GRANNY'S BEEF STEW

Steps:

• Put about two cups of flour on a plate, or layer of foil, and season well with salt, pepper and garlic. Heat about a 1/4 to 1/2 inch of oil in a skillet. Flour meat in small batches and brown in hot oil. Transfer meat to soup pot, and continue until all meat is browned.
• Add onion, 2 cans of broth, about a cup of red wine, tomato sauce, and bay leaf to soup pot, bring to a boil, then cover and let simmer at least one hour. Remove bay leaf. Taste the broth of the stew at this point and decide if it needs a little salt or pepper. Also decide if there is enough broth, and at this point you can add more wine or beef broth.
• Peel carrots and slice into disks about ¼ inch thick (or you can use the little baby carrots - then you won't have to slice them etc). Add to pot, let cook about a half hour.
• Peel potatoes and cut into pieces about the same size as the stew meat chunks. Add to pot, let cook until potatoes are tender.
• Now you need to thicken the broth just a bit. Easiest way is to take about two tablespoons of flour, in a small bowl, and add about a tablespoon of oil. This will make a paste - add enough of the broth from the stew to this mixture to thin it out, to make it almost pourable. Add this mixture to the stew, stirring constantly as you pour it in (or it will lump up). When it's mixed in well, put the cover back on and let it cook about 10 more minutes.