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Beef Stew with Horseradish Sauce recipe
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Beef Stew with Horseradish Sauce
Prep Time
30 mins
Cook Time
3 hrs
Total Time
3 hrs 30 mins
 
Beef Stew with Horseradish Sauce is a delicious stew with the subtle flavors of curry, fresh ginger, orange zest and cinnamon. The creamy tang of sour cream and bite of the horseradish compliments the beef and spices in the stew wonderfully. Not knowing the recipe's origin makes me believe this stew is an American adaption of flavors from Eastern Europe, India and the USA. Beef Stew with Horseradish Sauce now has a life of its own, as I have adapted the original recipe I received from mom years ago. Mom would make this stew for special occasions and parties. I fondly remember it as the main attraction for our Christmas Eve dinner.
Servings: 8 - 10 servings
Author: Ginger
Ingredients
  • 4 lbs/ ~2 kilos beef -chuck or top round beef
  • 4 Tbs/60g butter divided
  • 2 medium carrots washed peeled and cut in half both ways to get 4 big pieces per carrot
  • 3 large onions divided
  • 2 tea/~5g curry powder
  • 1 inch/2.5mm piece of fresh ginger minced
  • 2 Tb/ 30ml Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1 cinnamon Stick
  • 3 pieces on orange zest about 2 inches long and 1/2 inch wide
  • 1 tea Kosher salt
  • 1/2 tea pepper
  • 1 cup/250 ml chicken stock
  • 1 cup/250ml dry white wine
  • 1 cup/243g sour cream
  • 2 Tb/308g prepared horseradish
  • 2 Tb chopped fresh parsley
Instructions
  1. Pre-heat the oven to 300 degrees F /150 degrees C/ Gas Mark 2
  2. Cut the beef chuck into large steak like pieces. I had two pieces of beef chuck at 2.5 lbs each. I cut each piece into three large pieces.
  3. Turn the stove up to medium high heat and melt 2 Tb of butter in a Dutch Oven. Sear the meat on both sides until golden brown. This will take several minutes on each side. Be patient and do not touch or move the beef around while it is searing. If you are using one pot you will need to brown the meat in two batches, adding the remaining 2 Tb of butter in the pot to sear the batch of meat. (See note)
  4. Remove the seared meat from the Dutch oven and cut the seared beef into equal size pieces of around 1 1/2" to 2". Set the cut meat aside and reserve for later.
  5. Cut 2 onions in half lengthwise then thinly slice the halves across the width. Saute the sliced onions in the Dutch oven with the rendered fat from searing the beef, until the onions begin to brown. Remove the sliced onions with a slotted spoon from the Dutch oven and reserve for later.
  6. Cut the remaining onion into quarters and put in the Dutch oven. Add the carrots and brown the vegetables. About 5-8 minutes.
  7. Add the minced ginger and curry powder and briefly cook for about 1 minute. Add the Worcestershire sauce, stock, white wine, orange zest, cinnamon stick, bay leaf and salt, pepper into the pot and stir to mix.
  8. Add the beef chunks and any juices that accumulated in the pan, and heat the stew on the stove until it just begins to boil.
  9. Cover the pot with a lid, very slightly ajar, and put into the preheated oven.
  10. Cook the stew for an hour and a half. At that time check the meat to see its progress and remove the carrots and onions from the stew.
  11. Add the reserved sauteed onions to the Dutch oven making sure to scrape out of the pan any accumulated juices. Stir to combine.
  12. Put the stew back into the oven and continue to cook the stew in the oven and check for doneness every 30 minutes until the meat is tender, can easily be broken up with a fork, but still retains its shape. The beef is not completely falling apart. The original recipe called for 3 hour cooking time, but every oven is different so it is a good idea to monitor the progress to not cook the beef longer than necessary. My stew was done in 2 1/2 hours.
  13. If you are making the stew ahead of time, I would recommend to stop cooking the stew by or before the 2 1/2 hour mark. You will cook the stew at a later time to heat it up and you do not want it to turn to mush. If reserving for later, Cool the stew down and put in the refrigerator, covered in the same pot, until you plan to reheat it.
  14. Before serving mix the sour cream, horseradish and chopped parsley in a small bowl until just combined.
  15. Before adding the horseradish sour cream, remove the orange peels, cinnamon stick and bay leaf from the pot.
  16. Just before serving the beef stew, add the sour cream and horseradish to the stew and stir until well combined. You could also opt to serve the horseradish sauce as a condiment on the side. That way people can opt out of the sour cream if they want to, or add the amount of sour cream they desire.
  17. Serve with buttered egg noodles, or boiled, buttered and herb red potatoes, along with a dark green vegetable like Brussels sprouts, broccoli or green beans.
Recipe Notes

I used two pans to sear the beef and divided the 4 lbs of beef and the 4 Tb of butter equally between each pan. I used a Dutch Oven and a cast iron skillet. It cut down on my cooking time significantly and if you can manage it, I recommend it. I then sauteed the sliced onions in the skillet and reserved them to add later into the stew.
I continued cooking the remaining steps in the Dutch oven.