Red Wine Beef Stew with Potatoes and Green Beans

Recipe #104: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/dave-lieberman/red-wine-beef-stew-with-potatoes-and-green-beans-recipe/index.html

Guess what I got for my birthday this year? PURPLE sweet potatoes! Cheap and cheerful and PURPLE!! Thanks to the Mumsicle for helping me to "eat the rainbow".

I suppose I should say that I chose this recipe as a way to cook the sweet potatoes or for the fact that the red meat is a source of iron, but who am I kidding? I chose it for the wine! I think I need to cook with wine as often as I can afford it.

Mmmmm, wine....

I stuck fairly close to this recipe as it was laid out. The butter was salted (I only buy unsalted for fussy baking recipes that demand it), the salt was denomition-blessing-free ordinary table salt, I added 4 stalks of celery because I can, and the Yellow Tail Shiraz was delicious.... I used a 900 mL tetra pak of reduced-sodium chicken broth and the store was out of crushed tomatoes (am I missing some kind of crushed tomato recipe frenzy in Calgary right now?) so I bought a can of small cut tomatoes with garlic and olive oil (President's Choice - who am I to argue with the president of something?) and measured out 1 cup. I'll use the remainder in pasta or something. I opted for dried rosemary - primarily because I didn't know what to do with what would have been leftover had I bought fresh - so I used 2 tablespoons and threw in a haphazard half-capful of dried thyme, too. Lastly, I used 2 average PURPLE! sweet potatoes instead of the white options listed.

The beef cooking was an interesting process. I've never done it like that before, but it actually wasn't terribly complicated. One just has to make sure they're not too distracted by dishes or the internet. Hooray! I can now cook "intermediate" skill recipes. BUT, word to the wise: if your prep skills are on the slow-because-you-are-really-determined-to-chop-everything-to-death side like mine, you might end up having to do the prep one night and the cooking the next (as was the case for me this week). It's ok to do so because then you get to drink the wine for two nights :)

End result, you might be wondering...?

I AM A BEEF STEW COOKING CHAMPION! Flavourful, filling and I'm eating it again for breakfast. Anyone else want any? I've got lots...