Sissy Sunday Stewin

My eldest sister, Tara, and I have had a bit of a tradition since the ABC show Once Upon a Time premiered last fall. On Sundays, I would head over to her house and watch the show with her and the kids and we would make some kind of tasty something for dinner. This became known as "Sissy Sunday" or, taking up the childhood way of pronouncing "Once upon a time" (From stories, not the show) "Pon a pon a time" Sundays. We were such cute kids! But, cuteness of us as munchkins aside, this has become a beloved tradition for us. Of course sometimes its my mother and father over for dinner too, or our middle sister, Kelly, when she's not working somewhere in a land far, far away.

This year, however, we decided to start a week early after I got this wild idea to take a beloved family dinner favorite, Sauerbraten, and turn it into a yummy stew. Of course Tara jumped on the idea and we decided to try it out this past Sunday. Now for those of you unfamiliar with Sauerbraten, it is a German pot roast whose name literally translates to "Sour beef". Traditionally this is a boneless beef roast (usually round) that has been marinated for several days in a combination of spices (juniper, ginger, and other very aromatic spices), red wine or even cider vinegar, and buttermilk. The meat is kept in a cold place and turned once a day for sometimes up to five days, and then slow cooked in a pot with beef stock and served with spatzel or potato dumplings. A very thorough and laborious process to be sure! Our mother, when she makes sauerbraten, uses a packaged mix by Knorr and tweaks it a bit. So rather than spending days marinating, we did indeed use this short cut and instead of potato dumplings, we decided using gnocchi in the stew would give it that yummy potato-ey starch we craved.

For our stew we used:

3lbs of stew beef
Garlic infused olive oil
Three packages of Knorr Sauerbraten Mix
1 32oz carton of beef stock
1 medium onion
1 12 oz package of baby carrots
4 celery stalks
1 package of brown gravy (Not pictured because we added it in halfway through the cooking process to thicken it up a bit)
1 package of gnocchi

To begin, heat about two tablespoons of oil in a dutch oven. Add the meat and brown just enough  that it is no longer pink. Don't brown it too long or the meat will get tough.

 

While the meat is browning up (You may want to do it in batches, we learned that the hard way), chop the onion, carrots and celery. This is what is known as a mirepoix, and is considered the Holy Trinity of cooking, especially when it comes to stocks, stews and soups.

 

 

Aren't those colors just gorgeous together? Now we didn't chop up all the carrots, roughly about a fourth of them, keeping the rest whole to throw into the stew for some color and flavor. By now your meat should be browned nicely, and ready to be drained. Stew meat has a lot of fat, so draining is a necessary step when making a stew so you don't get that icky oily look to your liquid and its of course healthier! Drizzle a little oil back in the pan and saute your veggie trio until the onions get translucent.

 

Now its time to get everyone into the pot and down to some serious slow cooking. Return the meat to the pot, giving it all a good stir to get the meat and the veg a chance to mingle and make nice with one another.

 

 

This next step is the best way to avoid any clumping when using a powdered mix for pretty much anything you want to make. The package of Sauerbraten mix calls for water, but as we are making a stew, we used beef stock instead. Pour about two cups of stock into a measuring cup and whisk in the seasoning mix.

 

 

Add this and the remaining beef stock to the pot. Top off the pot with some hot water to ensure the meat and veggies are covered.

 

 

Give everyone a good stir, and then add in your whole baby carrots. Feel free to add some diced potatoes, pearl onions, or even some peas for color and texture. This is a stew, so veggies are welcome!

 

 

Let it come to a nice simmer, and then cover and keep on low heat. At this point, we wandered off to watch a favorite movie and chatted about this, that and the other while doing some little projects. (Tara was fighting with the Internet on how to upload some pictures from a reunion, while I knitted and tried to help. Eventually she was quite victorious over the evil technology. We all cheered).

 

 

After it had been simmering away for about an hour, I gave it a little peek and found it was not thickening up like I wanted it to. I could have of course added a roux or a slurry, but preferred mom's method for making something yummy, I added a package of brown gravy. And I say I here because I am taking full credit for the whoopsie I did. Unlike when we mixed the broth and the seasoning mix, I just dumped the packet in. This led to clumps of gravy gunk floating around in the stew. But I fished it all out with some of the broth and whisked it all together until it all dissolved and poured it back in. We can just pretend that didn't happen, right? Right.

 

 

After my shameful, clumpy gravy mishap, I wandered back to the movie, chatting and knitting while we let the stew simmer for another two or so hours. Once we felt we were hungry, and taste testing the meat for tenderness (ooooh so yummy and falling apart), we added the gnocchi. Usually with this potato based pasta, you wait until it floats to the top and know its done. With all that meaty, veggie goodness going on in that pot, there was no way those suckers were gonna float. So we just let them hang out for about five minutes.

 

 

That is the hand of Faith (No not Fate, Faith!) helping us out in the kitchen so I could take a picture. She's a great gnocchi plopper. Once the gnocchi were tender, it was time to eat. We paired this with some store bought German bread (I know shocking, we didn't make bread!) and sat down for a warm, filling, need to take a nap when you are done meal!

 











 

 

I love cooking with my sister, we have so much fun! And so, we decided that every Monday (Unless something happens) The Texas Domestic Goddess blog will feature the recipe we have tried the previous Sunday. So be on the look out for more Sissy Sunday fun!

 

Brightest Blessings!