3-Bear StewWhen MrsMac and I lived in Rhode Island we would go to a local game dinner that happened 4 times a year. Depending on the time of year the dinner varied from locally gathered scallops & lobster to local game. One of our favorite things was called
3-Bear Stew. We only saw that once a year at the winter dinner and always looked forward to it.
Overtime we became friends with the restaurant owner who sponsored the game dinners. My wife is always amazed that I will make friends with anyone. Yupper, even at the grocery store I end up with new friends every Sunday. Sorry, I digress. Back at the
3 Bear Stew story.
One night at the restaurant we were having dinner, and the owner came out and sat with us as we enjoyed our dessert as he often did. He was a naturalized citizen from Portugal and MrsMac being a retired chef, they always chatted restaurant talk. They were talking Portuguese fare over glasses of Portuguese Port. The conversation lulled for a minute and feeling a little tipsy from the port I gained some courage and asked the owner about the
3-Bear stew he serves at the game dinners. Of course there was a long story behind the recipe, and after we listen through it, he was open to sharing the recipe it with us.
Today, I didn't know what to make for dinner and as I stood over the open freezer chest that stores our beef, I saw a nice piece of 3-pound chuck. I grabbed it and decided to make the
3 Bear Stew. After defrosting the chuck and cutting it into cubes, I made the following recipe.
1 1/2 to 2 pounds of Bear shoulder (Or beef chuck) cut in 3/4 x 3/4" squares
1 medium sized onion (Sweet if available) chunked up in 1 x 1" squares.
1 packet of onion soup mix
1 can of cream of onion soup
1 Tbsp. kitchen Bouquet
1 Cup dry red wine
1 Tbsp. nutmeg
4 Carrots cut in 1 x 1" hunksPut all into a 5 qt. Dutch oven/pot
BUT the carrots. Put the lid on and put it into a preheated 325 degree F oven. At the 2-hour mark, skim off the bear fat as best you can (Not needed for chuck) and stir in the carrots. Put the lid back on and place back into the oven to finish for an hour.
In the meantime, get a pot of salted water ready for wide egg noodles. If I am not lazy, I make my granny Kurz spaetzle from scratch rather than the egg noodles.
At the three-hour mark take out of the oven the stew, stir and crack the lid for steam to leave the Dutch oven. Then start my egg noodles or spaetzle. Once the starch is done, I serve the stew over the starch and hit the dished out stew with some fresh grated nutmeg.
The only compliment I serve is apple sauce - Canned or frozen. I also serve a Riesling (Preferred Chateau Ste. Michelle, Riesling) or no oak chardonnay to drink with the dinner.
Last, a 3 or so pound roast of bear or beef chuck gives us two meals. I freeze the other half for one of those quick meals that only calls for boiling some packaged egg noodles and warming up the stew. This is even better the second time.
Enjoy
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