Guess the Ingredient

From time to time, my Mom and I like to choose recipes that call for surprise ingredients and then see if anyone can guess what the mystery ingredient is.

We already have a few such recipes on our blog. Though, when you are serving these, you might not want to tell anyone what the recipes are called, because in most cases, the title gives away the secret ingredient. I'm also surprised that we don't have more "guess the ingredient" recipes on our blog. I will have to remedy that situation in the future!

Here are the existing "guess the ingredient" recipes (again, don't divulge the title too soon! Make them guess the ingredient first! Or at least try to guess it!), to refresh your memory:

• Peppersass Cookies (hot sauce)
  
• Yogurt Frosting (yogurt)
• Chocolate Nutella Hearts (canned chocolate frosting and Nutella)
• Cottage Cheese Jello Salad (Jell-O)
• Pepsi Pot Roast (Pepsi)
• Snow Ice Cream (snow)
• Chinese Take-Out Lemon Chicken (Jell-O)
• Herbal Sodas (fresh herbs from your garden)
• Strawberry Glazed Bacon (strawberry jam)
• Potato Pinwheels Candy (mashed potatoes)

I'll have to dig up some more of these recipes. For instance, mashed potatoes are a surprisingly versatile food and they can successfully sneak into a lot of foods. My Mom made a wonderful peppermint patty-ish recipe once that used mashed potatoes that was fantastic. Mashed potatoes are also used to make an Italian pasta called "gnocchi." My sister included a gnocchi recipe on our blog this year. However, I didn't include it in the "guess the ingredient" category because to anyone who is familiar with Italian food, they will know that potatoes are the main ingredient in gnocchi.

My Mom also made a very yummy fudge that was made with black beans a few years ago. If my memory serves me, she also made another candy (a type of candy bark) with saltine crackers. We'll have to try and hunt down those recipes and post them later.

However, today I'm going to share a beef stew recipe that uses grape jelly! Who knew? It adds an amazing flavor to the stew. It is a very easy and basic stew, but the grape jelly takes it to another level so the taste has more depth. Unless you tell, no one will ever guess that this stew has grape jelly in it!

Above: Jammin Beef Stew in my slow cooker--with clean up made a lot easier thanks to the plastic slow cooker liner. I can't live without those! Oh, and I apologize for the presentation of the stew in the picture at the top of this post. I didn't think to take a picture until after we had eaten. So, what you see is the portions I served up in plastic containers for my husband to take to work with him for lunch the next two days.

Jammin Beef Stew

Ingredients:

No-stick cooking spray
2 pounds beef stew meat, cut into 1-inch pieces
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt, plus additional, to taste
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper, plus additional, to taste
1 cup chopped yellow onions
3 carrots, cleaned and sliced on a diagonal
2 bay leaves (optional)
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes
1/2 cup Concord Grape Jam/Jelly
1 (14.5 oz) can beef broth or water
6 new potatoes, quartered
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley (which I forgot to add, as usual)

Directions:

Stove Top Method:

spray a 4 1/2 quart Dutch oven with no-stick spray.

Place meat in pot. Combine flour, salt, and pepper. Toss with meat to coat evenly. Add onions, carrots, bay leaves, Worcestershire sauce, tomatoes, grape jam, broth or water. Mix to combine ingredients.

Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Cover and simmer 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Add potatoes, simmering 30 minutes more or until meat and potatoes are fork-tender. Remove bay leaves. Add chopped parsley, stirring to combine gravy. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Slow Cooker Method:

Spray slow cooker with no-stick spray or use slow cooker liner.

Place meat in cooker. Combine flour, salt, and pepper. Toss with meat to coat evenly. Add onions, carrots, bay leaves, Worcestershire sauce, tomatoes, grape jam, broth or water, and potatoes. Mix to combine ingredients.

Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours (or on high for 5-6 hours) or until meat is fork-tender. Remove bay leaves. Add chopped parsley, stirring to combine gravy. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Source: I found this recipe on the Allrecipes website. It was submitted by Smucker's (as in the folks who make jams and jellies).

Notes: I increased the beef stew meat to 3 pounds. I also used more potatoes. I used baby carrots rather than peeling and slicing whole carrots. Since I had increased the other ingredients, I also used 1 cup grape jelly and two cans of beef broth. My slow cooker was packed full to the brim. I checked it at about 3 p.m. and the potatoes and beef weren't very tender, so I increased the heat to high heat for the last two and a half hours of cooking. It did the trick and the potatoes and beef were fork tender. Seasoning with salt and pepper to your taste is very important. Don't skip that step at the end.