Friend of Julie: Beef Stew

It's that time of year to use your crock pot to make some delicious beef stew - and this is just the recipe you need...

Ingredients

• 2 pounds of beef stew meat
• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 1/2 medium onion
• 2 small parsnips
• 1 large carrot
• 4 large mushrooms
• Sea salt
• Borsari - if you don't have this spice mix add pinch of the following dried or fresh ingredients: basil, rosemary, black pepper, nutmeg, ginger

Instructions

Place a frying pan on the stove at a high temperature and add 1 teaspoon of olive oil and half of the beef. 

Sear (brown) the beef on all sides and then remove the beef from the pan. I used to skip this step, but I've found searing the meat with a little oil in a hot skillet allows the meat develop more complex flavors. It just takes a few extra minutes and well worth your time.

Add1 teaspoon of olive oil and the remaining meat to the hot pan and sear on all sides.
Place all of the seared beef in a large crock pot.

Slice or mince the garlic and add it to the crock pot.

Sprinkle Borsari on top of the beef (or a pinch of the following dried or fresh ingredients: sea salt, basil, rosemary, black pepper, nutmeg, ginger)

Slice the parsnips, carrot, mushrooms, and onion. To avoid overcooking the vegetables, add them to the stew 1-3 hours after you start cooking or 1 hour before the stew is finished cooking.

Place the lid on the crock pot, set the crock pot on high and cook for 4-6 hours (or low for 8-10 hours).

I added noodles to my leftover stew the next day. I use my Spirooli to turn zucchini into noodles. Delicious!