Beef and Potato Stew with Onion, Carrot and Garlic
I love it when there are potatoes stewed with meat for dinner. Sure, breakfast is the most important meal of the day. That's what official science says. But science doesn't know that for many people day turned into night long ago, and what's called breakfast can easily become lunch or dinner. That's the reality of the modern world.
People who watch their lifestyle and eat well and on time have come up with all kinds of theories, and often call ordinary ham and eggs a trendy “English” breakfast. Then there's the European continental breakfast, based on Mediterranean recipes: light dishes that nevertheless keep you full until lunch.
It's all tradition, that is, a set of ideas and customs passed down from generation to generation. I don't understand why we so easily adopt other people's traditions and forget our own. When I was little, breakfast at home was usually quick but filling. Most often it was fried eggs, a slice of bread, tea with lemon and cookies. Sometimes there were “milk” sausages or wieners; back then they were still safe to eat. At my grandmother's in the village it was simpler: plenty of fresh milk from the morning milking and fresh bread with honey. And mind you, without any theories!
Now, living in the city, where eating properly and regularly is extremely hard, dinner has become perhaps the only real chance for a decent meal. Unless you count a beer and a cigarette at a café as dinner.
And yet making a dinner that fills you up, is good for you and, most importantly, is hot isn't hard at all. A piece of meat, an onion, a carrot, a few potatoes. And only about an hour of your time.
Stewed potatoes with meat and vegetables is an easy dish that cooks fairly quickly.
Ingredients
2 servings
- Beef (stew meat) 400 g
- Potatoes 4-5
- Onions 2
- Carrot 1
- Garlic 1-2 cloves
- Vegetable oil 3 tbsp
- Ground black pepper, savory, salt to taste
Step-by-step recipe
- Trim the beef of any bone and membranes. Cut the meat into small slices with a knife.
- Peel the onions and slice them into thin strips. Peel the carrot and cut it into small cubes. Heat 3 tbsp vegetable oil in a deep frying pan and add the prepared onion and carrot.
- Fry the onion and carrot over medium heat, stirring often. They should turn soft and just about start to brown.
- Add the beef, cut into small slices, to the vegetables and fry everything together for 6-7 minutes.
- Add spices to taste: salt, ground black pepper and 1-2 pinches of savory. Peel the garlic cloves and chop them with a knife. Add the garlic to the meat.
- Pour 2 cups of water over the meat and vegetables and simmer everything, covered, over the lowest heat until the beef is tender.
- Cut the potatoes into cubes. Not too small, or they'll cook down into mash, but big chunks won't cook through properly either. Add the potatoes to the stewed meat.
- Simmer the potatoes with the meat and vegetables, covered, for about 20 minutes, until the potatoes are done.
- The stewed potatoes with meat and vegetables are ready.
- Divide the finished stewed potatoes with meat and vegetables among plates and serve while hot.
| Serves: | 2 servings |
| Calories: | 138 |
| Prep: | 15 mins |
| Cook: | 1 h 15 mins |
| Total: | 1 h 30 mins |
| Category: | Main Dishes |
| Cuisine: | European |
| Rating: |
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4.6
(9)
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