Rustic Beef Stew

Perfect comfort on a snowy day.

1 lb beef stew meat or trimmed and diced beef rib meat
1/4 cup flour
3 tbsp vegetable oil
1 cup of red wine - I like to use a California Pinot noir - nothing too pricy, it just needs to taste good
4 or 5 - 14 oz cans of beef stock or broth - See note
1 - 6 oz can of tomato paste
2 large yellow onions - diced
2 large carrots - diced
4 medium potatoes - diced
2 celery ribs diced
4 cloves of garlic - minced
1 tsp dry thyme leaves
2 bay leaves
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
8 oz of fresh sliced mushrooms
Salt & pepper to taste

*Toss beef and flour together in a large bowl until beef is coated. Heat a heavy large soup pot over medium heat with the oil in it. Add beef to pan and lightly season with salt and pepper. Brown meat on all sides. Deglaze pan using wine and 2 cans of beef stock. Be sure to scrape all of the flavorful brown bits from the bottom of the pan. Simmer for 15 minutes to cook the alcohol flavor out of the wine. If this gets too thick you can add up to another can of stock a little at a time during this 15 minutes. Next, add another can of beef stock, the tomato paste, onion, carrots, potatoes, celery, garlic, thyme, bay and red pepper flakes. Bring to a low simmer and cook for one hour. Add the mushrooms and simmer for 30 minutes more. Remove the bay leaves. Serve.

~Note: have 5 cans of broth handy. I just add it a little at a time when it gets too thick for my taste. This is supposed to be a nice thick stew. Just make it as thick as you like it.

Serves 6-8