Greek-style Beef Stew by Tom

 Greek-style Beef Stew by Tom

Continuing on the "Greek Food Month" journey, I came upon a Greek style beef stew recipe that I thought sounded pretty interesting.  I like beef stew, but this had flavor combinations that I had never had in any beef stews before.  Worth a try then, I thought.

This recipe comes compliments of allrecipes.com.  I have had success finding good recipes at this website in the past, and this did not disappoint as well.

This was quite easy to make and really was very good.  The secret is to let it simmer slowly for a couple of hours to get the meat nice and tender.

If you like beef stew, like I do, you will like this Greek-style recipe.

       ---Tom

Greek-style Beef Stew
(from allrecipes.com)

Serves 6

2 teaspoons olive oil
1 1/4 pounds beef stew meat, or sirloin steak trimmed of excess fat and cubed into 1" pieces
1 medium onion, chopped
1 large garlic clove, chopped
2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons red wine
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
14 ounce can beef broth
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1/4 teaspoon dried rosemary
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
6-8 whole black peppercorns
2 bay leaves
3/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 pinch ground cloves
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon brown sugar
28 ounce can diced tomatoes
~1/3 cup water
2 potatoes, cut into 2" pieces
2 carrots peeled and sliced into bite-size pieces
salt to taste

Heat the olive oil in a large stock pot over medium-high heat.  Add the beef and brown on all sides.

Add the onions and cook for about 3 minutes.

Add the garlic and sauté for one more minute.

Pour in the red wine, the red wine vinegar, and beef broth.  Then stir in the tomato paste and mix well.

Add the rosemary, oregano and peppercorns.  Also add the bay leaves, cumin, cinnamon, cloves, brown sugar and black pepper.  Stir this all up.

Now pour in the canned diced tomatoes.  Rinse the can with approximately 1/3 cup water, and add that to the mixture.

Bring the mixture to a low boil and then reduce the heat to simmer.  Simmer for at least two hours to allow the meat to get tender.  Taste the stew to see if you need to add salt.  Mine did, so I added probably about a teaspoon of salt.

I had Barbara guess all of the ingredients, and she did a good job of figuring out most of them.  Try it yourself when you make this very tasty Greek-style beef stew.

        ---Tom