Burgundy Beef Stew

So, last year about this time I began a long search for some sort of Irish stew, no luck. Well that's not entirely true; I just didn't have any desire to try to make something with Lamb in it again. I suppose you need the back story huh? Well, a few weeks back I had been excising and watching the food network...bad idea, I know! Anyway, one of their more popular cooking hosts had made a lamb dish with pasta. I remember her saying that it was her husband’s most favorite meal that she makes. As you can guess I was sold! Next I began working my food budget to be able to incorporate this more expensive meal in for that month. Hey ground lamb isn't cheap folks! Anyway, I was really disappointed when I finally was able to make it to the grocery store only to find they didn't have any. The butcher of course came out and asked me if there was anything he could help me with. Now ladies and gentleman let me just say I'm fantastic at saying these two words" no thanks". So good in fact that my name should be used when given a definition of these two words together. I'm working on it though, sometimes swinging too far to the other side. Well, this day was different or maybe I had a deep look of sadness, I don't know but he told me that he would grind up the lamb for me himself. The only catch was that I would need to come back the next day to pick it up, he was really backed up with meat, and since normally they have to special order ground lamb which could take up to a week, I didn't think this was too big of a deal. The following day on my way home with my ground lamb I decided there was just no way could I make anything else that night! And so after more than 2 hours of cooking , 3 cranky kids (one of them being my husband) we finally sat down at 7:30pm to eat something my husband and I have agreed was the most horrible food that we have ever tasted, (even though it was properly cooked!). On a little side note our 2 year old loved it; we believe he must have more refined taste buds than we have.

So, after many hours of searching, I found a truly warm and delicious stew, which I will be making for this St. Patrick’s Day since it has now become a tradition for our family. Enjoy!

Ingredients

• 3 pounds cubed beef stew meat
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1 pound carrots, peeled and cut into 2-inch pieces
• 4 large potatoes, cubed
• 1 tablespoon dried parsley
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground black pepper
• 2 cups boiling water
• 2 (1 ounce) envelopes onion soup mix
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 3 large onions, quartered
• 2 tablespoons minced garlic
• 1/2 cup burgundy wine
• 2 (6 ounce) packages fresh button mushrooms, halved
• 1/4 cup warm water
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch

Directions

1. Toss the beef, flour, and salt in a resealable bag until the beef is coated.
2. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Combine the beef and Worcestershire sauce in the skillet; cook until the beef is evenly browned on all sides; transfer to a slow cooker, but do not clean the skillet. Add the carrots, potatoes, parsley, and pepper to the slow cooker.
3. Combine the boiling water and soup mix in a small bowl; add to slow cooker.
4. Melt the butter in the skillet over medium-high heat. Cook the onion and garlic in the melted butter until soft; transfer the onion and garlic to the slow cooker and return the skillet to the heat. Combine the wine and mushrooms to the skillet; cook until the mushrooms begin to absorb the wine; pour the mixture into the slow cooker.
5. Place the cover on the slow cooker and set to High; cook for one hour. Reduce heat to Low and cook until the beef is fork-tender, 5 to 7 hours. Whisk together the warm water and cornstarch; stir into the stew; cook uncovered until stew thickens, about 15 minutes. allrecipes