Potato Steak Stew

Hello again. Here's an easy 30 minute meal that will chase those cold temperatures far away with a nod to the upcoming green holiday. I love potatoes and most root vegetables. I think we should rename the St. Patrick's holiday to meat and potato day. Anyone else on board? If you look in the grocery store adds you might think this is a bigger beer holiday than Superbowl Sunday. Of course the day I pick to make this super yummy stew its 80 degrees outside. Oh Arizona, I do have a love/hate relationship with you! Once we got eating it, with the air conditioner running happily at a nice 76 degrees, dipping rolls into the yummy broth, no one minded the cold weather food. By the way, occasionally this soup can also be called "clean out the veggie drawer soup" because its so versatile. It tastes great with frozen veggies, fresh veggies, and veggies that you may had forgotten about. Case in point: note the baby carrots in the recipe. 

Serves 4 - 5   

ingredients:

1 lb. beef chunks
olive oil 
salt
pepper
1 large onion, coarsely chopped
1 large russet potato, mostly peeled, thinly sliced in rounds
1 turnip, peeled and chopped
3 parsnips, peeled and chopped
half a package of baby carrots or 2 large carrots, chopped same size as the parsnips
3 stalks of celery
5 &3/4 cups of water
1 bay leaf
1/3 cup frozen tomato paste*
3 pieces/stems of fresh thyme
1 tsp minced garlic

*Whenever I need tomato paste and the recipe only calls for a little bit. I usually throw the rest in the freezer. Keeping a can in my fridge is just going to be lost or spilled lol. It freezes beautifully and works well in most dishes frozen or fresh without even needing to defrost it. 

Seer the beef/steak pieces on all sides over high heat with 1 Tbs oil, salt, and pepper in a large pot. I usually use 1 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp pepper. Use the amounts that seem right to you. 

Remove the beef from the pot and set aside. Put the chopped onion, carrots, turnip, and parsnips in the same pot and saute in additional 1 tsp oil, 1 tsp salt, and 1/4 tsp pepper. Saute for approx 10 minutes on medium low heat, until the veggies take on some color and start to soften. You should be hearing a sizzle. Use a spoon or spatula to get the drippings up off the bottom from the beef. 

Top the pot with celery, fresh thyme, bay leaf, minced garlic, tomato paste, and last with the sliced potatoes,. I do the potatoes last because they will fall apart in the stew otherwise and they look so pretty in rounds similar to one of my other fav soups Zuppa Toscana. 

Deglaze the pot with water and Worcestershire sauce just as much as you need to barely cover the sliced potatoes. Usually beef stock would be inserted here but I did say this was a "clean out the veggie drawer" so you can guess that I am out of this particular ingredient. Don't be too concerned. This isn't a fussy recipe. Cooking beef, the veggies, and using all the drippings will give the broth nice flavor.

Bring the pot to a boil. Cover, reduce to simmer for 20 minutes or until sliced potatoes are fork tender. Taste the broth without burning yourself (wink) and add salt and pepper as needed. 

Serve with yummy bread or rolls :) 

Enjoy!

Happy (upcoming) Potato Holiday 

Don't forget to wear green 

From my kitchen to yours