Stew from Kebabs

Bear with me here, I'm slogging through a bunch of recipes I meant to post AGES ago.  

Back in November (ages), I made Kebabs for a tailgate.  A lot of kebabs.  They were delicious.  But after about a week, we still had leftover kebabs in our fridge.  My general rule of thumb is that after a week, it's best to throw things out.  Even without this rule, after the first few days, those kebabs started looking a little desiccated.  So as the 1-week mark came up, I was frantic to come up with some way to make them yummy again; I hate throwing out food, especially meat.  Staring at a stick of grilled beef, tomatoes and a potato, I realized that I've seen those ingredients together before: stew!

Before I get to the stew, though, a quick run-down on how the kebabs were made:  

I marinated the meat overnight in a red wine-based marinade: red wine, oil, lots of garlic, salt, pepper, Italian seasoning.  Nope, I didn't measure anything.  In the morning, I boiled some small potatoes, skin-on, until they were just tender enough to be easily skewered.  I skewered the meat, potatoes, some onion and bell pepper pieces, and cherry tomatoes.  A friend of ours was grill-master, and he cooked them to a lovely, even, medium-well done.  They were so good on game day.  But the doneness meant that they were difficult to warm up without drying them out; another reason I went for stew.

Leftover Kebab Stew (Individual Serving)

2-ish kebabs, including beef, onion, peppers, tomatoes, and potatoes

1/2 tsp Italian seasoning

Skimpy 1/4 C red wine 

1/4 C beef broth

1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

1 tsp corn starch

Salt and pepper

Chop the kebab components into smaller bite-sized (with a fork at dinner bite-size, not finger/tailgate size) pieces.  Keep them separate, because they won't all tolerate the same amount of cooking.  In a pan over medium-high heat, combine the meat, Italian seasoning, and liquids.  Simmer and season to taste with salt and pepper.  Add the onion and pepper pieces.  In a small dish, combine the corn starch with just enough water to dissolve it.  (The water will be cloudy, so it's not necessarily a true "dissolve".)  Add it immediately to the stew and stir to distribute.  This is your thickening agent.  Allow it to simmer and thicken.  Finally, add the tomatoes and potatoes.  Let it simmer a minute more so they can pick up some flavor.  Or, do what I did, and dump it in a container to be reheated the next day for lunch-- this allows even more flavor blending.  

This was an interesting flavor, actually.  I think it still needs some tweaking, but it was good.  I liked having the grilled, smokey flavor infused in my stew, and the wine and vinegar gave it a nice acidity.  It was not a typical stew by any means, but it wasn't bad.