The Never-Ending-Chicago-Winter Beef Stew

from Stephanie Izard's Girl in the Kitchen

• 3 tablespoons vegetable or canola oil
• 3 pounds beef, cubed
• Salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1 small onion, finely diced
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 pineapple, finely diced
• 1 apple, peeled and diced
• 1 pear, peeled anddiced
• 1/2 cup red wine
• 1 quart chicken broth
• One 16-ounce can diced tomatoes
• 3/4 cup fich sauce
• 3/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard [Oops, mine expired]
• 1 tablespoon sambal paste
  

Cutting a pineapple for the first time. Hardly a perfect spiral but a good first attempt.


Mise.


Browning the beef.


It would've been painstaking to brown the beef well (and the recipe didn't call for it anyway). I knew the recipe would have a 4 hour braise.


Sweat the onion and garlic.


Stir in the fruit and wine and decrease the liquid by half.


Add back the beef and everything else.


The flavors were definitely a nice blend of serious Southeast Asian flavors and more European ones, but I wouldn't quite call it a beef stew.
I'm thinking that maybe the family will get a kick out of it for Thanksgiving though Ropa Vieja would be a sure hit.