Country Dijon Beef Stew

You know when you have to think of something for dinner and your tank is just on empty and you’re all out of ideas?  You kind of stare blankly at your pantry and wonder if you can get away with feeding your family cereal… Well that’s how I felt last night when I stumbled across this magical recipe.   I found it in Family Circle and at first I must admit I was not immediately won over.  In fact, I thought- well, that doesn’t look terribly appealing, but I do seem to have all the ingredients…

Now I know I’m not really selling this meal, so let me throw this out there – it was awesome, easy and foolproof.   I kept thinking – this is better than it has any right to be.  And you know what?  It was even better today for lunch.  Dave fully agreed and seconded the “better than it had any right to be” thought.  Ajax also thought it was tasty and ate quite well.

I must admit of all the magazines I get Family Circle is the one that consistently has the best recipes that work for my family. So here I am sharing!  I put my changes in italics to do with as you please!

Ingredients

  • 1 tbs unsalted butter
  • 1 small onion chopped
  • 8 ounces mushrooms (cleaned, chopped)(I didn’t add mushrooms as Dave isn’t a fan)
  • 2 lb boneless beef chunk, cut into pieces (be sure to cut them into really small pieces, they’ll be more tender)
  • 4 tbs all-purpose flour
  • 2 tbs olive oil
  • 1 can beef broth
  • 1 tbs Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 tbs country-style Dijon mustard
  • 3 carrots, peeled and cut into pieces
  • 1 tsp chopped fresh rosemary
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • ¼ tsp black pepper
  • Cooked egg noodles

Directions

  • Heat butter in a large pot over medium heat.  Add onion and mushroom and cook 5 min. Transfer to a bowl.
  • Meanwhile, toss beef w/ 3 tbl spoon flour (I also added a dash of garlic salt, powdered mustard, and black pepper).   Add 1 tbl oil to the pot and increase heat to medium-high.   Add half the beef and cook 2 min, browning on all sides.  Transfer to bowl w/ onions and mushrooms.  Add remaining tbl oil and second half of beef to the pot.   Cook 2 min, browning on all sides.  Transfer to bowl; reduce heat to medium.
  • Add ¾ cup of beef broth to the pot.  Whisk in Worcestershire and mustard (I substituted spicy brown mustard for Dijon and added another squirt of yellow mustard), scraping up any brown bits on bottom of the pan.   Add mixture from bowl back to the pot along w/ remaining broth.   Cover and simmer on low for 15 min.
  • Uncover and stir in carrots.   Cover and cook an add’l 45 min.
  • In small bowl, sitr together 2 tbl water, the remaining tbl flour, rosemary (I used basil), salt, and pepper.  Stir into stew and cook 3 min, until thickened.  I also added about 1/2 – 1 cup of frozen corn. Serve w/ noodles (I used long grain rice instead of noodles and it was great!).