Commission Man Red: Ardon Creek Winery-Letts, IA
Our big ol’ pot was ready for another spectacular creation showcasing one of Iowa’s great wines. 3.5 lbs of delicious Angus beef, a couple hours of simmering, and a huge bowl of noodles later, we had just what we were craving. Letts get to work, Ardon Creek. (Letts…That was clever)
Prep Time: 10 minutes Cook time: 2 hours Yield: 6 portion. For the Beef Burgundy and Brussel Sprouts w/ Collard Greens:
- 1 tbls extra virgin olive oil
- 3 1/2 lbs Angus beef stew meat
- 3 tbls minced roasted garlic
- 2 tsp dried rosemary
- 3 tsp dried basil
- 3 tsp paprika
- Pinch of cayenne pepper
- Kosher salt and black pepper to taste
- 1 lbs button mushrooms whole
- 2 small yellow onions quartered
- 4 celery stalks chopped
- 6 large carrots unpeeled chopped *I very rarely peel the skins off in these type of recipes. They bring a wonderful earthiness to the flavor and it’s healthy to keep them on. Plus, I lost my peeler years ago. Long story, please don’t ask. Bad camping trip.
- 1/2 cup chopped fresh Italian parsley
- 1 bunch collard greens chopped
- 1 lbs fresh brussel sprouts with stem trimmed and cut in half
- 2 ripe tomatoes
In a large enamel pan, add the olive oil and turn on to high heat. Did you buy at least two bottles of the Ardon Creek? You should have, because you’ll want to have a couple pulls during the cooking process and at dinner. This would be the time when your olive oil is getting close to burning so put the wine glass down. That will be the last time I write that by the way. One handful at a time, add the stew meat. Next add 3 tbls of the garlic on top of the beef. Let that juicy Angus beef sizzle, and pop at high heat for a minute. Turn the heat to medium and stir the meat. Add the rosemary (nice name!), basil (eh…), paprika, cayenne, salt and pepper. Let the beef get some great color all around. Next add the wine. Place the mushrooms, onions, celery, carrots, and a 1/4 cup of the parsley on top of the meat. Cover and reduce heat to low. Next, let’s make some awesome beef roux. Not Roo. That’s a character from Winnie the Pooh and a different recipe down the road.
- 1 stick of unsalted butter
- 1/4 cup AP flour
- 1 can Beef Consomme
Melt the butter in a medium saucepan. Whisk in the flour. Don’t let this burn! Next add the consomme and whisk until thickened. After the Beef Burgundy has simmered for an hour, fold this into the pot. Stir gently because you want to keep all the veggies in tact. Your selfie over the finished product will look better if you adhere to that.
For the noodles, bring a pot of water to a boil and add the entire bag of egg noodles and cook to al dente. When finished drain and cover. Add some butter, parm, and garlic salt for a little oomf if you’d like. Wait…Is this my recipe or is it my recipe? Add all of those things. It’s awesome that way! And toss in the rest of that fresh parsley too! Yea!
In the last 20 minutes of the Beef Burgundy simmering you should prolly make this side dish we talked about earlier. All these veggies are amazing! I love collards and could honestly eat them everyday. Along with turnip greens which would make for a great replacement. Kale would be good too, but seriously! There’s other greens out there! (Look back on past Iowa Recipe Quest projects for some great kale ideas!) Place some olive oil or animal fat render if you have some. I used bacon fat. If you have goose or duck fat hanging out, then use that. And that also means that you’re an official badass if you have that saved up. Place the brussel sprouts into the pan and watch those daddies pop! Next add the collards and the rest of the roasted garlic. Put a few splashes of soy sauce over the greens and a little squirt of ketchup. That’s right, ketchup. Ain’t nothing wrong with adding this from time to time. If you want to buy 10 other ingredients to create the tangy, salty, sweet flavor it has, then be my guest. I’m going this route. Toss the ingredients a few times and add the tomatoes (we picked ours from our garden and it was delicious). Bring down to low heat and check on the beef burgundy. It should be at maximum yumminess. Picture please!
I don’t care what season it is! Sometimes you need some slow cooked beef. And it’s a great way to raid that garden you may have. Don’t have a garden… raid the produce department at the North Dodge-Iowa City Hy-Vee then!
Be sure to see what else is on the Iowa Recipe Quest!
Thanks for reading! -Team Goodvin