Beef Stew in Red Wine Sauce

While cleaning the fridge to make my fried rice, I found a bottle of left over red wine from the Christmas party I hasted a few weeks back. To sour too consume; but perfect for stewing beef.


Beef stew is easy to make and I always make during the weekend for a quick weeknight dinner. My secret is to never buy the stew beef. I prefer beef brisket, either bone-in or bone-out. The more marble fat the merrier. If you can't find beef brisket or want some leaner cuts, go for some with bones and/or tendons attached, like shank. I sometimes combine both types of meat in one pot to give the stew some different levels of  texture.

The more marbling fat the merrier!

Here is the beef stew in red wine sauce from my kitchen:

Ingredients
2 lbs of beef briskets, cut into 1-1/2 cubes
some baby carrots
some potatoes, cut into 1-1/2 cubes
an onion, sliced
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
a thumb size ginger, skinned and sliced
a bay leaf (not included in the picture)
about 1 cup of red wine
about 1 cup of stock or water

How

1. Heat up a heavy pot (Dutch oven is the best) then add oil. Turn the heat to medium and add the beef briskets. If the pot cannot fit all the beef in one layer, do this in batches. Sear all sides of each piece, about one minute on each side. Remove the beef from the pot. Repeat until all the beef cubes are seared.
   
2. Turn the heat to low and add some oil into the pot. Cook garlic and ginger on very low heat. Cook until you can smell them and when they are golden, about 4 minutes. Be careful not to burn the beef residue that is stick to the bottom of the pan. Move the pot off the heat for a while if temperature is too high. 
3. If you do not like the strong flavor of ginger in your stew, remove the ginger now. Add onion and more oil if necessary. Stir and cook until the onion is soften, about 10 minutes.
   
4. Turn up the heat to medium and add carrots, stir for about one minute. Turn up the heat to high and add red wine. When the wine boils, turn the heat down to medium and continue to let it simmer for about 5 minutes. In the meantime, use the spatula to scrape the residue off the bottom of the pot.
   
5. Add Beef, bay leaf, water/stock. The liquid level should come up to at least 2/3 of all the ingredients in the pot. If not, add some more water or broth. If you are not using a heavy pot, you may need to add more water later as liquid will evaporates quicker. Bring the stew to boil and simmer for 30 minutes with lid on. During the simmering, stir once or twice and check water level.
6. After 30 minutes of simmering, leave the lid on and turn off the heat. Let it sit for 30 minutes.
7. Bring the stew to a boil again. Add potatoes and mix well.
   
8. Bring the stew to a boil and let it simmer with lid on for another 30 minutes.
9. Repeat Step 7. Then test the beef tenderness with a fork. If you want the beef to be more tender, repeat Step 7 and 9 with 10 minute intervals. Test again. If it is good enough, add salt to taste.
   

Serve hot immediately, or wait until it is cooled to room temperature and store in the fridge or freezer for serving at another night.