As a child, during winter, one of my favorite dinner treats was when my mother would make her been stew.  Something about the contrast of the cold outside and the thought of a warm meal was comforting.  Not only that, the carrots were soft and retained all flavors represented in the dish, the meat just fell apart with the touch of a fork and the potatoes were little bit of heaven.  It was as if all the ingredients mixed together in such a way I was unable to deny this was my comfort food of the time.

With winter waining I wanted to make Mom’s Old Fashion Beef Stew so that I may enjoy the experience once more before spring comes to town.

Ingredients

• 2.5lbs Stew Meat (Pot roast, seven bone roast, etc.)
• ½ onion
• 1 celery stalk
• 6 carrots
• 4 potatoes (Yukon gold or Red)
• 2 tsp salt
• 2 c. V-8 juice
• 2 tlbs tapioca
• 1 tlbs sugar
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 cinnamon stick (optional)

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 250 degrees
2. Cut meat into 1 ½ inch cubes and place in 3 or 4.4 qt oven safe Casserole
3. Peel and slice onion
4. Slice celery and cut potatoes and carrots into chunks
5. Place vegetables in pan
6. Blend salt with sugar and tapioca, Sprinkle over ingredients in pan
7. Place cinnamon stick in dish
8. Pour V-8 juice into pan
9. Wrap dish in foil and Bake stew at 250 degrees for 4 hours

All said and done, it should look something like this when heading into the oven:

As the dish cooks in the oven the moisture in the meat will add to the V-8, creating more of a “gravy” for you to enjoy.  This goes very well with Sourdough bread. I was going to make some, but didn’t plan that far ahead, so I ended up buying fresh baked instead.

A few things to note:

1. The Tapioca can be found in the baking aisle
2. If you cut the vegetable pieces larger, you will need to cook longer until they are tender
3. Make sure the foil is sealed to the edge of the pan you are using so all the heat stays inside the dish while cooking

My dinner has roughly 3 ½ hours left to cook but rest assured I’ll post a picture or two once the finished product comes out of the oven.

And there is the final product, fresh from the oven.

Additional tips/pointers/thoughts:

• I suggest you cut the meat/veggies on the small side, allows for easier eathing and additional time in the oven is not needed
• Depending on your taste, you may wish to remove the cinnamon stick
• This makes for great leftovers

For me, it’s a classic! Enjoy!