I have been dying to try my hand at beef stew, it is one of my favorite comfort foods. I particularly love the stew from Cracker Barrel. I was hoping to replicate it, but I was not completely successful in that respect. I adjusted the recipe from what I did because I accidentally added too much pepper and salt, oops, but it wasn’t bad at all, just a bit peppery. So follow theses directions pretty closely- or at least don’t add too much pepper or salt.
The most exciting part of today’s meal was that I very successfully thickened the stew with corn starch perfectly, for the first time ever. I have had quite a few very bad tries at thickening with corn starch in the past- the neighbor dog has greatly enjoyed eating the mistakes of the past, most notably, a gelatinous ham gravy from Christmas- ewww gross!
Ingredients:
1 lb stew meat (beef chopped into small pieces)
6 medium potatoes- diced (4-6 c)
2 medium onions- coarsely chopped
1 c celery- diced
2 c peas
2 c carrots
white pepper
black pepper
sea salt
flour
minced garlic
garlic powder
oil
4- 5 bouillon cubes
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can tomato sauce
4 tsp worchestire sauce
Water
Corn starch- for thickening
Directions:
- Thaw meat overnight
- Mix 2-3 heaping tsp flour with 1 tbs garlic powder and 1 palm of white pepper
- Dump into bowl or bag with thawed beef
- Toss to coat meat
- Add oil to skillet
- Brown beef
- Add 1 c water and bouillon cubes to skillet, melt cubes (low temp)
- Dump mixture into oiled slow cooker
- Add diced potatoes, celery, carrots, peas, onions to slow cooker
- Add a palm of sea salt, palm of white pepper, 3 tsp black pepper
- Add 4 heaping tsp of minced garlic, 4 tsp Worchestire sauce
- Add tomatoes and tomato sauce
- Add water to almost cover food, about 3 cups
- Cook on high for 5- 6 hours or low 7-9 hours
- Add corn starch to thicken if needed
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