New Dutch Oven What do I cook?

I liked this recipe except I'll brown the pearl onions a bit next time.

Autumn Cranberry Beef Stew

Ingredients
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 (3-pound) boneless chuck roast, trimmed and cut into 2-inch cubes
Cooking spray
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup fat-free, less-sodium beef broth
2 bay leaves
1 (12-ounce) Guinness Stout
1 (10-ounce) package frozen pearl onions, thawed
1 (8-ounce) package button mushrooms, quartered
1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3/4 cup whole-berry cranberry sauce
8 cups cooked egg noodles (about 1 pound)
Chopped fresh thyme (optional)


Preparation
Combine first 3 ingredients in a small bowl; sprinkle over beef. Heat a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add beef to pan; cook 6 minutes, turning to brown on all sides. Add chopped onion, broth, bay leaves, and stout; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 2 hours or until beef is tender, stirring occasionally. Stir in pearl onions and mushrooms; cook, covered, 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Combine 1/4 cup water and flour in a small bowl. Add flour mixture and cranberry sauce to pan. Cook 5 minutes. Discard bay leaves. Serve with noodles. Garnish with fresh thyme, if desired.

Yield
10 servings (serving size: about 3/4 cup stew and 3/4 cup noodles)

Nutritional Information
CALORIES 479(27% from fat); FAT 14.6g (sat 4.8g,mono 6.3g,poly 1.1g); PROTEIN 39.5g; CHOLESTEROL 138mg; CALCIUM 35mg; SODIUM 239mg; FIBER 2.6g; IRON 6.3mg; CARBOHYDRATE 43.7g



Christina Wilson, Lansdowne, Pennsylvania , Cooking Light, OCTOBER 2007

The options are unlimited. Two of my favorite are:

Poat Roast a very versital cook which will give a very tender (spoon cutable) roast and leftovers make wonderful sandwitch..

Beef Stew a very easy and wonderful tasting stew.

This is great

Beef Stew
3# chuck roast – cut to 1 ½ inch cubes (or use stew meat, but the cuts won’t brown even due to the odd shaped pieces)
3 T vegetable (or EEOV) oil
3 Med garlic cloves minced or pressed
3 T Flour unbleached
2 Cups low sodium chicken broth (possibly 3 cups depending on the consistency of stew you want)
2 Med Onions course chop (apx 2 cups)
2 Bay leaves
1 tsp thyme
4 medium red potatoes (apx 1 ½#) peel cut into apx 1” cubes
1# carrots apx 4 large carrots
1 cup frozen peas
½ cup minced fresh parsley leaves ( I usually use dry parsley 2T or to taste)
At times I also put in carrots and once in a while celery – celery will change taste quickly.
On the egg… with cast dutch oven – my large egg at 300° at grid (low simmer temp/very light boil)
S&P chuck roast. Oven in egg on grid direct cook and oven at temp put in 1T of oil. Place meat cubes in bottom of oven close but not touching. Apx 2 minutes until brown – do not move or stir. Turn cubes and cook for 3 to 5 more min until well browned. Remove cubes and place in bowl. Add 1T more oil and place rest of meat in oven and repeat previous steps. Remove and place in bowl.
Add 1T oil to emptied D. oven, swirl to coat bottom of oven. Add Onions and ¼ tsp salt. Stir frequently & hard with wooden spoon to loosen up the brown bits on the bottom of the oven. Continue until onions are soften apx 4 to 5 minutes.
Add garlic, stir for 30 seconds. Stir in the floour and cook until lightly colored – 1 to 2 minutes. Slowly add 1 cup of broth stirring on bottom and side of oven to get the remaining brown bits off of the d. oven. Keep stirring until mix has thickened up.
Slowly add remaining broth while stirring. Add bay leaves and thyme and bring to simmer.
You need to work quickly as you don’t want the egg to super heat.
Add meat and return to simmer. Cook for about 1 hour at 300° grid (this will be apx 330 if egg was stabilized – 360° dome if egg not stabilized). If egg not stabilized you will need to reduce dome as the all the ceramics get up to temp. The stew needs to be at a simmer.
After this first hour add potatoes & carrots cook about another hour until meat is tender.
Do a final adjustment of seasoning and check for consistency (dry or wet)
S&P to taste – add peas and parsley and toss the bay leaves.
Optional notes.
I usually put the dutch oven directly on the coals to brown the meat then move up to grid after to finish.
If you like cooking with wine substitute the first cup of broth for a good red wine.
Cutting your own cutting of the chuck roast, rather than stew meat, will result in even browning and cooking of the meat and a better taste.
Chicken broth will give a better taste than beef broth, the look of the stew will be a lighter color. Beef broth will result in a dark color.
Option as suggested by Rusty Rooster – top with biscuits and finish the cook.

Good eggin & eatin

GG

Clay's Pulled Beef.

In the recipes area. No failure possible.

I have been doing tomatoe based sauces in Cast iron for many years. I do not store in them nor do I use Older Aluminum for cooking and storing tomato based sauces. Not sure if the jury is ever back on this subject. Still healthy at 63.

Perhaps it does and I am so used to the NEW seasoning I never noticed.