I had a bad time management day yesterday.  Chris and I didn’t have dinner until almost 9:00 p.m.! But this stew was well worth the wait.  We had it over garlic rice.  Bon appétit!

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Ingredients:

• 1 pound of beef stew meat, cut 1″ cube (I like my meat small)
• 2 tablespoons of flour, divided (1 tablespoon for dredging and 1 tablespoon to make a roux)
• 2 teaspoons of olive oil
• 2 teaspoons of butter
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2 stalks of celery, chopped
• 2 carrots, chopped
• 1 sweet potato, cut 1/2″ thick at an angle
• 1 tomato, chopped
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 sprigs of fresh rosemary, stripped and chopped
• 4 sprigs of fresh thyme, stripped and chopped
• 3 tablespoons of tomato paste
• 1 12-ounce bottle of beer (I used a lager)
• 1 14.5-ounces of chicken broth
• salt and pepper to season
• Italian parsley, finely chopped for garnish
• slurry (optional):
  1 teaspoon of cornstarch
  1/4 cup of water

Preparation:

Combine stew meat and flour to coat.  In a large dutch oven over medium high heat, add olive oil and butter.  Let the butter melt before adding the meat in.  Brown meat, about 10 minutes.  Do not crowd your pan.  Do it in batches if need be.  Transfer meat to a bowl and set aside.

In the same pot, add onions, celery and carrots.  Season with salt and pepper.  Cook until onions are soft, about 5-7 minutes.  Then add bay leaf, rosemary, thyme and the remaining tablespoon of flour.  Once flour is cooked, add tomato paste.  Stir tomato paste around and deglaze pot with beer.  Stir and lift all the flavor bits trapped in the bottom of the pot.  Add chicken broth, sweet potato, tomato and stew meat.  Let the pot come to a bubble and then turn down the heat to low and let the stew simmer for 1.5-2 hours.  After simmering, if the stew consistency is too watery, thicken it up with the cornstarch slurry.  Check for seasoning.  Garnish stew with parsley before serving.