Cooking the AA Way

I come from a long line of cooks. Food is a serious thing in our family and through all of our get togethers, good food and a little cheap champagne were always there and welcoming. Most of my mom's best dishes came surprisingly enough from her father who stayed at home with the kiddos in the 1950's while his wife, the chemist brought home the bacon. And most of his recipes had one common attribute -- alcohol. It wasn't until I was an adult that I discovered that my grandfather was actually a recovering alcoholic. I guess cooking with booze was a great way to make up for the fact that he was no longer able to drink the stuff.

The following is my own recipe based on his beef "stoup" that was one of his staples. In case you are wondering a stoup falls somewhere in between a stew and a soup. Either that, or he was secretly sloshed when he made up the name . . .


Vegetable Beef Stoup

3 pounds beef stew meat
3 tablespoons olive oil
5 garlic cloves, minced
1 large onion, chopped large
8 whole cloves
2 Bay Leaves
2 (14.5 oz) cans of Italian Style Stewed Tomatoes (snipped with scissors in the can to make the pieces smaller)
¼ cup orange vinegar
¼ cup sherry vinegar
4 cups beef broth
1 cup red wine
1 tbs. Worcestershire sauce
2 tbs. Tomato paste
¼ lb. Green beans, ends trimmed and sliced into thirds
½ yellow squash, cut into bite sized slices
1 small zucchini, cut into bites sized slices
6 oz. Sliced button mushrooms
1 teaspoon salt
Fresh cracked pepper to taste

Heat 2 tbsp. olive oil in large dutch oven over medium high heat. Sear beef stew meat in batches, browning well on most sides. After browned, take meat out and place in a bowl.

Add the additional tbsp. of oil to the pan and cook the onion over medium high heat until soft and just starting to become golden in color. Add the garlic to the pan and cook for one additional minute.

Remove the pan from the heat and return the beef back to the pot. Place the cloves and bay leaves into a bouquet garni bag and tightly tie it closed. Add the Bouquet garni, stewed tomatoes, vinegars, beef broth, red wine, Worcestershire sauce and tomato paste. Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer on low for about 1.25 hours or until the beef is just starting to tenderize (this number can range from 1 – 1.5 hours depending on the size of your stew meat. As a general rule of thumb I buy my stew meat from Costco which is large and usually needs 1.5 hours of cooking time). Add the green beans and continue to cook for another 35 - 40 minutes. Then add the final vegetables and mushrooms cook for a final 15 minutes. Add the salt and pepper to taste and serve.