Beef Chocolate Dinner Pub food Recipes

Balsamic Beef Stew with Gnocchi

beef stew

When the craving for a hearty beef stew with savoury gravy and pillowy potatoes hits, this dish will cure it.

This beef stew was born out of necessity really. In a very unglamorous accident I was cleaning my fridge when the ingredients presented themselves and the experiment began. You see, I hate wasting food. Repurposing leftovers is a skill I learned from my mom. She was, and continues to be, an expert at it. My game improves with every attempt but if we are being honest here, she is still the reigning champ. However, this dish is definitely a contender she would give a victorious nod towards. 

The ingredients are fairly simple. The technique is a tried and true one used over and over in many stews and soups. The additional step is to the fry the gnocchi. I suggest this and do this because without crisping these pillows of flavour, they get mushy. And mushy is not the texture we want here. 

Hands off or Hands on is up to you. You can use your crock pot and slowly simmer this stew all day adding the gnocchi just before serving. Or, you can use your favourite dutch oven on your stove top and hover over it for about 1.5 hours or so. Mixing now and again to ensure it doesn’t stick. I am a helicopter hoverer in the kitchen myself so hands on is my preferred method. 

Balsamic Beef Stew with Gnocchi

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Serves: 6 Prep Time: Cooking Time:

Ingredients

    1. 1 kg of boneless beef chuck or tenderloin
    2. 1/2 cup flour
    3. 1 tsp pepper
    4. 1 tsp salt 
    5. 1 tsp dried thyme leaves
    6. 2 tbsp grape seed oil
    7. 1 yellow onion peeled and diced 
    8. 1.5 cups of carrots peeled and diced 
    9. 1 tbsp tomato paste
    10. 2 bay leaves 
    11. 4 slices of thick cut bacon
    12. 2 cups chopped swiss chard
    13. 2 tbsp of chocolate balsamic 
    14. 1.5 cups Red wine
    15. 2 cups homemade beef stock
    16. 1 cup of gnocchi 
    17. salt and pepper to taste 

Instructions

  1. Cut the beef into bit sized 1″ chunks. 
  2. In a plastic ziplock bag (large one), add the flour, salt, pepper, and thyme. Add a handful of the beef, shake and remove from the bag and set aside. Do this for all of the beef. 
  3. In a frying pan or dutch oven, brown the beef in the 2 tbsp of Grape Seed oil. Then placed the browned beef in your slow cooker. If using the dutch oven, set aside.
  4. Add the diced onion to the pan and sauté until translucent. Add a bit more oil if you need to.  Once cooked, add to the slow cooker or leave in the dutch oven. 
  5. Return the beef to the dutch oven if using. Now add the carrots, Red Wine, beef stock, bay leaves, tomato paste, salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a boil and allow to cook on high for 4 hours in slow cooker or about an hour in the dutch oven. For dutch oven method stir periodically so the stew does not settle and stick to the bottom of the pot. 
  6. In a separate non-stick frying pan, fry the diced bacon until crisp. Remove from pan and drain all but 1 tbsp of bacon grease from the pan. Add the cooked bacon to the stew.
  7. Take a medium pot and boil some salt water. Add the gnocchi and cook until they float to the top. Remove and place on some paper towel to dry. 
  8. Heat the bacon grease in the frying pan and fry the gnocchi in small batches being sure to brown both sides. Add gnocchi to the stew. 
  9. Add swiss chard to the stew and stir. Cook for 10 minutes. 
  10. Add the chocolate balsamic. Taste for seasoning and adjust salt/pepper. 
  11. Remove bay leaves and serve.  

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