I'm making my first stew using about 2 lbs (1 kilo) of beef - how would you make it?

Dredge the meat in a little bit of flour and then brown it in a Dutch oven on top of the stove in a little bit of hot oil. Add some beef broth or water to it and the spices and cook in the oven with the potatoes, cut up onions and carrot. Tightly cover the pot and let it cook a few hours. You’ll want to check on it from time to time to see if you need to add more liquid. When the meat and vegetables are tender, taste and if you need to adjust the seaoning. (A bay leave is nice to ahve in the pot or a bouquet garni.) You could add some red wine toward the end of the cooking and also the cherry tomatoes about 15 minutes before the end.

Can I leave out the meat? We’re a TVP Stew household.

TVP is some kind of soy based product? Sure, you wouldn’t need to cook it as long then.

Yay! Yes, it’s textured vegetable protein. Comes in flakes, chunks and strips.

I soak the TVP in red wine, liquid smoke, salt and pepper. Sweat onions, bell peppers (diced) and garlic. Mix in quart of Not-Chicken broth, diced russet potatoes, onion/pepper mix, cumin and biased-sliced carrots (thick). Toss in TVP once boil is reached. Turn to simmer and let boil down 1–2 inches then add tapioca starch for thickener. Sometimes I add other things depending on my mood- like walnuts or raisins.

Here’s a fairly foolproof recipe for Brunswick stew. I’ve never had any complaints. This serves 4, but I usually double everything:
Parts List:

1 lb diced beef
1 cup diced potatoes
1 cup baby lima beans
1 chopped medium onion
1 cup corn
1 TBS sugar or maple syrup
1 cup beef broth
2 cups water

Method:
Brown beef in oiled skillet, add beef broth and water. Simmer 1hr. Add beans, potatoes, tomatoes and onions. Simmer another 30 minutes or until veggies are tender. Add sugar and corn. Simmer another 10 minutes.

Goes particularly will with cornbread.

Update – it came out delish!

Cool!

Is it too mean that I want to tell gemiwing to let her family out into the yard to graze rather than wasting her time cooking TVP?

@gemiwing My apologies to you. I’m in a dark mood, and its coming thru here. I do the vegetarian thing at times.

@Zen_Again I like to toss 2–3 cloves of garlic in with the cubed meat when browning the meat. I concur with @janbb about dredging the meat in flour first. Brown real well almost burning the meat which will help to get a nice brown gravy. I sneak a splash of beer for added rich flavor. A light beer of lager works best for me but only a few table spoons in the stew the rest is for the chef! ;)

I recently scored a huge hit by substituting matzo balls for ½ the potatoes or all of them. I cook the meat alone covered in water and beer for one hour. Add the potatoes and carrots and cook on low flame for another hour, add the celery and onions and matzo balls…add beef broth to cover the ensemble and cook one more hour. Test for doneness and dig in! If you have frozen peas and corn a handful of each adds color and dimension to the overall meal.

Glad you were successful Zen. My only suggestion was that if the potatoes did not thicken it enough, to use a little cornstarch.

In order to really get the meat to brown, it helps to dry the chunks with a paper towel first, and then brown them a few at a time.

I love adding a parsnip (or two, for a big pot of stew). I adore parsnips for their sweet+savory character. I slice them across like carrots down to the skinny part and then just cut the tip into segments.

However, I seldom bring parsnips home because my family looks upon them as punishment. So sometimes I just boil them and butter them all for myself.

We don’t care for a tomatoey stew, but we do add a handful of frozen peas toward the end.

I didn’t know cherry tomatoes were so delicious when cooked – they taste much different than regular ones. They do need about 12 minutes – the recipe said only a few.

When I cook for you, Jeruba, I’ll use peas.

* sigh *