Beef stew meat always looks so ready and rosy when you’re pushing past with your grocery cart, but then you “Whoa, mama. I’m not standing over a stove for 2 and a half hours with that, I don’t care how cute it is.”
Fair enough.
But listen. Don’t tell me you don’t multi task. On a night when you’re making an omelet or pale little cutlet, take out another skillet and heat it up. In the time it takes to get hot, you can tear open the meat, throw some salt on there and a dusting of flour. Give the skillet a pour of your best olive oil (the flavor of a bad oil gets into the beginning of a stew, the same way it gets into the end.) and a dab of butter. Sear the meat on at least two sides. Get it out of the pan. Cut up an onion, and push it around with a bay leaf for ten minutes while you’re setting the table and yelling at the children to come and help. While you’re eating, put the beef back in with the onion and add a piece of celery, a piece of leek, thyme sprigs and parsley sprigs. Give it a glass of your red wine and some water. Let it go on a simmer until about a half hour before you go to bed. Put a lid on the pan and stick it in the fridge or get a child to swear on the food they will be eating for the next week, to do it.
Dinner the next night: pull out your pan, and add more wine or water to come nearly to the top, along with peeled, cubed potatoes. Encourage family salad making on the side. Remember how much I love you.