- 1 teaspoon baking soda dissolved in one tablespoon cold water
- 1 pound ground beef
- ½ cup diced onions
- ½ cup diced celery
- ½ cup diced carrots
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- ½ cup white wine (something not very oaky like Pino Grigio)
- 2 ½ cups low sodium beef broth
- 1 cup undrained crushed tomatoes
- 2 tablespoons A-1 steak sauce
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1 teaspoon Better than Bouillon roast beef base
- 2 medium red potatoes, peeled and diced
I always grind my own meat when I make this soup, using my KitchenAid meat grinder attachment. When I do a grind, I usually grind several pounds of meat and freeze some for hamburger patties or meatballs. In this instance, I ground 1 pound of chuck, 1 pound of top sirloin, and 1 ½ pounds of various assorted cuts that included trimmings from tenderloin, skirt steak, and bottom round. I ran half through once using just the course grinder plate and the other half through twice using the coarse grinder plate followed by the fine grinder plate. I used half a pound of the coarse grind and half a pound of the finely ground beef for this recipe.
Sprinkle the baking soda mixture over the ground beef and toss lightly to combine. This is a great Cook's Illustrated tip that helps keep the meat very tender and moist.
Warm a Dutch oven over medium heat. Add a pat of butter and a drizzle of olive oil. When the butter stops foaming, add the onions, celery, and carrots. Cook for 10 minutes (or until the veggies have softened and slightly browned on the edges). Add the garlic and tomato paste. Cook for 1 minute, stirring regularly.
Add the wine. Raise the heat to high and bring to a boil. reduce heat to medium-high and allow to reduce until the wine is a glaze. Add beef stock, tomatoes, A1 sauce, Worcestershire sauce, beef bouillon (this is a trick that amps up the beed flavor), and potatoes. Return heat to high. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and cover. Cook for 15 minutes.
While the soup base is cooking, brown the ground beef. I did it in two batches in my All-Clad 9-inch nonstick skillet, so as to prevent the meat from crowding in the pan and stewing rather than frying. To keep the meat from getting tough and gritty the way ground beef can do, I kept the meat in fairly big chunks and cooked it just to medium-rare. I drained the meat on a paper towel-lined plate.
I added the meat to the Dutch oven and cooked it uncovered for 5 minutes.
As for what we drank, it was a 2018 Ridge Vineyards Lytton Springs. It doubtless would have aged, but it’s yummy now. Black cherry, raspberry, blueberry, blackberry. Juicy but not jammy. Well balanced.
