Logan's Bear (Beef) Stew, how a DnD characters' backstory matters!

So I did a thing and documented the process for my own records but I was so happy with the results that I decided I would like to share the pics. If you have suggestions or see something I did blatantly wrong lemme know! Always looking to improve! So lets begin!

First we crisp up some thick cut bacon to render out the fat!

While that is happening use the time to chop up your veggies! Like a sweet onion!

Also this is what happens when you don't check and your main cutting board is in the dishwasher so you make do with your small bar/for show cutting boards. Lessons learned: always scope out the whole encounter first.

Some carrots (3). Yes I stood em up like this for the pic because I was having fun in the kitchen.

Celery! (5)

Lots of potatoes (4).

Look at that tasty bacon and fat! The brown stuff on the bottom is the maillard reaction in effect creating a delicious bottom coating called fond. More on that here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maillard_reaction ! This will be used later while deglazing!

Coated some cubed top round in flour, tossed it in there with some minced garlic and the onions to brown the meat and start cooking the onions and garlic.

Originally the character made this stew out of bear meat! Unfortunately it is very hard to come by since I cannot purchase it freely in the states and I live in the middle of a city. The process would be very similar I would have to cook it a bit longer and I would probably brown it solo. Then cook up the onions and garlic.

After some browning, this is the point I chose to stop it. If you did just the meat you would want to let it brown considerably more but since I had the onions in there with it I had enough brown for the flavors I wanted.

Now we add a whole one of these (24 fl oz, 709ml) of beef bone broth. I bought this at publix but you could also make your own and have this turn out even more amazingly. Once I add this in I scrape the fond off the bottom as it starts to boil and make sure that all gets mixed in.

After we scrape the bottom we add a whole 28oz can of crushed tomatoes into the mix. Stir it well.

I dabble in making homemade booze as well. I just enjoy mixing drinks and making them so of course I had to incorporate some booze into this seeing as the paladins CON score made it impossible for anyone to drink him under the table!

This is slightly less than a half cup of bourbon due to shaky hands.

Then we have this pretty little bouquet! It consists of some fresh sage, fresh thyme, 3 Bay leafs, and 2 sticks of cinnamon. I tied it all together to make pulling this out more easy later. Also It makes for a stellar pic. Just look how pretty that looks.

The rest of the spices. 1 tbsp of smoked paprika, 1 tbs of dry mustard, about a teaspoon of pepper, a teaspoon of salt, and a micro dash of cumin. The DM hates cumin, so I felt like to honor her part in the story I would go lighter on this spice. I love the stuff.

The reason for less salt and pepper is I added more at the end once I tasted it.

Toss all that in and stir

Remember those veggies we chopped up earlier? Did you think I had forgotten? Nah, they just go in now! after all the spices have been mixed in.

Also that delicious tasty bacon goes back in. Because why not. It's good for flavor and the soul.

And now the hard part, we let it sit. I let mine sit for 2 hours on heat covered. Then let it sit still covered with the heat off for another hour.

Remove the bouquet because trust me you don't want to bite into this, and look how easy it was. No more fishing for leaves.

All done! I threw it over some rice because that is just how I like to eat my stew but you can chose to eat it however you wish, I chose not to judge this time!

Don't have a cat but Logan tax. This is the character that the stew was based off of! Our DM is also an artist so at the end of the campaign she gave us all these magnets with our characters on them, so naturally I put mine on my fridge! If youd like to see more of her awesome work I will shamelessly plug her here: https://www.facebook.com/gene.m.illustration/

Backstory time:
Logan Lightcaller was a paladin. He joined the empires' Elite program and basically got made into a superhuman a la Captain America. The reason he was scouted out was because the recruiters saw him wrestling a bear in order to make the stew mentioned above. What made this stew even more famous was that on several occasions while camped out with the party he would make this stew and sometimes we even managed to avoid fights because of it. "Hey you want some stew? We got plenty. And it's good.". Having a high Charisma and Diplomacy also helped here.

You may be saying that his is a Spacemarine wearing Kamina glasses. You would be correct. I based his armor off of Ultrasmurf armor and then the DM gave him a pair of Kamina glasses at one point because that is what she quickly drew. That was session 2. I kept them the whole game.

Well hope you enjoyed it! I think I typed enough to both explain the process AND avoid ads! Huzzah! Enjoy your Friday's Eve folks!