The other night, Cyndi and I were driving home after seeing some massage clients, listening to an audiobook, like we do. The book is based in New York and in the storyline it was a sleeting February, cold and miserable, the leads in the story started discussing dinner and decided on a hearty beef and barley stew. I’m driving home, half listening to the book and my brain has suddenly run off to make beef and barley stew. We made it home, we’d already had dinner, but I made stew for lunch the next day. I was scrounging a little for ingredients because there was no way I was going to the store that late at night so this is based on what I had in the cupboards already.
This is a new recipe for me and may get worked on some more over time but the first pass was pretty delicious. It’s simple because the ingredients are substantial enough to hold up on their own. I didn’t have a lot of beef in the freezer so I used two hamburger patties and some flank steak I happened to have, if I was planning ahead I’d probably use cubed stew meat but I have to say, a little ground beef in the mix was pretty tasty. So maybe do a little of both, be sure that there’s some marbling or fat in the meat, it’s the heart of the beef flavor.
I just happened to have a delicious bottle of red wine open from the day before. I lean toward meritage blends, syrahs and pinot noir so when I cook with wine it’s generally going to be one of those as I rarely plan ahead when I cook and buy a bottle of wine to cook with. To be fair, I also don’t believe in wasting the wine so it has to be something I’ll drink too. If you don’t like these types of wine, use what suits your tastes. I would err on the side of a little sweeter/fruitier simply because it balances the flavor of the beef well in my opinion. Play with it!
I feel like this soup really needs a slice of warm crusty bread, covered in butter, to wipe out the bowl because you won’t want to miss out on even the tiniest bit.
Enjoy!
Sabrina – The Kitchen Witch
Red Wine, Beef & Barley Stew
Ingredients
- 2 Patties of Ground Beef
- 2 - 4 oz Pieces of Flank Steak
- 1 Med Onion - Chopped Fine
- 4 Cloves Garlic - Chopped Fine
- 2 Large Carrots - Chopped Into Small Coins
- 5 Med Portobello Mushrooms - Sliced
- 8 Small Potatoes - Cubed
- 2/3 Cup Trader Joe's 10 Minute Barley
- 32 oz Chicken or Beef Stock (I always have chicken around so I used that)
- 1 Cup Red Wine
- 1 Cube Beef Bouillon
- 1 Cup Dehydrated/Powdered Potatoes
- 2 T Olive Oil
- 2 T Butter
- Garlic Salt - To Taste
- Monterey Steak Seasoning - To Taste
Instructions
- Sautee onion, carrots, mushrooms with meat in the olive oil until onion starts to go glassy and meat is lightly browned.
- Add butter, garlic and deglaze the pot with the red wine. Cook until the wine is mostly absorbed, sprinkle just a little of the garlic salt and steak seasoning to the meat and wine mix to begin bringing out the flavor of the meat.
- Add the broth, bouillon, and cubed potatoes.
- Simmer for a few minutes and when the potatoes are still firm, add the barley and let simmer on low.
- When the potatoes are fully cooked, add the dehydrated potatoes to thicken the soup.
- Let sit for 5-10 minutes and then serve warm with crusty bread.