Classic Beef Stew / Lemon and Fresh Cranberry Scones

I was looking last night some recipes to make today to use fresh cranberries and beef broth because I had it at home opened. So, I found Classic Beef Stew and meyer lemon and fresh cranberry scones. It had great reviews.
The weather today in Hoboken, NJ is -6 Celsius and snowing! So, I needed few ingredients and my husband went out to buy. I started by making beef stew because it takes longer. It's fairly easy to make. Just some chopping, and stirring. If you make this recipe, don't forget to stir because it'll stick at the bottom of the pan as it happened with me. Also, I had to add a little more of beef stock. I made half of the recipe.

When the Beef was simmering I started to make the lemon and fresh cranberry scones. I don't know why I keep saying scoop instead of scones. Anyway, while I was chopping the lemon skin I took out with the vegetable peeler, two or three fell to the floor and my dog Kailua, a 2 year old labrador retriever ate it! She liked! She went then to the hallway and stayed at the rug watching me.

The Scones are easy to make and they came out very nice, light and delicious. I really would make it again. They look very pretty also with the fresh cranberries and not sweet. So, if you don't like sweet desserts you'll like these. I don't have cookie cutters. So, I just used two tablespoons. One to measure and the other to take out from the other and I would flat them with the spoon a little bit. My husband was saying that they would be very nice with coffee. By the way, my husband was at the bicycle watching american football while I was cooking. He reached 184 in his heart rate! and was all flushed!


Now for the recipes:

1- Classic Beef Stew

that's how I made:

Ingredients

* 1 pounds fat-trimmed boned beef for stewing
* 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
* 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
* 1/2 onion (8 oz.), peeled and sliced
* 3 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
* 2 bay leaves
* 1 tablespoon lemon juice
* 1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire
* salt to taste (remember the broth is salty!)
* 1/2 teaspoon sugar
* 1/2 teaspoon paprika
* pepper to taste
* 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves or ground allspice
* 1 cup dry red wine
* 7 oz fat-skimmed beef broth
* 1 potatoe, scrubbed and cut into 3/4-inch chunks
* 2 big carrots, peeled and thinly sliced crosswise
* 2 stalks celery , rinsed and thinly sliced

Preparation

1. Rinse beef and pat dry, cut into 1 1/2- to 2-inch chunks. Put flour in a paper bag. Add beef and shake to coat with flour.

2. Pour 3 tablespoons oil into a 5- to 6-quart Dutch oven over medium-high heat. When hot, add the meat; and any extra flour in bag. turn pieces as necessary until well browned on all sides, 8 to 10 minutes total. and any extra flour in bag

3. Add sliced onion, minced garlic, bay leaves, lemon juice, Worcestershire, salt, sugar, paprika, pepper, ground cloves, wine, and broth to pan. Stir often, scraping up browned bits, until mixture is simmering. Cover pan tightly, reduce heat to low, and simmer, stirring occasionally, until beef is tender when pierced, 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 hours.

4. add 1/2 cup beef broth

5. Add potatoes, carrots, celery. Continue cooking, covered, until vegetables are tender when pierced, 1 hour longer.

2- lemon and fresh cranberry scones

how I made:

1 1/2 tablespoons freshly grated lemon zest (from about 2 lemons- I used from less than 1 lemon)
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar plus 3 tablespoons additional if using fresh cranberries
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) cold unsalted butter, cut into bits
1 1/4 cups fresh cranberries, chopped coarse, or 1 1/4 cups dried cranberries, if you insist
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 cup heavy cream

Preheat oven to 400°F. and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.

With a vegetable peeler remove the zest from lemons and chop fine, reserving lemons for another use.

In a food processor pulse flour, 1/2 cup sugar, baking powder, salt, butter and zest until mixture resembles coarse meal and transfer to a large bowl.

In a small bowl toss together fresh cranberries and 3 tablespoons sugar and stir into flour mixture. If using dried fruit, add to flour mixture.

In another small bowl lightly beat egg and yolk and stir in cream. Add egg mixture to flour mixture and stir until just combined.

On a well-floured surface with floured hands pat dough into a 1-inch-thick round (about 8 inches in diameter) and with a 2-inch round cutter or rim of a glass dipped in flour cut out as many rounds as possible, rerolling scraps as necessary. Arrange rounds about 1 inch apart on baking sheet and bake in middle of oven 15 to 20 minutes, or until pale golden.(15 min. was enough)