Red Wine Beef and Mushrooms

This is from the Pillsbury Annual Recipes 2007 cookbook. Even though many of the pictures don't look all that appetizing I've found the recipes to be quite delicious in general. It's a good cookbook to own. The hubby thought this was beef stroganoff and was a little disappointed when he first saw it, but concluded it was much tastier upon trying it.

Ingredients:
6 slices bacon, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
2 lb. lean boneless beef stew meat
1 c. dry red wine
1 can (14 oz.) chicken broth
1 1/4 c. water (I substituted chicken broth/stock here...it has more flavor than water...)
2 packages (8 oz. each) fresh whole mushrooms, quartered
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 t. dried thyme leaves
3/4 t. each salt and pepper
2 dried bay leaves
1/4 all-purpose flour
1 package (12 oz.) uncooked fettuccine
1 jar (15 oz. whole pearl onions in water, drained
2 T. sugar

Directions:
In 6-quart Dutch oven, cook bacon until lightly browned. Remove bacon; set aside. Reserve 1 tablespoon drippings in pan. Add beef; cook and stir until browned. Remove beef from Dutch oven.

In same Dutch oven, heat wine to boiling. Add broth and 1 cup of the water; cook and stir 2 minutes. Stir in bacon, beef, mushrooms, garlic, thyme, salt, pepper, and bay leaves. Over medium-low heat, cover and simmer about 1 hour, stirring occasionally, until beef is tender.

Remove bay leaves. In small bowl, mix flour and remaining 1/4 cup water until smooth. Add to beef mixture; cook and stir about 1 minute or until sauce is slightly thickened.

Cook fettuccine as directed on package. In 8-inch skillet, melt butter over medium-low heat. Stir in onions and sugar; cook about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until onions are lightly browned. Stir onion mixture into beef mixture. Serve over fettuccine; if desired sprinkle with parsley.

Serves 6 (This can easily be cut in half, which is what I did. It fed two people for two meals, though the second night I ate it with a little more pasta to stretch it just a bit)


Here are just a few suggestions:

*I actually had beef stew meat on hand. I randomly bought it and thought it'd be easy to use, but I quickly realized I didn't actually know of many recipes that call for beef stew meat. I'm sure you could just cube up some pot roast meat or whatever you want if you don't have beef stew meat.
*I ended up using linguine because the grocery store was out of fettuccine. How that happens, I'm not sure, but I actually liked the outcome. The pasta didn't overwhelm the beef, which it might have had I used fettuccine.
*I have no idea where to find canned whole pearl onions. Even finding the frozen ones is difficult. I've seen fresh at the Sunflower Farmers Market and I'm sure those would work just as well. In fact, I think I'd prefer the fresh over the canned. Anyway, I didn't actually have these so I used shallots. I just cut them into smaller chunks, cooked them for less time, and still achieved the onion-y flavor using what I had on hand.

I was quite pleased with how this turned out. I think the bacon totally makes the dish. But then again, bacon makes anything better :)