Shredded Beef Stew

When I make beef stew, I make my grandfathers recipe. In the crock pot, low and slow for 8 hours. I've never even attempted to make any other variation of this tried and true recipe. Until today. 

I made a roast last week in the crock pot to make shredded beef for burritos. I had a good amount of shredded beef left in the fridge from this and today was probably the last day it'd be good to use. So I decided to make some soup. Its February in New England, so why the hell not. 

INGREDIENTS:
 (For shredded beef)

• boneless roast ( any kind will do, I just happened to use a 3 pound eye roast. Remember this was left over beef from something else I made, so If you're just making beef for this stew than a small 1 pound roast would do. I only used about 2 cups of shredded beef for this stew).
• 1/2 can of pickled jalapeños and carrots with the juice (The kind I used for my spicy steak tacos)
• 3 beef bouillon cubes
• 2 tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce
• 2 teaspoons minced garlic
• 10 peppercorns

Add all of these ingredients in the crockpot together, then add enough water to just cover the top of the roast.

Cook on low for 6-8 hours. Remove the roast from the crockpot and let cool until it's easy to shred by hand.

Strain the broth from the crock pot and set aside (this will be used for the soup).

INGREDIENTS:

(For Stew)

• 2 medium onions chopped
• 3 medium carrots chopped
• 4 medium celery stalks chopped
• 2 medium red potatoes chopped
• 4 garlic cloves chopped
• 6 tablespoons butter
• 1/3 cup of red wine
• reserved beef broth from crock pot (see above)
• 2-3 cups of water
• 3-4 beef bouillon cubes 
• 2 tablespoons worcestershire sauce
• 1 tablespoon gravy master
• salt and pepper to taste

Combine onions, carrots, celery, garlic and potatoes in a large pot. Add in 4 tablespoons of butter and over medium high heat cook the veggies down. This will take about 15 minutes. Cook until the veggies are softened and the potatoes are pretty much cooked through. Add more butter during the cooking process if more moisture is needed.

Once the veggies are cooked and soft, add in the red wine and deglaze the pot. Scrape up all of the browned bits at the bottom of the pot (this is a ton of the flavor), cook for an additional 3-5 minutes until everything is unstuck from the bottom of the pot.

Add in your reserved beef broth from when you cooked the beef in the crock pot. And depending how much of that broth you have left add anywhere between 2-3 cups of water and 3-4 beef bouillon cubes. Finally add in your shredded beef. Bring everything to a simmer then reduce the heat to low. Everything is fully cooked, so just leave it on low/ warm until it's ready to be served.

If you have saved a ton of the reserved broth you might not need any water at all for more broth.  It's up to you on the broth/ veggie & meat ratio you want. I like a good amount of broth, because I could just drink it warm by itself. Especially now with this cold that I'm coming down with, the warm broth really helps my throat. Theres only so much tea I can drink, ya know? Also, when I make soup I like to keep it on the stove on low/warm through out the day. For lunch, a snack for the kids with some crackers or a little cup of broth. Its the perfect thing to have available all day long. Cheers!