Butternut Squash Beef Stew with Red Wine

This is my first time cooking butternut squash. I bought it on a whim from the farmer's market. I actually didn't know what to do with it. I googled for butternut squash recipes and found a lot of them - soups, stews, crisps, pies, etc. I was tempted to make this better than pumpkin pie. But I don't want "pumpkin pie" I want to taste butternut squash. So I decided to make stew. I want to eat meat. I got the idea from Epicurious.com's Braised Meat with Butternut Squash but I didn't exactly follow the recipe.



Ingredients

• 1 1/2 pounds beef chuck - cut into cubes


• 1 tablespoon all purpose flour


• 1 tablespoon olive oil


• 2 medium onions - chopped


• 3-4 cups of water


• 1 butternut squash, peeled - seeded and cut into cubes


• 1 cup red wine


• A few bay leaves


• A pinch of crushed dry red pepper


• Salt and pepper

Directions

1. Coat the beef in all purpose flour. Heat oil in a large stock pot. When the oil is hot, sear the beef. When all the sides are brown, add chopped onions. Stir occasionally.


2. When the onions become translucent, add water, red wine, the squash and bay leaves. Let cook until boiled. Reduce heat to simmer. Season with dry red pepper, salt and black pepper.


3. Let simmer until the beef is tender - about an hour or more. Serve 4 - 6 servings.

The stew came out very nice and full of tastes. I think I was a little heavy handed with the red pepper so the stew was hotter than necessary. The sweetness from butternut squash blended nicely with red wine's sharpness. I might want to put celery in the stew the next time I make it because I got really soft texture from the stew and then the beef... There's no other texture in the middle. Celery might help with that.