This here is a guest post from my friend Alanna. She loves to CAW, cook, eat, and talk about it.

When my boyfriend asked me what I wanted him to bring home from his vacation in Barcelona, I told him that when he saw something that made him think of me then that was what I wanted my present to be.   True to form, when he came back after a long three weeks away he pulled a jar of olives and a bottle of wine from his bag, handing them to me with a flourish. Perhaps unlike other girls interested in receiving jewels or handbags, I was totally delighted.  Olives and wine are two of my favorite food groups.

Although he returned home in early August, we had yet to crack open the bottle of Prioriat Legitim Crianca De Muller 2005 that sat, taunting us, in first one wine cabinet and then another.  I would have sudden moments of panic some nights thinking that one or the other of my roommates had opened my precious baby in a moment of drunken madness, but that thankfully never happened, and so their lives were spared.

Saving the wine for the perfect meal had gotten kind of old when an actual perfect meal suddenly materialized in my brain this wintry night in early October. With a storm a-brewin’ in the Western hemisphere, I hurried home from my shitty job with dreams of a delicious meal to accompany the wine that was now sitting on the dresser at my mother’s house, where boyfriend and I are housesitting for a week.

On the BART ride from work I thought about what I could snag at Chenery Park, the bougie grocery store down the hill from my mom’s house that I adore and really, really can’t afford.  Thanks to said shitty job, I was bemoaning my poverty as I stood over the $23.99/pound wild halibut when I was struck with a moment of pure genius, encapsulated in two words: Beef Stew.  With Spanish wine.  And the organic carrots I’d lugged over from my house, bought yesterday at a roadside stand.

Yes. The nice man began cutting up some beef, and I grabbed a bag of new potatoes.  Beef STEW. And not just any beef stew; Helene’s Drunken Beef Stew, a recipe created by my grandmother (adapted from Julia Child) and passed down through my mother to me. I hurried home with my precious cargo and set to work. Not actually remembering the whole recipe, I improvised quite a bit, but I am very pleased with the results. Feel free to add any additional veggies/herbs you might have lying around—beef simmered in wine goes with everything, after all.

Helene’s Drunken Beef Stew

3 carrots

1 yellow onion

2-3 cloves garlic

1 small bag (10-15) baby new potatoes

1 pound beef, cut into small pieces

1 can diced tomatoes (8 oz is fine)

1 bottle very very cheap wine (or in my case, 2 bottles of stupidly cheap and disgusting wine in 4oz containers that originally came 4 to a pack)

Rosemary

Thyme

Bay Leaves (3-4)

Kosher salt/gound pepper

Olive oil

Butter

Flour

Equipment:  stew pot, preferably cast iron but anything will do, plate with paper towel

1.  Cut beef into small pieces, and pat dry

2.  Mix together flour (about ½ cup should be fine) with a pinch each of salt and pepper

3.  Chop carrots, onion, and potatoes into stew-sized chunks, and put aside.  Peel and dice garlic.

4.  Over high heat, melt 2-3 Tablespoons of butter with an equal amount of olive oil.  As oil/butter is getting hot, rub the beef in the flour mixture.

5.  Once hot, place the floured beef into the pot, and let brown on each side, about 2-3 minutes on each side.

6.  Take the beef out of the pot and place onto a plate covered with a paper towel

7.  In the still-hot pot, add some extra olive oil and dump in garlic/onion/potato/carrot mixture, and cook until soft.  Add a handful of salt, some pepper, and about 2 tablespoons each of thyme and rosemary, crushed.

8.  Once the veggies are soft, add the beef back in, and add the canned tomatoes, juice and all, then pour wine (3/4 of a bottle or two whole little bottles) over the whole mixture.  Add more salt, stir, and cover with a lid.   Let cook on high for about 20 minutes, or until bubbly, then turn down the heat.

9.  Do some laundry, talk on the phone, take a bath, etc.

10.  After about 2 1/2 hours, the stew should be ready to eat at any point. I let it cook for 3 hours, and it was great.