Simplicity Itself Meat and Potato Stew
"This is based on a recipe my mother used to make for us all the time when I was growing up. It would seem to be too simple to be good but it isn't. It can be made with any red meat, either pork, beef or lamb."
- Ready In:
- 56mins
- Ingredients:
- 8
- Serves:
-
6
ingredients
- 1 -2 1 -2 lb beef (any red meat works, in bite size pieces) or 1 -2 lb lamb (any red meat works, in bite size pieces)
- 4 -6 medium potatoes (regular potato)
- 1 large onion, diced
- 3 -4 fresh garlic cloves (optional)
- 2 -4 tablespoons garlic powder
- 3 -5 tablespoons beef bouillon granules or 4 tablespoons chicken bouillon granules
- 1 -2 tablespoon ground black pepper (or to taste ( I prefer heavy on the black pepper in this dish myself)
- 6 cups water (at least enough to just cover potatoes and meat)
directions
- Use large skillet, electric skillet, or dutch oven to prepare this dish.
- Cut meat into bite sized chunks. Set aside.
- Dice onion; set aside.
- Peel and chop garlic; set aside.
- Peel potatoes (if you are going to peel them) and set aside in water so they don’t turn color.
- Have spices out and ready to measure with measuring spoon.
- In large skillet (or dutch oven), heat cooking oil to good and hot.
- Add chopped garlic to oil -- let fry for half a minute.
- Add diced onions; let fry with pan covered for two to three minutes, stirring occasionally with spatula so it doesn’t burn.
- Add cubes of meat to hot oil with the onion and garlic. Fry all together until meat is lightly browned and mixed with onion for flavor.
- While meat is browning, slice the potatoes over the top of the cooking meat and onions.
- Mix around potato into meat/onion mixture to coat potato with flavored drippings.
- Add bouillon granules, spices and water. (personally, I think a fair amount of black pepper makes this dish even better, but that is only my taste, may not be yours).
- Turn up heat on potatoes, water, bouillon and spices and cover until it all comes back to a boil.
- Once boils reduce heat to medium low and cover leaving cooking heat between simmer and medium.
- Let cook covered for approximately 20 minutes to half hour, or until potatoes get soft.
- Once during cooking open lid and flip potatoes so they cook on both sides. This step is optional.
- This will all cook down into a nice stew.
- Right at end, chop about half the softened potatoes up so they will break down faster to form the gravy. Leave the other half in chunks.
- Stew is now ready for final taste test (adjustment of spicing).
- If the stew isn’t quite thick enough, mix some corn starch (two tablespoons) into very cold water (1/2 cup).
- Turn up heat under stew until stew begins to boil.
- Thicken corn starch using flat side of spatula to mix the corn starch into every corner of the liquid and evenly distribute potatoes and meat throughout resulting gravy.
- If too bland, add a little more bouillon granules, pepper or garlic powder as needed.
- Immediately reduce heat to warm setting and keep on low simmer until ready to serve.
- Serving suggestion: accompany stew with a nice side salad, and/it is good simply with buttered bread.
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RECIPE SUBMITTED BY
Tiomarrano
Chico, 43
<p>I am currently retired and trying to salvage our <br />family heirloom recipes that my mother left 40 years ago hand written on now fading recipe cards. <br /><br />I would like to share some of these recipes with the general public. Of course they reflect the old high fat 'un-healthy style of cooking done fruequently in those days. So, if you see something you like, feel free to try to modify it to a more healthy modern equivalent if you don't think it will hurt anything. I see it this way: recipes are guidelines, not commandments.</p>
