Beef stew à ma mode

Tonight, I improvised a little beef stew, and I am quite glad of how it came out.

Here's what I did.

I sprinkled 2 lbs of lean stewing beef with flour seasoned with salt, pepper, a generous pinch of hot smoked paprika, and a generous amount of oregano.

I then seared the meat, a few cubes at a time, in olive oil, reserving the meat as it was ready.

Once all the beef had been seared, I sautéed 2 onions, 5 large cloves of garlic, 3 carrots and 3 celery stalks for a few minutes, and deglazed with a large can of diced tomatoes. I put the meat back into the pot, added enough water to barely cover the meat, threw in a few bay leaves and some onion soup base (I had no beef stock on hand), brought everything to a boil, reduced the heat and simmered for a couple hours. The result: a rich stew filled with good stuff. The only thing missing is a nice bottle of red... oh well.