Yankee Doodle Stew with Vegetables

Hi girls. This is what we had for supper tonight! Can you believe I'm posting something less than 4 hours after making and eating it? I can't. But there's nothing on TV. So we had some stew beef from a farm cow in our freezer so when I came across this recipe I decided to try it. I liked that it used a lot of spices which I don't usually use, which I paid $3.69 for for one recipe, and have since sat in the cupboard. These will be marked with an asterisk (*) so you know which ones they are. My m-i-l says that paprika and one other one can get worms in them if you keep them too long. I did not know that. Wish I could remember the other one. So this recipe is from the Better Homes & Gardens 75 years of favorites etc.

Yankee Doodle Stew with Vegetables
1/4 cup flour
2 lbs boneless beef chuck, cut into 1 inch pieces (not sure if this is the same as stew beef or not. I bet not, since this is Bettah Homes & Gahdens, it's probably like the most expensive meat cut)
3 tbsp cooking oil
4 cups water
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 clove garlic, minced (I used garlic in a jar. Even though I have my garlic press now, I want to use up what I have)
2 bay leaves*
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp salt (this was definitely not enough)
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp paprika*
dash ground allspice* (a dash is like 1/16 of a tsp)
6 tiny new potatoes, halved (??? this is March. I'm pretty sure there's no new potatoes yet. Any in the store would be like a year old right now. I just used red skinned potatoes, so I didn't have to peel them. A big shout-out to my mom for delivering them today)
6 medium carrots, quartered
1 pound of boiling onions (I did not buy these. But you can. See note at the end of the recipe for what to do with them if you're interested)
1 tbsp flour
2 tbsp cold water
1/4 dry sherry, optional (I just drank this, didn't put it in the stew. Ha ha just kidding. I left it out)
snipped parsley, optional (again, I opted to omit)

Place 1/4 cup flour in plastic bag. Add meat, a few pieces at a time, and shake to coat. In a kettle, brown meat, 1/3 at a time, in hot oil (I did the flour thing for like 6 pieces of meat then gave up. It was messy in the extreme, also made the oil spatter a lot, and I was like "never mind". I just browned all the rest of it without coating with flour first. I don't know if this made a big difference or not). Drain meat well. Return all meat to the kettle. Add the 4 cups of water, chopped onion, garlic, and bay leaves to meat. Stir in the sugar, lemon juice, worcestershire sauce, salt, peppper, paprika, and allspice. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer, covered, for 1 1/2 hours, or until meat is nearly tender (I only did 1 hr 15 mins. I think stew beef is never "nearly tender", anyway. That's why it's the part of the cow they use for stew). Add the potatoes, carrots, and boiling onions. Return to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer, covered, for 20-30 minutes more or until vegetables are tender (mine took 30). Discard bay leaves (if you can find them. If not, they'll turn up later). Remove meat and vegetables to serving dish (guess what I used? My two big bowls were dirty so I used my new trifle dish. It looked a bit silly but served the purpose. I didn't use the stand though). Cover and keep warm. For gravy, in a small bowl combine the 1 tbsp of flour and 2 tbsp cold water, mix until smooth. Stir into the mixture in kettle. Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly. Cook and stir for 1 minute longer. If using, stir in sherry (if you have any left). Pour gravy over meat and vegetables. Sprinkle with parsley, if using. Makes 6 to 8 servings.

Here's the note about the boiling onions: To make peeling the boiling onions easier, place them in boiling water for 3 minutes; drain. Trim off root ends and gently press the onions to slip the skins off (this just seemed like way too much work for something everyone was going to pick around anyway).

So after this long recipe and effort, it wasn't fabulous. I think part of the problem was the meat, which is always a bit too tough when you use stew beef. But I am very thankful that it was given to us anyway. And, the broth just didn't seem to want to thicken up. The girls in our family always use cornstarch to thicken rather than flour, but I usually stick to the recipe fairly close the first time, and I had already left out the boiling onions and used garlic in a jar. So I didn't want to deviate too far. Maybe it wasn't enough flour, I don't know. Of course I didn't want it to be thick like gravy, but a little stew-ier rather than soup-ier would have been nice. And we had no bread to sopp it up, because I baked a quick bread from a Pampered Chef mix (Good Company Beer Bread Mix) that has been in my cupboard for years. Seriously. And it smelled good while it was baking, but had a terrible taste to it. So I threw it away (and you know it's bad if Duke Frugal allows that). And, horror of horrors (for Emma), the potatoes had SKIN on them! This was terrible. She did not know this existed. Shades of grandpa, peeling his red potato. Except I had to peel them. Oh well. It was a good try, but doesn't make the cut.