Braised Irish Beef Stew

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 325*.
2. In a large heavy bottomed pot or Dutch oven, melt Olivio Buttery Spread.  Add beef and season with a pinch of kosher salt. Brown 5 to 6 minutes to achieve a beautiful seared color and lock in moisture before braising.
3. Add onion and carrots to the pot and sauté an additional 2 minutes.
4. Add garlic, rosemary and thyme.  Sauté 1 minute more or until garlic and herbs become fragrant.
5. Add beef broth and cover pot or Dutch oven with lid.  Place in oven and braise for 3-4 hours.  Check meat for tenderness after 3 hours.  Add more stock if the stew needs additional time in the oven and has already heavily thickened.
6. Meanwhile, in a small bowl mix together the other 1 Tbsp of Olivio Buttery Spread with the flour and set aside.
7. When the meat is fork tender, pull from the oven and place back on the stove top on medium heat. Using tongs, pull the rosemary and thyme sprigs from the stew and compost.  Add the Olivio Buttery Spread/Flour mixture to the stew and simmer for 3 minutes until thickened and flour has cooked.
8. Serve over delicious mashed potatoes and enjoy!

When I am making slow cooked stews, roasts or soups, I like to save time in the preparation process and use the entire sprig of herbs.  When a dish is slow cooked, it will have time to absorb the essence of the herbs and you can simply pull it from the pot or dish before you are ready to serve.  Spare yourself a couple “mincing minutes” ! 😉