French Beef Stew

This recipe is really easy for a French one. I took it from a blog called Katie at the Kitchen Door. It’s not stuffy or complicated. It just takes time, most of which don’t even involve you. The beef needs to be marinated for a minimum of 12 hours. I marinated it for 26. The stew takes about 2-3 hours to cook so plan ahead.

I followed this recipe pretty exact. There were no pictures and I love step-by-step photos of recipes. So here’s the link to the recipe and you can just follow along with my pictures below. But please refer to her recipe for the exact measurements and instructions.

One thing I did differently was I omitted the oranges in the stewing portion. I put the oranges in for the marinade and just took them out when it was time to cook the meat and veggies. In reading the original blog post I found that some people complained of a slightly bitter taste because of the orange peel, which is why I chose to omit it from the cooking portion.

Season beef with salt & pepper generously

Cut up carrots

Slice onions

Slice garlic

Cut up an orange into 8 wedges

Place all ingredients in a big bowl including thyme and bay leaves

Pour a whole bottle of wine

mmmm red meat and red wine. Such a perfect combo!

Cover and store in fridge for 12-24 hours.

Remove the meat from the marinade and sear on all sides

Browning the meat

still browning…

Once all the meat is browned (and don’t worry it doesn’t have to be cooked through)…

…add the rest of the marinade (minus the oranges).

Add the tomato paste & water. Cover and let simmer on low for 2-3 hours.

I was so excited to try it (as were my guests) that I didn’t get a finished product picture. I finally thought to do so only after I had half eaten my bowl. That’s how good it was!