English Brown Stew
By Yankee Magazine|Mar 02 2015|
This English Brown stew has a touch of sweetness and is not too spicy for young palates, but grownups love it, too. Served with dumplings, muffins, or homemade bread, it’s delicious on a cold winter evening.
Yield
6 to 8 servings
Ingredients
2 pounds London broil, cubed
2 large onions, diced
2 large potatoes, peeled and diced
3 carrots, diced
3 to 4 stalks celery, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup tomato juice or 1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons white sugar
1 tablespoon ground allspice
1 tablespoon mild paprika
3 tablespoons beef fat or 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 tablespoons all-purpose white flour
salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
Put the meat in a large saucepan or nonreactive Dutch oven and cover with water. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer, skimming off any foam that rises to the top. When the broth is clear, add the vegetables, tomato juice, Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, sugar, allspice, paprika, and more water if needed to cover the meat. Simmer until the vegetables are done and the meat is tender, about 2 hours.
In a small saucepan, heat the beef fat or oil. Stir in the flour until you have a smooth paste and cook, stirring constantly, for 1 to 2 minutes. Remove 1/2 to 1 cup of the broth from the stew and stir into the flour mixture until you have a thick gravy. Then pour the gravy into the stew. Add salt and pepper and correct the seasonings. Serve hot.
This is an easy and delicious beef stew recipe. I also added two bay leaves to mine. It was perfect.
Made for the first time and the family raved over it. Hard part was all the chopping but next time I’ll use my food processor.
The ingredients sounded so flavorful that I thought I’d give this recipe a try. Imagine my surprise when the stew had basically NO flavor at all! I had to add a LOT of salt at the end to bring out any of the nice flavors. The salt made it more tasty, but I was disappointed that I had to add so much sodium. Without the salt, I would not have eaten this stew.
Very nice stew recipe, but I agree with Martha that this does need more salt than the recipe calls for and a bay leaf is also good. I also used 2 tbs. tomato paste instead of one, for more flavor.