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MOTHER'S
STEWMEAT WITH TOMATO GRAVY

When I was a kid at Forest Hill, this was one of my favorite meals. Each morning, during the summertime, before I went fishing, or just roaming in the woods, I would usually check with Mother to see what we were having for dinner. I liked everything she cooked, but if she said, "stewmeat and tomato gravy," it was hard to keep my mind on what I was doing the rest of the morning, for thinking about dinnertime. When I would finally get back to the house after a long walk from one of the lakes, and walked into the kitchen, the smell was just out of this world. As best I can remember, there were never any left-overs.

Ingredients



About 2 pounds of lean beef stewmeat

1 large yellow onion (or 2 regular sized ones), chopped

½ of a large green bell pepper, chopped

2 or 3 cloves of garlic, chopped

2 regular sized cans of tomato sauce

1 packet of McCormick's Brown Gravy Mix, (no substitutes) 24gm size, (0.5 gm of fat)

1 large tablespoon of unbleached, all purpose white flour (0.0 gm of fat).

1 teaspoon of Mexene chile powder

Salt and black pepper to taste

Enough 100% fat free beef broth to cover the meat to about 2 inches (several cans).

PAM ,fat free, no stick cooking spray, sufficient to coat the bottom and sides of a large iron pot for browning the meat.

Kitchen Bouquet



Directions

It's best to make the "roux" (I'll still call it roux, even though we are not browning any flour ingrease) first and set it aside so it will be ready when you need it. To do this, mix the packet of brown gravy mix and the large tablespoon of white flour together in a small bowl. The two ingredients must he well mixed. Add the fat free beef broth to the blended gravy mix and white flour, a little at a time, and throughly mix it until you have a thin slurry that can be poured easily. Since the white flour will cause the resulting blend to be a pale brown, mix in small amounts of the Kitchen Bouquet until the slurry takes on the color of a walnut gun stock. Season the stewmeat with the salt and pepper and brown in the PAM sprayed pot, stirring often to prevent excessive sticking. Do this on a medium to medium low heat, since the PAM may tend to burn more readily than if you were using grease. When the meat is browned on all sides, stir in the chopped vegetables and about a half can of the fat free beef broth, cover the pot and simmer for about five minutes, stirring often. This will slightly wilt the vegetables and also "root out" all of those delicious little browned meat particles stuck to the bottom of the pot. Next, add the "roux" evenly around the pot on top of the meat and vegetables. Rinse the bowl out with some of the beef broth. Add the Mexene chili powder, the two cans of tomato sauce, and enough additional broth to come up about two inches above the meat and vegetable mixture in the pot. Stir occasionally to make sure nothing is sticking to the pot. The gravy may seem thin at first, but as it cooks, it will thicken up. After the mixture has simmered covered for at least an hour (stirring the gravy occasionally as mentioned above) check it for doneness. It should cook quicker than a big roast. One hour of simmering should cook all the vegetables, and the stewmeat should be tender. The gravy should be a fairly dark red. If it looks pale, you probably should have added a little more Kitchen Bouquet, which you could do now if desired. If the gravy gets too thick, add a little beef broth during the cooking. You can eliminate the initial salting of the meat, and instead, add 3 or 4 beef bouillon cubes while it is cooking. This will provide some salt and improve the flavor of the gravy. Serve the stewmeat and the gravy over cooked, medium grain rice. The medium grain rice has the best flavor, although long grain is acceptable. Under no circumstances should you use any kind of "instant" or "parboiled "(converted) rice in any of these rice and gravy dishes. If you like your stew a little on the hot side, add either a teaspoon of red pepper, or about one-half of a jalapeno pepper chopped up, but not both.

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