Braised Beef Cubes in Gravy

From www.hillbillyhousewife.com

I walked to the store and bought beef cubes, not even thinking about what I can do with them.  They just looked good!  I googled "beef cube recipes" and found a bunch of stuff, but this one looked the easiest and most enticing.  I will let ya know how it comes out!

1 1/2 to 2 lbs beef (any cut will do)- I used 2 lbs of stew meat

1/3 cup flour

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper.

3 tbsp bacon grease or oil 

1 tbsp minced garlic (my own addition)

2 cups hot tap water (I used chicken stock here instead- if I had beef broth, I would've used that instead, but I only had chicken.  O well.)

1/2 cup milk

Cut beef into cubes, trimming the fat as you are cutting.  In a bowl, combine the flour, salt & pepper.  Place the meat in the flour, coating it on all sides.  Heat up the oil & cook the garlic.  Brown meat on all sides (about 10 min.)  After the meat is well browned, add the water.  Bring to a simmer. The original recipe instructs you to cover and cook the meat/water mixture for 2 hours, but I found that by an hour, it was completely cooked and o so delicious.  Of course, I added in some seasonings that both DH and I like while it was simmering, like this Shanghai rub that I bought in the store, a whole lot of garlic powder, and a nice sprinkling of Italian seasoning.  O and I also sprinkled on some seasoned salt.  

Mix remaining flour and milk.  Pour mixture into the skillet and bring to a boil, cooking for a full minute.  If the gravy gets too thick, add water until it is the consistency you like.

Serve over mashed potatoes, cooked rice or egg noodles.  (Thinking about it now that it's done, this would be fabulous over mashed potatoes, but I don't have any nor do I have the desire to mash them, so we shall be using egg noodles.)

Definitely a great recipe that you can adapt to your liking.  Give it a try.  Unfortunately, DH hated it, and he really eats anything.  Very odd.  O well, now I have lunch for tomorrow@