Believe it or not, Californians experience winter too (relatively). It’s gotten colder and rainier now that it’s November, and i’ve been wanting to make a nice, hearty stew. I was excited to try this recipeB because I remember my mom’s beef barley stew from the crock pot. This recipe turned out a lot more savory and different than my mom’s, but it was still very good. I have a modern crock pot that is um, very efficient at cooking (which kind of defeats the purpose of a slow cooker, but whatever). Anyways, I have to be very careful to not over cook meats. A recipe might say to leave everything in for 6-7B hours on low and with my cooker the meat is done in 90 minutes and everything else is raw. This has caused some problems in the past. In order to compensate (since I do really like my crock pot), I have resorted to taking the meat ingredients out and cooking the rest for several more hours. I have a large, 6 quart cooker so if you have a smaller one make sure to use less of everything.
Beef and Barley Stew
(Makes 8+ Servings)
Printable Version
Ingredients:
- 2-3 lbs stew meat, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
- 2 tbsp Olive or Canola Oil
- 2 Large russet potatoes, softened in the microwave for 6 minutes, then cut into small cubes
- 1 1/2 cup Yellow Onion chopped
- 2 1/2 cup Carrots chopped
- 2 1/2 cup Celery diced
- 1 Green Bell Pepper, chopped
- 4 cloves Garlic minced
- 1 1/2 cups dry red wine
- 8 Cups Beef Stock
- 1 cup water
- 4 Bay Leaves
- 3 tsp Fresh Rosemary
- 2 tsp Thyme
- 2 tsp Sage
- 6 tsp Worcestershire Sauce
- 2 1/4 cup, or 1 package uncooked Pearl Barley
- Salt and Black Pepper
Directions:
1. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat and saute the garlic, onions, carrots, green pepper, and celery. Cook until the vegetables are soft, about 5 minutes.
2. Stir in the wine, and simmer until only a little liquid is left in the pan.
3. Pour it all into the slow cooker.
4. Add the beef, water, beef stock, bay leaves, rosemary, thyme, sage, Worcestershire sauce, and uncooked pearl barley.*
5. Stir and cover, leave to cook until the beef is tender, about 7 to 8 hours on low or 4 to 5 hours on high.
*If you have a new slow cooker that runs hot like mine I would recommend cooking the beef in the pan you used to saute the vegetables in with a little oil, Worcestershire, salt and pepper.B Set aside in the fridge with the leftover sauce so that it marinates until the rest is done.