A Rich Beef Stew from Provence (p. 429)

Once again, I've saved a heavy winter stew for the middle of August. Whoops. Luckily our new AC is keeping the house nice and cool, so I can't complain.

I started this recipe on Friday afternoon to let the beef be able to marinate over night. The marinade smelled delicious -- olive oil, chopped carrots, onions, garlic, and celery, red wine, red wine vinegar, brandy, parsley, orange zest, dried thyme, and black pepper.

I chopped up my pieces of meat into large chunks.

And mixed it all together.

Yummy yum.

On Saturday afternoon I started the stew. While the oven was preheating, I browned all the pieces of meat (removed from their marinade, dried, and dusted with flour) in a little bit of olive oil.

Once brown, I retuned all of the marinade to the pan and added some more red wine to cover the meat. In went chopped shallots, carrots, olives, and canned tomatoes, and I brought the dish to a simmer.

The entire pan, covered, went in the oven for three hours.

This is supposed to be best the following day, so we didn't eat it until dinner on Sunday.

The flavors, especially those of the olive, were really good, but there's something about an all brown dish that I don't love. Still, the beef was tender and falling apart and it was delicious with some mini pitas on the side.

celery -- $1.79 (plenty left over for lunches)

red wine -- $3.40 (I bought the type in the mini bottles and used two of them)

orange -- $.75 (I only needed the zest and ate the orange for breakfast today)

onion -- $.49 (half left)

beef -- $6.92

shallots -- $3.98

olives -- $1.35

tomatoes -- $1.00

Total Cost of A Rich Beef Stew from Provence: $19.68

($6.56 per serving)