After I take the steak off the grill, I like to throw the baguette on (usually with a bit of butter).  Slice the steak thinly, arrange steak, onions, lettuce on the grilled bread, add your dijon and dinner is served.

Nice slow cooked beef stew

For the past few hours a stew has been cooking.  I got stew meat on sale, which is always a good reason to make a stew – especially when it’s chilly outside.  This time I made my stew a little differently, I added rutebega and also substituted some of the beef stock for a good dry red wine.  Stew is really moisture added to meat, vegetables and potatoes – all in nice perfect bite-sized morsels.  The slow and low simmer is really the key, patience I guess – which when it comes to food, sometimes I lack.  Well, who’s kidding who? Sometimes I lack patience in general – but I’m learning:)  And I figure start with food.   

I always leave the skins on my potatoes, it adds a great flavour and crunch.  The rutebaga was a nice addition, although I’ll wait to see how I feel after a few more bowls.  The red wine definitely adds a richness to it, which I really enjoy.   One thing I would never change about stew is how I eat it.  Eating stew has always been the same ritual – my second last bite is always beef, the very last is my favourite…the potato.    If there was only one food I could take to a dessert island, it would be potatoes. 

The base recipe I use for making any stew, whether it’s a curry stew or the classic comes from The Complete Canadian Living Cookbook - which is a handy book to have in the kitchen.   Enjoy a potato, eat a good stew:)