good beef stew! and thickening tip

Ah, beef stew with a pleasant thickness without the mess of dredging in flour before browning the meat – or the bother of straining and thickening the broth after cooking. That tip from Cook’s Illustrated worked great – add flour and cook a bit to the sauted onion/garlic before deglazing and adding the rest of the liquid.

Although, since I also added potatoes 1/2 way through the cooking, by the next day it was “glop.” Luckily, I have some beef broth to thin it out upon re-heating. I really like those aseptic cartons of broth and stock for when I don’t have homemade available. I also use that brand of boullion that comes as a paste in a jar in a pinch – and did use that when making the stew (used chicken flavor for that) but the packaged (verus canned) stock and broth is great.

Anyway – an experiement with using “what I had on hand” that worked.