot.
- When the sauce reached the desired consistency pour it back to the original pot, combine and bring to a boil.
For the side dish:
Ingredients
- asparagus stalks
- canola oil
- walnuts
- parmesan
- salt
Instructions
- Cut the end of the stalks and wash them.
- Dry the stalks with a paper towel and align in a baking tray.
- Brush oil on the stalks and salt them.
- Put the baking tray in a high position in the an oven preheated to 180°C (360°F)
- serve with broken walnuts and slices of parmesan (use a peeler on a chunk of parmesan to create nice looking slices).
