Beef Stew (Bife Guizado)
Growing up, my mother use to make this beef stew once a week, we loved it with sour dough bread.
Today I make it for my family  and have added my own touches, black pepper and thyme.
Here is how I make it.


                               

Here the stew has cooled down and is ready to be refrigerated

Ingredients

2lb of beef chuck
1/4 cup of flour
4 large white potatoes peeled and cut up to bite size
5  allspice whole corns
1/2 tsp of black pepper freshly ground
2 tsp of sea salt
1 tsp of red hot pepper sauce (optional)
1 tsp of paprika
2 cups of water

1 cup of white wine
1 tsp chopped fine parsley
3- 5 cloves of garlic crushed
1/2 cup of tomato  sauce or 1/4 of tomato paste
1/4 tsp of thyme
1/4 cup of olive oil
1tbp of lard (optional) see note bellow

Wash and cut the beef to 1-2 inch size pieces and dry with paper towel, dredge with the flour. On stove add to a medium pot  1/4 cup of olive oil  and pork fat to a medium size pot, add the beef, bay leave, black pepper, allspice, and and let cook till it begins to color add the onions, garlic, paprika, thyme, and red pepper sauce, let cook for a few minutes, add the wine the water tomato sauce and parsley and let cook for 1hour or till beef is fork tender. Once the meat is tender, add the cut up potatoes and let them cook for 10 minutes. Adjust the stew for salt and pepper.

  Note: Lard  (Pork fat) is sold in ethnic Portuguese stores, when not available I have used bacon drippings, as this fat is only used for flavor you can omit it out of the  recipe..