FALLing in love - Beef Stew

Some days are just perfect for a bowl of stew.  I keep hoping that the temperature outside will stay below 70 degrees so that I feel justified in my festival of fall food, but so far, its still a bit warmish.  I don't really care what anybody thinks - its October and I'm eating stew.  This particular recipe also fits well with my 'cook once, serve twice' section of life and I do appreciate that.  When I prepared this, I doubled everything and kept the doubled portion (nod to Elisha here) for Shepherd's Pie, which you should feel free to do as well, because its a great idea -if I do say so myself. 

This is the stew, and here's what you do....

What you need:
Big stock pot, can opener

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 lb beef stew meat
2 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1 can green beans, drained
1 can sweet corn, drained
1 can stewed tomatoes
1 can ranch style beans
1 cup chopped carrots
1/2 cup red wine
3 cups beef broth

Heat the olive oil in the stock pot over medium high heat.  Mix flour and salt and pepper with a fork and dredge the stew meat, just coating it in flour.  Transfer to the stock pot and cook until browned on all sides, stirring every couple of minutes. Add all vegetables and liquids, reduce heat to medium and cook covered for at least 45 minutes, up to a few hours if you want to.

a few days pass... you are hungry for Shepherd's Pie and you have thought ahead and doubled your stew recipe for just such an occasion... you realize you have been wearing your pants backwards all day long and you want to off-set that ridiculousness with a touch of fancy, so you pipe your potatoes through a pastry bag making lovely swirls of potatoes atop the bubbling hot Shepherd's Pie, like this.

what you need:

400 oven, preheated

large pot, wooden spoon (optional), mixing bowl,  hand mixer, 9x13 baking dish, pastry bag fitted with a star tip (optional)

 

left over stew, drained of liquid to your liking (I don't like much liquid remaining, you may not be like me)

6 potatoes

1 stick of butter

salt and pepper to taste

1/4 Cup milk

 

Fill a large pot 3/4 full with water and heat it up over high heat.. Peel 6 medium potatoes, I love Yukon Gold, so that's what I used here. Dice them up to about 1/2 inch cubes, and drop them in to the water ( you don't have to wait for it to boil to put the potatoes in).  Reduce heat to medium once the water starts boiling, and lay a wooden spoon across the top of the pot while the potatoes continue to cook (this keeps the water from boiling over. I don't know why.)  After the potatoes cook for 15-20 minutes they should be fork tender. You want them to be tender or they won't mash. Believe me. I've tried mashing not quite tender potatoes and I hated myself for it. There was cussing.

Drain ALL of the water out and transfer the potatoes to a mixing bowl with the butter, milk and seasoning.  Using the lowest setting, begin mixing the potatoes with a hand mixer, turning up the speed as you see fit.  If you are going to pipe the potatoes, get all of the lumps out so they don't clog your pastry tip.  If you are going to dollop the potatoes on top of the stew, you don't have to be so concerned about their texture. heat the stew up either on the stove top or in the microwave - I chose the microwave just so I didn't have another bowl to wash, but that's just me. I wear my pants backwards. Transfer the stew from where ever you had been storing it, sans liquid, please, into a 9x13 baking dish. Fill a pastry bag with potatoes and pipe away. Pipe the potatoes right on top of the stew in 3-inch circles as if you were icing a cupcake. Bake for about 15 minutes, until the potatoes start to turn a lovely golden color.   Its a beautiful thing.