Last week, my Hubs mentioned that I haven't made stew in a while. He was right, so when we went shopping we bought some stew beef. It was in the freezer, so I had to take it out yesterday to thaw for this morning.
I also had to find my big crock pot. I hadn't seen it since we went to live in Fishkill three years ago. After some more digging, I finally found it under the kitchen sink. I got it out and washed it all up, so it was ready for this morning.
I learned how to make this stew from my late mother-in-law. My Hubs loves it. It's done in the crock pot, so you start it in the morning and it's ready for dinner. Of course you can put in whatever veggies you want, but my Hubs is just a meat and potatoes kind of guy.
I cut up the potatoes, peeling is optional. They go in the bottom of the crock pot. The hardest part is the meat. I like to cut it up into smaller pieces. I put some flour into a bowl, and season it with salt, pepper, onion powder and garlic powder. Mix it up well. Heat a frying pan up with a little oil. Put the meat pieces into the flour to coat, then shake off excess flour. The meat gets browned, you don't cook it all the way through. Then the meat goes on top of the potatoes.
After that, I open up a bag of baby carrots and put them on the top. I then use some hot water and bring the level up to about the middle of the meat, or the bottom of the carrots. Put the lid on, and turn the crock pot on HIGH for about three hours, then turn it to low. I imagine if no one was going to be home, you could just leave it on low for the whole day.
Don't discard all the seasoned flour, because to finish it off, you take some of the flour, maybe a tablespoon or two, and mix it with hot water or liquid from the stew, then add some Gravy Master. Mix this into the stew and let to thicken some more. The last thing I do is take some frozen peas and stir them in.
Tonight I plan to make some biscuits to go with the stew. Hubs is really looking forward to this meal!
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