No-frills beef stew

[azurelunatic]

First up, this is not a last minute dinner. This is an all-afternoon or all-day dinner. Plan accordingly. When you get a formulation you like, it makes excellent leftovers. This recipe is imprecise, and can be tailored to your personal needs in beef stew. This is how my mother made it, and it's still one of my favorite foods.

Ingredients:
Stew beef (not too much fat, cut in bite-sized cubes); you could use chicken but then it would no longer be beef stew -- in a quantity sufficient to let everyone have at least three good chunks in their bowl
a whole mess of potatoes, scrubbed or peeled and cut in chunks; about any kind of potato will do although I have not tried it with sweet potatoes -- about half a large potato per serving but you can fiddle with this.
Vegetable or vegetables of choice (I often use carrots and celery) cut in small pieces -- maybe 1/4 cup per serving but you can fiddle with this as you prefer
Onions in your preferred form (fresh cut in pieces, dried, or onion powder)
Garlic in your preferred form (fresh chopped or pressed, or garlic powder)
Italian seasoning, or as many as you can find/as you actually like of its usual components (bay leaves, basil, oregano, thyme, rosemary, sage, marjoram, savory, coriander [I personally loathe it], red pepper flakes, parsley)
Water
Oil (optional)
Salt (optional)
Soy sauce (optional)

Serving suggestion: with bread


Materials:
Washing facility
Cutting surface/knife or knives
(optional: garlic press if you're using fresh garlic)
a large pot with lid if by stovetop (do not fill it more than 3/4 full) -- or a crockpot, which you can fill pretty full
a stirring utensil (heat-resistant spoon or some such)
(optional: frying pan to brown meat & caramelize onions & appropriate stirring utensil for it -- if it's nonstick do not use metal in it for example)
a serving utensil (ladle is preferable but in a pinch you can often use the large spoon you were stirring with)
bowls or some such to serve it in, spoons (best large)


Method:

Trim excess fat from beef. A little bit is generally fine; large chunks can get gross in the stew.
If you have fresh onions, chopping them now would be good. Ditto fresh garlic: chop or press.
You can wash and chop the vegetables and potatoes now, or a little later after stuff is browned.

You may want to brown the beef and caramelize the onions for flavor. If you are doing this in a crockpot, this is where you break out the frying pan. If you are doing this in a large pot, you can save time and pans by browning in the bottom of your stew pot (stir a lot so it does not burn on).

If you wanted olive oil and/or soy sauce, this is where you deploy it: in with the meat and onions and garlic to provide liquid/grease. Stir everything until you see that the meat is visibly starting to cook on the outside. This is typically done at a higher temperature than you will be cooking, and is to make your meat turn attractively browned instead of greyish, and to make it taste better. If you have onions in there too, you will notice that they slowly get clearer, and brown about the edges.

Once it is starting to smell really delicious, it is time to add the water.

If you are browning in the pot, add the water and cut potatoes and vegetables.
If you are browning in a frying pan, dump the contents in your pot or crockpot, then add the water and cut potatoes and vegetables. Add your seasoning at this time -- don't overdo it; you can add more later if it's too bland. (If you're using powdered/dried garlic or onions, do it here.)

Lid it and turn it on high until it starts steaming. Give it a stir from time to time.

Once it has commenced boiling, you can turn down the heat and leave it to simmer until the potatoes have started to disintegrate and thicken the stew. Taste it to make sure that it's not too bland.

Goes well with sourdough bread.