Melt in Your Mouth Beef Stew

Below is your typical beef stew recipe, it is one of the first complicated recopies I learned to make on my own and a great meal for the first cold day of fall, to snow days and dark days of winter! As I tweaked the recipe on my own I discovered that my beef stew is actually pretty good! The meat ends up so tender, that it almost falls apart on your spoon, it basically melts in your mouth! So below is my second attempt at a Hubpages recipe with tons of pictures! Hope you enjoy!

Total Cook Time: 2 ½ hours

Prep time: 45 minutes split 30/15

Serves 6-8 people

Ingredients:

About a 1lb of stew meat

Vegetable oil

Flour

Baby carrots

Potatoes (any kind you like)

Celery

i jar of Aunt Nellie's Whole Holland-style onions

1 package of IGA Brown Gravy Mix

Salt and pepper

-Defrost stew meat if frozen, otherwise bring to room temperature. I find that most pre-package stew meat pieces are a little big so I usually cut them in half.

-Next cover the bottom of a pot (large enough for the whole stew) with a thin layer of vegetable oil, turn your stove to medium heat.

-Take the chopped stew meat and lightly roll in flour (this will make the stew a little thicker in the end!)

-Once the meat is lightly covered in flour, place into hot pot with oil (BE CAREFUL OIL COULD SPLASH AND BURN)

-Once all the meat is in the pot use a long spoon or fork to evenly brown all sides, this may take a few minutes and don’t worry if it looks messy!

-Once the meat is sufficiently browned pour water into the pot, but just enough to cover over the meat!

-I suggest stirring the meat in the water to detach any meat stuck to the bottom of the pot.

-Add some salt and pepper

-Wait for water to boil

-Once water is boiling put lid over pot and lower the stove to a low heat, let meat simmer in pot for an hour.

-About 45 minutes after leaving the pot to simmer begin to chop up your potatoes, I’m using red potatoes for the first time in the pictures to the right. But type of potato will do just chop them into equal size parts. (I usually make them slightly smaller than the meat)

-Next take a few stalks of celery, wash them and then cut them into small pieces horizontally (cut up as much as you like, I usually chop up to 2 cups, which is like 3 large celery stalks.

-Next take your carrots, I usually use the baby carrots that come in the bag, however you could use fresh carrots as well! Chop them into half inch sections. Again about 2 cups should do but eyeball it!

-The whole onions come in a jar, I use Aunt Nellie’s whole Holland-style onions but I’m sure you could cut up a sweet onion or red onion for the stew as well.

-Once your ingredients are all chopped and ready check on the meat.

-If it’s been an hour since you put the lid on the pot, the meat should be cooked pretty well by now.

-Add all your ingredients to the pot: Carrots, Celery, Potatoes, and Onions.

-Now add water, depending on how thick you want your stew you will add more or less water but remember you still need enough water to cook the potatoes!

-Once you fill the pot with water, stir all the ingredients and place the top back on, to insure the potatoes will be cooked, turn the heat up slightly on the stove but be careful not to boil the water because it will over flow!

-Let pot sit for 30-45 minutes until potatoes are soft (a fork sticks through them easily)

-Now it’s time to mix in the gravy. I use IGA’s Brown Gravy Mix, which you pour into the stew and slowly stir (Be careful that it doesn’t’ clump!)

-Once your gravy is mixed in your stew is ready to serve! Might I suggest serving it with some nice Italian bread?

You’ll notice that since you kept the meat cooking so long, it will almost melt in your mouth when you eat it! Hope you enjoy!