I grew up in Maryland, and we had stew once a week in the winter. Just like popsicles were a summer treat and ice cream was reserved for winter, stew was very much a winter, cold weather, bundle up inside kind of meal. Well, it is never that cold down here, but I still find stew a comfort food the same way some people think of meatloaf. I make it at least a few times a month, it’s great because I can pop it in the crock and leave it to sit all day and voila, dinner is ready right on time to scoop out and onto plates.

you need

• stew meat (the pre-cubed stuff, it says stew meat on the package) – I get about two pounds. By the way, I like the stuff labeled stew emat because you usually get a good cut of meat. I’ve even made stew out of tenderloin before when we butcher our own. Often the “stew meat” is scraps of the good stuff that wasn’t big enough to sell as a true cut of beef.

• cornstarch (enough to coat the meat)

• 4 cups of beef stock (chicken works just as well, to be honest, but I wouldn’t go with vegetable stock)

• whatever veggies you want to put in – I like carrots, potatoes, onions, peas, green beans and maybe corn if I want to add some color, but really any veggie will do, it’s the beauty of stew!

• garlic – I use 3 – 4 crushed cloves

• salt & pepper to taste

Coat the beef cubes in corn starch. You can also choose to just dredge them through the cornstarch, but I’ve had better result thoroughly coating them.

Reserve your left over cornstarch for later in the recipe

Toss them into a pan with some butter or oil or whatever and pre-cook them. You are basically pan frying the beef, but the cornstarch protects it from overcooking, and helps make the gravy (more on that later).

While you are waiting to turn your beef over to cook the other side, pour your beef stock into your crock pot (I use a 6 quart crock and this all fits in nicely, I have no idea if it will fit well in a smaller one) and set it to high to warm it up right quick.

Go turn your beef, and when it’s done, slide it into your crock with the stock. Be careful not to splash that hot stock on your arms! It takes me two to four pans of beef to pre-cook all of it, so this step takes me a good half hour to fully complete.

Let your beef and beef stock cook for a few hours. Add your potatoes now if you are using fresh/raw. You can wait a bit if you are using canned or frozen.

If you aren’t going to be home to break this up into stages, feel free to add all your veggies at this point, and turn your crock down a notch from high (if your crock is like mine, you have warm, low and high, turn it to low, then turn it to high for 30 -60 minutes when you get home to finish off the cooking process).

If you will be home, let it sit a bit, and in a few hours check on how thick the gravy is (remember how we coated our beef? that’s what helps make the stock into gravy) If you want it a little thicker, make a slurry with your reserved cornstarch and cold water and pour it slowly in while stirring until you get a good consistency. Remember it will continue to thicken!

Now is the time to add your veggies as well. Let it all sit for a few hours more and that’s it! Your beef should be very tender, shredding easily. If it is not, let it cook a while longer.

I like to serve this with some lightly buttered bread, it tastes yummy to dip in the gravy