Beef tips and gravy is one of the penultimate comfort foods from my childhood. What is not to love about slow cooked tender beef served over mashed potatoes with a silky brown gravy? Porcini mushrooms and Worcestershire add the perfect umami flavor to make this an instant family favorite.
I prefer to buy “stew meat” which are random beef cuts sold in almost any grocery store. Stew meat is not always a uniform size and may contain tendons and/or excess fat, so I do take a little time to trim them as uniformly as possible. When crunched for time I’ve also made this using cubed steak, but I my opinion the texture is just not the same.
The key to this beef tips and gravy dish is the GRAVY! Unless you have time to make your own beef stock, you have no choice but to buy an off the shelf prepared stock. I used to buy this all the time, and paid two to three dollars for each carton. While the flavor was fine, the shelf life is not always long enough to get multiple uses before it expires. One day when my market was out of beef stock, I decided to buy a bullion base called Better Than Bullion (BTB). All I can say is WOW!
BTB comes in several flavors, and averages $8-10 per jar. In my experience, I can make about 30 cups of stock for a fraction of the cost of the premade broth. As an added benefit it tastes WAY better and the BTB keeps much longer in the fridge.
I’m not saying that you cannot make a delicious gravy from premade stock, but spend a little extra for a jar of BTB and you’ll never go back.
The dried porcini powder, Worcestershire, and soy sauce all fit into the “umami” category. Worcestershire is actually made with fermented anchovies. Combined with a balanced amount of soy sauce, you can easily achieve the perfect amount of umami for this dish!
