This recipe is slow cooking but the every bit of it is totally worth the wait. If you’re like me who likes beef stews, I know you would appreciate the process of why beef has to be cooked slowly over a long period of time. If you have no patience for waiting, then you’re better off ordering your beef stews from a restaurant or let someone else cook for you.

This is the dish where the first bite or smell gets you hungry immediately. And it also makes you remember what it was like to taste it for the first time as a child. For me, it was my grandma who made it for dinner. She let us sit on our chairs and wait as she ladled on this steamy sauce onto our plates. Nothing beats that first bite into the soft and moist meat.

It makes me feel all warm and nice when I accomplish a recipe that my ancestors before me have perfected long ago. It’s like I have passed the test. Now I am ready to make my kids feel the same way. I want them to experience the sensation of tasting a good home cooked meal that would satisfy them completely. I know they’ll never forget that. And to me, that would be mission accomplished.

Ingredients

  • 3 pounds beef stew meat, cut into 1-inch pieces
  • 1/3 cup Italian salad dressing
  • 2 cups water
  • 2 teaspoons beef bouillon granules
  • 1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes, undrained
  • 1 (10.5 ounce) can condensed beef broth
  • 1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon dried oregano
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
  • 6 small potatoes, quartered
  • 6 carrots, cut into 1-inch pieces
  • 1 green bell pepper, cut into 1/2-inch dice
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
  • 3 tablespoons cold water

Description

  1. Warm up your large skillet or Dutch oven over medium heat. Place in the beef and Italian dressing and cook until the meat is browned. That should be about 5 minutes.
  2. Next, add 2 cups of water, beef bouillon, diced tomatoes, beef broth, tomato sauce, garlic, bay leaf, salt, pepper and oregano to the skillet. Bring this one to a boil.
  3. Reduce the heat to medium-low, cover it up and simmer until the meat is tender. That takes about an hour and a half.
  4. Then, add in potatoes, carrots, bell pepper and onion into the stew. Cover this and simmer over low heat this time. This takes another 45 minutes.
  5. Mix flour and cold water in a small bowl. Then add this to the stew mixture and stir slowly. Bring this to a boil and cook until the stew sauce has thickened. Give this about 2 minutes. Discard the bay leaf. Best served hot.