Beef Stew, Who Knew?

Do you have one of those kitchen items that when you use it you think to yourself, "Wow! This thing is great! I should use it more often!" Then you put it away and forget about it all over again only to say the same thing months later? That's me with the pressure cooker! I just don't have enough viable cabinet space in this kitchen to store all of my gizmos and gadgets so some get relegated to the garage. I have had this thing for years, but truthfully, I pretty much only used it to cook veggies and mostly root veggies, like Rutabagas at that! Well my lovely cooking partner-in-crime, who helped raise five boys on a farm, clued me in! There isn't anything that woman can't cook in a pressure cooker. Now that she has me straightened out, my only regret is that the one I have isn't bigger!

A cold, rainy night just begs for some hot soup or stew for dinner but if you don't slow cook the heck out of stew meat, you are in for a tough meal. While I lamented forgetting to set-up my crockpot earlier in the day, said cooking partner told me I could get that delicious stew on the table in 30 minutes or so AND that the meat would melt like butter!

After a little trepidation I got to it. Afterall, we could always order pizza, right? The results were amazing I must admit. The veggies were perfect, the sauce was so good, my kids wanted to eat the leftovers with a spoon and yes, that was some of the most tender meat I have ever eaten. Enjoy!

Beef Stew

vegetable oil

2-3 lbs. Stew meat

5-6 potatoes (feel free to add other veggies if you wish!)

6 carrots

1 cube Beef bouillon+water (depends on what size cube you use)

1 batch Delicious Sauce (Recipe to follow in a moment)

Cornstarch

Delicious Sauce

1/2c. red wine (always, only use wine you'd be willing to drink!)

1/2c. Chili sauce or 1/2c. ketchup +1/2t. hotsauce

3T. Brown sugar

3T. vinegar (white, cider or red wine)

1T. Worcestershire sauce

1/2t. dry mustard

1/2t. chili powder

Remove the rack from the bottom of the pressure cooker if you have one. Heat the cooker on medium high until hot and add a little oil. Brown the meat in small batches and go ahead and season it a little too. Set each batch aside until it is all done. This should take about 10-15 minutes at most. Put all the meat back in the pot and add bouillon cube and water. Cover with the lid and rocker. Heat on High until boiling and let it rock for 20 minutes, reduce heat a little to prevent scorching. Meanwhile, peel and cut up your potatoes and carrots. Put them in a pot of boiling water and cook until just tender. The meat and veggies should all finish at about the same time.

While the veggies are boiling, mix up the sauce. When the meat finishes cooking, release the pressure from the pot as per the mfg.'s instructions ( I run mine under cold water until it releases). Remove the lid, be careful of the steam! Drain the veggies and add them to the hot meat, be careful of the hot liquid from the meat and bouillon! Pour the sauce on top and mix it all together. Turn the burner back on and it will begin to simmer. Mix up a little cornstarch and water and add it to the pot to thicken the gravy. Adjust seasoning (I like it a little on the peppery side). Serve it over rice or noodles if you wish.

This served my family of 5 with NO leftovers. Obviously the amounts are a guide because you may want to make more or less and the size of veggies and the stew cubes can vary greatly. The only real constant here is the sauce ingredients. Enjoy!