Beef Stew with Creamy Whiskey Dijon Sauce
December 14, 2020 • Meat & Poultry
There’s something wonderful about cooking in a Dutch oven during colder months. The pot simmers away for hours, slowly tenderizing those lesser cuts of meat, while at the same time heating up your kitchen nicely. I was trying to use up some veal stew meat I found lurking in my meat freezer, but I also had a veal brisket, which I decided to trim of excess fat and cube like the stew meat. But you can use any cut of stewing beef, bison, or veal you have on hand. Chuck works great. And what really makes this recipe sing is the sauce.
And while others might be partial to serving a stew over egg noodles or rice, to me the dish demands mashed potatoes, which I like to make into a version of colcannon by stirring in wilted spinach right before serving.
- ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil, divided
- 2 pounds stew meat (beef, veal, or bison, a tougher cut like chuck), cubed
- Salt and pepper
- Flour
- 1 large yellow onion, diced, divided
- 1 large carrot, cubed
- 2 stalks celery, diced
- 1 cup whiskey
- 1 bottle red wine
- 2 large bay leaves, fresh if possible
- 2 cups dried mushrooms, rehydrated in hot water
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
- ¼-1/3 cup heavy cream
- ¼ cup chopped parsley
- Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a Dutch oven over medium high heat. Season the meat with salt and pepper and dust with flour. Brown the meat in the oil, then remove with a slotted spoon and set aside.
- Add half of the onion, the carrot, and the celery to the pot along with the remaining oil and cook until the onion starts to soften, about 3 minutes. Deglaze the pot with the whiskey, using a spoon to scrape up all of the browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Return the meat to the pan, then add the red wine and bay leaves. Cover, bring to a boil, then reduce to simmer and cook until the meat is very tender, about 2-3 hours.
- Use tongs to remove just the meat to a platter, then strain the other solids from the liquid. Discard the solids and return the cooking liquid to the pot. Pour about ½ cup of the mushroom soaking liquid into the pot, then add the meat to the sauce and hold over a very low temperature to stay warm.
- In a medium skillet, heat the butter over medium high heat. Drain the mushrooms, squeezing out any excess liquid, and add them, along with the remaining onion, to the skillet. Cook until the onions soften and start to turn a little brown, then pour the mushrooms and onions into the Dutch oven with the meat. Stir in the Dijon mustard and heavy cream, bring to a boil for just a minute or two, then remove from the heat and stir in the parsley.
- Serve over mashed potatoes or another starch of choice.