Beef Stew

Adapted from Beat This! by Ann Hodgman

Serves 4


This is not elegant food, but it is, after all, beef stew, and a good dinner to have during the winter when you want to eat at home and don’t have time to make a big production out of cooking. 

Ann Hodgman says that adding chopped mushrooms to the recipe would probably be a good idea, and I think so too even though I have never tried it. I also think it would be good to sauté thick slices of mushrooms, sprinkle them with chopped fresh parsley, and serve them on top of the stew, but that might be more trouble than you want to go to if you're making this for dinner to begin with.

Beef Stew

Adapted from Beat This! by Ann Hodgman

2 pounds beef chuck meat in cubes
6 carrots cut into thick slices
2 large onions, chopped coarsely
1 large baking potato, cut into stew-size dice (I use Russet, but Yukon Gold should work)
1 bay leaf (I use Morton & Basset)
1 teaspoon dried marjoram, crushing the leaves between your fingers as you add them to the bowl
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1 10-ounce can Campbell’s Tomato Soup (It does not have high fructose corn syrup.)
½ can red wine

Preheat the oven to 275°F. Combine the beef, carrots, onions, potato, and bay leaf in a large bowl. Sprinkle the seasonings in, and mix well.

In a small bowl, combine the soup with the red wine and pour over the stew ingredients. Mix well.

Put everything into a lidded casserole or pot that can go into a 275-degree oven. Cover the casserole or pot first with a tight layer of foil and then with the lid.

Bake the stew for 5 hours. After the first 2 hours, check it every half hour or so to make sure there’s enough liquid left in the pot. There probably will be. Remove the bay leaf before serving.  Leftovers reheat well, but you may have to add a little liquid.