Beef stew with orange and cumin

The planes are making that sound like they're shearing the frozen skies as they lumber overhead, so you wake up knowing it's bone chilling. Windchill warnings are ubiquitous. Stew weather.

This recipe is sort of stew methodology meets chili flavors.
 

Orange cumin beef stew
Adapted from “Carry-Out Cuisine” by Phyllis Méras. The original source of the recipe was the Monticello Gourmet in Washington, D.C. I've made a small handful of recipes from this compendium of gourmet takeout recipes, and two of them are from that establishment. I'd love to visit if it still exists, but this is an older edition. (Coincidentally, I just made their delightful spinach vichyssoise again this week; the place seemed to have cold weather comfort food down pat.)

Ingredients
3 pounds beef chuck for stew, cut into 2-inch pieces
Cooking oil
½ cup orange juice
½ cup broth
¼ cup red wine vinegar
1 6-ounce can tomato paste
3 garlic cloves, chopped
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
4½ teaspoons ground cumin
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1½ teaspoons ground allspice
1 bay leaf
Zest of 1 orange
10 ounces pearl onions, peeled (or half of a 16-ounce bag frozen)
1 pound small mushrooms cut into quarters
Butter for cooking onions and mushrooms

Method
Heat a generous skim of oil in a large pot. Salt beef cubes and add to pan in a single layer, browning on all sides, and working in batches as needed. Return all beef to pot and add orange juice, broth, red wine vinegar, tomato paste, garlic, light bornw sugar, cumin, oregano, allspice, bay leaf and orange zest. Bring to a simmer and cook for 1½ hours until beef is tender. This will give you time to peel all those pesky little onions.

Meanwhile, heat butter in a large skillet, I'm guessing I used about a tablespoon. Add onions and cook over medium heat until lightly browned. Add mushrooms and cook until mushrooms are softened and their liquid has cooked the onions. Add to stew pot.

Rating: The sauce has that thick stew sludgy, fudgy consistency, almost mole like. The cumin and orange flavors are an interesting twist on stew, and do indeed make you think of chili. A good option for when sauces need to be as thick as your sweaters.

Dave's comment: This is like a starting point for a sauce that could replace ketchup, a sauce that could go on anything.