I did a lot of cooking the other day - My favorite kind of day. I roasted chicken thighs and made a chicken-pasta-vegetable dish in a cream sauce. There was a lot of sauce, so I decided to make this stew using 6oz. of the chicken and 1# of boneless beef short ribs.
Cut the beef into stew size chunks, snipping off the extra fat. Drizzle the meat with a little EVOO, (single source extra virgin olive oil) Sherry cooking wine and sprinkle on some seasonings then mix well to coat all the pieces.
Let this sit for a couple hours.
The meat will absorb the marinate. Meanwhile, make the sauce and prepare the vegetables.
SAUCE: This makes twice what you'll need, so think of a way to used the other half.
Whisk together, in a medium glass bowl: 1 can of cream of celery soup, fill that can with coconut-almond milk and add it to the bowl. 1 pkg. of dry onion soup, 1t black pepper, 1/2c Sherry cooking wine and half a jar of SONOMA Lemon Herb Ricotta pasta sauce (available at Costco).
Scrub and rough chop the vegetables into a big, heavy Dutch oven. Sauté an assortment of colorful bell peppers, totaling about 1-1/2 peppers, 3 carrots, 3 stalks of celery and some tops. 1 large Vidalia onion, lots of fresh, garlic - crushed and chopped, and 4 medium Yukon gold potatoes - scrubbed and cubed. Stay with them, gently stirring often, and only cook until they're barely tender. Add the chicken and turn off the heat.
Peel a medium tomato, chop it and combine with the pasta sauce. Pour this over the chicken and vegetables.
Now brown the meat in 2-3T EVOO. Stir and deglaze the pot with just a little beef broth, then brown well again until the liquid evaporates. Repeat this at least 3 times. The last time, deglaze the pot with a little of the Sherry cooking wine. Put all the browned beef into the pot with the chicken and vegetables. Heat and serve with some crusty artisan garlic bread.
This turned out so well! It's unlike other stews I've made. I think 'the secret's in the sauce!'. . . Lin
