Family Fun Spanish Beef Stew

 This is the time of year that I love to make stew and chili dishes. The weather outside is often dreary so I try to make the dishes I prepare in spring warm and welcoming. Last week I served Spanish Beef Stew  and this week I cooked Spanish Beef Stew from the February issue of Family Fun.

This recipe takes shopping and prep time. The ingredient list is long and I had to go to multiple stores to find everything needed. Additionally, this is not a recipe which can be made spur of the moment at the end of the day, the cooking time is two hours and the prep approximately 30 minutes. Part of the cooking time the dish can be left to stew, but there is still a substantial amount of hands-on cooking involved.

I had to make a couple of substitutions. None of my local stores had red new potatoes in stock, so I followed the recipe suggestion and served the stew over egg noodles. Additionally, I did not use applewood-smoked bacon, I just used what I already had in my fridge. I ended up modifying the recipe from its original form to correct a blunder. When I went to check on the stew after it had simmered for an hour, my stew had little to no liquid left. In order to remedy this situation, I added additional red wine and beef stock. The end result was a caramelized, sweeter stew than the original recipe, which my husband and sons preferred. The one thing that I would change about this recipe is that I would substitute lamb meat for the beef. The beef was better when shredded on the plate rather than cubed and using lamb would eliminate this need.

My two year old liked this dish, he ate everything except the beef. My husband loved the taste, but agreed that lamb would be a good substitution; my five year old was indifferent. All in all this is a good stew recipe if you have the time and can find all the ingredients.

If you are interested in the recipe go to Family Fun Spanish Beef Stew.