Red Wine Beef Stew for the Dutch Oven
Freeze-dried beef, red wine, and root vegetables, simmered down at a base camp fire.
- calories
- 620
- weight
- 7 oz
- cal / oz
- 89
- protein
- 38 g
- serves
- 4, scales
- prep
- 15 min
- cook
- 75 min
- total time
- 90 min
- water
- 900 ml boiled
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Dutch oven
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Winter / snow
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Freeze-dried beef chunks | 6 oz | or two 12 oz cans of roast beef, drained |
|---|---|---|
| All-purpose flour | 1/2 cup | half for dredging, half held back for the slurry |
| Salt | 1 tsp | |
| Black pepper | 1 tsp | |
| Paprika | 1 tsp | |
| Onion powder | 1/2 tsp | |
| Garlic powder | 1/2 tsp | |
| Olive oil | 2 tbsp | |
| Beef bouillon | 4 cubes | makes 4 cups of broth |
| Red wine | 1 cup | cabernet; decant into a plastic flask |
| Worcestershire sauce | 1 tbsp | |
| Bay leaves | 2 | |
| Dried thyme | 1 tsp | |
| Dehydrated potato dices | 1 cup | |
| Dehydrated carrot slices | 1/2 cup | |
| Dried chopped onion | 1/4 cup | |
| Freeze-dried peas | 1/2 cup |
Method
- Get a bed of coals going, or run a stove low enough to hold a simmer.
- Shake the freeze-dried beef in a bag with half the flour, the salt, pepper, paprika, onion powder, and garlic powder.
- Heat the oil in the dutch oven and brown the coated beef for three or four minutes. The flour will grab the bottom; that is the point.
- Pour in the wine and scrape the pan flat. Add 4 cups of water, the bouillon, Worcestershire, bay leaves, and thyme. Simmer 20 minutes.
- Add the potato, carrot, and onion. Cover and hold at a low simmer for 40 minutes, stirring when you walk past. Add a splash of water if it tightens too far.
- Stir the peas in at the end and give them five minutes.
- Whisk the reserved flour into a half cup of cold water and pour it in. Two more minutes and it thickens. Fish out the bay leaves and salt to taste.
The original of this is a three-hour stew built on raw chuck, which needs the time to break down. Freeze-dried beef is already broken down, so the long braise is gone and what is left is the part that actually builds flavor: browning the floured meat, deglazing with wine, and giving the dried vegetables enough simmering time to rehydrate through instead of staying chalky in the middle.
The flour does two jobs and is worth splitting deliberately. The dredge browns and sticks to the pot, which is where the dark flavor comes from. The reserved half goes in cold at the end as a slurry, because dumping dry flour into hot broth gives you lumps. Wine is the one heavy item here; a cup weighs half a pound, so this is a basecamp dinner and not something to carry uphill.
Packing
Flour and the five seasonings go in one bag, labeled, with the split marked. Dried vegetables share a second bag. Wine travels in a screw-top plastic flask, never glass.
Variations
- Skip the wine and use an extra cup of broth plus a splash of balsamic.
- A handful of dried mushrooms in with the vegetables deepens the broth.
https://www.pinchmeimeating.com/stovetop-beef-stew-with-red-wine