Beef Soup or Ragout / Cold Snowy day inside food

When you have no choice but to stay inside for the day…. Make the best of it and try this wonderful dish. Its a composite of meat and broth and vegetables that has been slowly brought to life. There are a few steps involved, but hey, its raining, or snowing or you have 10 loads of laundry to do.  No matter, your not going any where and in the end you and your family sit down to a wonderful Dinner.

Beef Shanks never get enough credit in my book. They have so much flavor and in fact are cheep for what your getting. The three I used for this recipe cost me about $10.50. Then I have everything else in the fridge and the “everything else” is up to you.

Vegetables, Potatoes and broth can become what ever you wish. If you don’t want potatoes, use a squash or sweet potatoes, Carrots and Celery and Onions can be Green Beans and Corn and Shallot, or Leeks. You choose.

Start with the Three Beef Shanks. These were very meaty as you can see, and sear them up in butter and onions. Brown nicely. and then cover and cook for about 10 min.  While that is cooking, get the simmer pot set with a bed of broth vegetation, I used celery, carrots and onions and tomatoes for this batch.  Once I have them altogether I will cover with water and let cook till very tender a good 1-2 hours, on low. Simmer away.

Hmmm I can smell this now. The butter and onions and any other beef worthy spices you wish to use are your choice, I used Garlic Pepper salt, and more garlic powder and more pepper.

Once its all simmers down and that meat is falling off the bone, or the bones are floating on their own, your good. Strain it all out and let the meat and veggies cool. Put the Stock back in the pot and double your volume in the pot with more water.

Add salt, pepper, or any other flavors you want. Taste and see what you think. Cumin and chili pepper can take over here too, if you want to add beans later.

NOW… I added my cooked carrots all mashed up back to the pot, for a really nice flavor. I did not take the Cooked Celery, to stringy and tomatoes have disintegrated by now, they are part of the broth. Clean off all the meat and set aside once its cooled. Add more Vegetables and cook all together to a full Rolling boil.

I used Potatoes, More Carrots and More Celery as well and some Green onions. If you want to take on a Mediterranean taste, use those spices, or Italian, or as mentioned above, a chili like taste to it. In that case, use beans to give it the depth a beefy chili would have. Wisconsin-nites use some elbow macaroni if you want.

You can use No starch in it, and thicken it and go over rice, Noddles or Biscuits, You could even do a dumpling right in the Soup Stock. ( See next recipe for a Great Pan Biscuit)

What ever you choose, its going to be wonderful.

So take your time and play with this one and make it your own.

Fold and Fluff as needed.

Happy snow day, rainy day, laundry day.