beef stew proportion fail

a.k.a. and on to an argh evening. 


i made beef stew late last night. followed a recipe from my Real Simple cookbook. i cut down the ingredients according to proportion, using my beef to say i was going for a recipe for 2-4 instead of 8-10. 


all went smoothly. stew stewed nicely. today i halved it and stuck one half into the freezer for another beef stew day. at 7pm i put the pot on the stove to heat it, adding the frozen peas* as instructed in the recipe. 


come serving time, i discovered a disproportionate amount of meat versus potatoes--i thought i'd done a decent job of halving the stew, assuming it was well mixed. wrong. the heated version contained about 2 cubes of meat and tons of potatoes in amongst the thick sauce. back to the freezer. back to heating. at least it only took 10 minutes.


serving time round 2, proportion issues banished. our poor LP wanted to eat stew, but he'd never had stew before, so the coating of sauce threw him off. oh my agony watching him look knowing he wanted to eat. he did try the peas and some beef but it was too unfamiliar. we resorted to odds and ends. a few raisins. some yogurt. and oh, his default alphabet block cookies from Earth's Best. 


argh.  


at least BBB said the stew was quite like how he would get beef stew at home. good. you see, filipino beef stew tasted nothing like it. 


*having tried fresh from the garden peas in the UK, frozen peas don't even come close. in fact, i am not trying frozen peas again for a very long time.