Homemade Beef Stew
I never understood the appeal of beef stew until my son took over the cooking and we began de facto making me homemade beef stew. The canned stuff smelled vile to me and I could not imagine eating it.
When my oldest took over the cooking, he initially didn't know much about cooking. He was content to make a big pile of breakfast steaks for dinner and have a side of potato chips with it.
I was like "I cannot eat like this. We need to find a way to get more veggies into me." He was adamant that he could not cope with cooking the traditional meat, potatoes, two sides, fresh bread and gravy style meals I had made when he was little, so we worked together to meet my dietary needs within the constraints of his skill level and his desire to keep things simple.
At first, keeping things simple meant one pot meals. Neither of my sons likes gravy, so the solution we came up with was that after all the breakfast steaks were cooked, we left two to four breakfast steaks in the pan and added water, salt, pepper and veggies to it to make me homemade beef stew.
He later learned to make homemade flat bread and then I would have homemade beef stew and flat bread. This was a gourmet meal and this was the point at which I decided my son was a better cook than I was and he was feeding me better than I had ever fed myself.
I usually added baby carrots or cut up large carrots. Using baby carrots means less prep work.
I sometimes bought one or two cobs of corn and cut the corn off the cobs, then tossed the kernels into the pan with the other veggies.
I would usually add something with a strong flavor, like onion or garlic or cut up Bell peppers or other peppers. I didn't typically add more than one of these to a given pot of stew. Onions was kind of the standard one I usually went with.
I sometimes had other veggies in the house and would add whatever I had on hand that happened to appeal to me that night. If I liked it, it got repeated in the future. If I didn't like it, I didn't do it again. (This is how corn got added to begin with and became a staple of my recipe.)
This was beef stew for ONE person because I was the only person eating it. If you wanted to adapt the recipe to serve more people, you could make your breakfast steaks in a deeper pot, leave more of them in the pot, add more water, more salt and pepper and more veggies. Cook until the veggies are tender, which shouldn't take all that long, maybe ten to twenty minutes.
You might want to also add a bouillon cube if you are adding a lot of water. I never did because we were making lots of steaks for three people, my sons were eating the lion's share of the meat and there was plenty of natural flavoring for beef stew for one.
When my oldest took over the cooking, he initially didn't know much about cooking. He was content to make a big pile of breakfast steaks for dinner and have a side of potato chips with it.
I was like "I cannot eat like this. We need to find a way to get more veggies into me." He was adamant that he could not cope with cooking the traditional meat, potatoes, two sides, fresh bread and gravy style meals I had made when he was little, so we worked together to meet my dietary needs within the constraints of his skill level and his desire to keep things simple.
At first, keeping things simple meant one pot meals. Neither of my sons likes gravy, so the solution we came up with was that after all the breakfast steaks were cooked, we left two to four breakfast steaks in the pan and added water, salt, pepper and veggies to it to make me homemade beef stew.
He later learned to make homemade flat bread and then I would have homemade beef stew and flat bread. This was a gourmet meal and this was the point at which I decided my son was a better cook than I was and he was feeding me better than I had ever fed myself.
Veggies
I always added some potatoes. I usually used two or three starchy Russet potatoes but you can use other potatoes. If you don't want to peel and chop, you can get new potatoes or fingerlings.I usually added baby carrots or cut up large carrots. Using baby carrots means less prep work.
I sometimes bought one or two cobs of corn and cut the corn off the cobs, then tossed the kernels into the pan with the other veggies.
I would usually add something with a strong flavor, like onion or garlic or cut up Bell peppers or other peppers. I didn't typically add more than one of these to a given pot of stew. Onions was kind of the standard one I usually went with.
I sometimes had other veggies in the house and would add whatever I had on hand that happened to appeal to me that night. If I liked it, it got repeated in the future. If I didn't like it, I didn't do it again. (This is how corn got added to begin with and became a staple of my recipe.)
This was beef stew for ONE person because I was the only person eating it. If you wanted to adapt the recipe to serve more people, you could make your breakfast steaks in a deeper pot, leave more of them in the pot, add more water, more salt and pepper and more veggies. Cook until the veggies are tender, which shouldn't take all that long, maybe ten to twenty minutes.
You might want to also add a bouillon cube if you are adding a lot of water. I never did because we were making lots of steaks for three people, my sons were eating the lion's share of the meat and there was plenty of natural flavoring for beef stew for one.
