Beef Stew - My way. (well, mostly anyway)

This particular recipe orignates from this one, but, of course, with my own little tweaks here and there.  I can't possibly just use a recipe without tweaking it!  I've made this twice now, and I think this last time I might have hit perfection, well, atleast for me anyway.  The neighbors loved it though, so I can't complain. 


My Version of a Savory Beef Stew!


Ingredients:
-3 (ish) pounds beef stew meat, cut into small cubes

-1/3 cup italian salad dressing (If you have more than 3 lbs of meat, up the amount of salad dressing to 1/2 cup)

-2 cups water

-2 teaspoons beef bouillon granules

-1 14.5oz can diced tomatoes, undrained.  (Three to four freshly diced tomatoes work well here too.  It didn't affect my liquid or anything by using that instead.  The only big difference was the peel of the tomato, so peel them if you are using fresh, which can be done like this.  TIP:  for the water requested above, take it from water used to boil tomatoes for peeling.)

-1 10.5 oz can condensed beef broth, undiluted.  (a 15oz can of not condensed broth also worked well.)

-1 8oz can tomato sauce

-1 garlic clove, minced.  (If you have minced garlic as a spice in your cabinet, it is 1/2 tsp worth.)

-1 bay leaf (or two if you like the extra flavor.  I do.)

-1 tsp salt

-1 tsp dried oregano

-1/2 tsp ground black pepper

-6-8 small potatoes, quartered.  (I prefer to cube mine.)

-6 medium carrots, cut into 1/2 inch round pieces

-1 medium green bell pepper, cut into 1/2inch pieces

-1 medium yellow onion, chopped.

-3 (ish) sticks of celery, chopped.  (about 1.5 cups.  I added this and found the celery really complements everything.)

-3 tbs all purpose flour

-3 tbs cold water 



INSTRUCTIONS:


Step 1:

Brown meat in salad dressing over medium or medium/high heat.  Once browned, add the next ten ingredients to include all things canned and all spices.  Next, reduce heat.  Cover and simmer for one to one and a half hours (ish, of course.), or until meat is nice and tender, how you'd like it!  (I always try a piece of meat here, simply because it tastes that good.)

TIP:  If you set a timer for an hour, by the time you are done chopping all those veggies up, the meat is ready for everything to be added.

Step 2:

Add all those tasty veggies you spent thirty minutes chopping.  Then, cover and simmer another 45 (ish) minutes or until all the vegetables are tender.  This time directly relates to how small you chopped those potatoes/carrots. 


Step 3: 

Combine flour and water until smooth.  Stir into stew and bring to a boil.  Cook two or so minutes, until stew thickens.  Once cooking is completed, discard bay leaf.

TIP:  If quite a bit of extra liquid/juice came from the meat during browning and stayed in the pot, mix 4 tbs flour and water instead of 3.  (1:1 ratio)  If after five minutes, the stew still doesn't thicken, add another tbs of flour, but don't add more than 5 total.  Your stew will just taste a little floury if you do.)

Serve and ENJOY!

Ok, so this final picture was taken AFTER we all ate out of the pot, but hey, the stuff was so delicious I forgot to take a wonderful finished photo.  Hope all of you who try this love it as much as I do!