Recipe: Dutch Oven Hunters Stew

Dutch Oven Hunters Stew
Servings 6-10

1/2 lb. pork sausage
2-3 lbs. stew beef
2 medium onions
2 cloves garlic
salt/pepper to taste
1 qt. V8 juice
carrots 2 lb. bag
potatoes 6-8 med-lg.
any other vegetables
1 cup black coffee
Optional: One or two pods smoked jalapeno peppers

In the bottom of a 12" Dutch oven, put your pork sausage and 2 onions, coarsely chopped. Cook over medium-hi heat until onions are translucent. Add two cloves garlic, minced. Also add stew beef, and salt and pepper. Also, this is the time I add the jalapeno. I use the flesh (chop very fine) for flavor and discard the seed (heat). Brown the stew beef well. Add one-cup black coffee. Bring to a boil, until the liquid is reduced by 1/2 to 2/3. Add V8 juice, and all vegetables. Bring to boil. Reduce to simmer, and then cook until vegetables are soft. At a simmer a "puff" of steam will come from under the edge of the Dutch oven lead every 10 to fifteen seconds. Beginning with the time the sausage and onions goes into the pot until the time the V8 and vegetables are added this needs to be stirred often, after the V8 is added it only needs stirring occasionally to be sure the vegetables are not sticking.Serve hot with corn bread.

Notes from the source:
I use the cheapest stew beef the grocery store has; the black coffee acts as a meat tenderizer.
An ingredient which some people like in their stew but I personally don't use is sugar. If you like, add one-fourth cup of sugar at the time you add the carrots and potatoes. As I said I don't use sugar but sometimes it makes this stew more appealing, especially with young children.

Also venison can be substituted for the stew beef very successfully with almost no detectable change in flavor or texture. The smoked jalapeno peppers are especially good when venison is used.

I use a round bottom 10 Quart cast iron pot suspended from a tripod over a campfire, not charcoal when I prepare this dish, however a 12" deep Dutch oven would work equally well.