Braised Beef with Sun-Dried Tomatoes

I was excited to see this recipe on Jessie's blog (I stole her picture!)  - it looked so good . . . and it is.  So good.  It's more like a stew.  I made it on Saturday for our family and decided to scrap my other plans and make it again on Tuesday night for our community group.  It was a hit.  For the first batch, I brought everything to a boil and then dumped it in the crock pot to simmer on low for five hours.  The second batch I did as directed.  I didn't notice a difference.


2 teaspoons olive oil

2 pounds beef stew meat, cut into 1-inch cubes

2 medium onions, vertically sliced

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

1 3/4 cups water

1 cup dry red wine

1 cup less-sodium beef broth

1 cup sun-dried tomato halves, packed without oil, cut into strips (about 2 1/2 ounces) If you can't find the kind without oil, at least rinse the tomatoes a bit to remove as much oil as possible to keep the stew from being super oily

1 tablespoon brown sugar

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

1 1/2 teaspoons chopped fresh rosemary

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 bay leaf

1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

1. Heat olive oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add beef; cook 4 minutes, browning on all sides. Add sliced onion; cook for 7 minutes or until onion is softened, stirring occasionally. Add minced garlic; cook 1 minute, stirring frequently. Stir in flour; cook 2 minutes, stirring often.

2. Stir in water and next 9 ingredients (through bay leaf). Reduce heat to medium-low; cover and simmer 1 hour. Uncover and simmer 30 minutes or until beef is tender. Discard bay leaf. Sprinkle each serving with parsley.