Well it’s coming into winter again time to put the BBQ away and start making hot soups and stews. When the temperature starts to drop outside your mind automatically stops thinking about fish and chicken with salad, you want good wholesome hearty winter warmers. This time of year you don’t mind the stove or oven being on for hours. This is the time when you can do slow roasted meals, or pot roasts, so I have decided to post a rich, hearty beef stew recipe to start warming things back up again.

Ingredients                                                                                                                                                  1kg Chuck steak
1/4 Cup brandy
11/2 Cups dry red wine
5 Sprigs thyme, fresh
4 Bay leaves
4 Cloves garlic, crushed
2 Tablespoons olive oil
30g Butter
4 cups beef stock
3 Tablespoons tomato paste
5 Small brown onions
200g Button mushrooms, Quartered
2 Carrots, peeled, chopped
6 bacon rashers, chopped
2 Tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
2 teaspoons cornflour
bisto instant gravy granules (optional)

Method

1. Cut steak into approximately 3cm pieces. Combine wine, brandy, garlic, bay leaves and thyme in a bowl or storage container add steak, cover and refrigerate several hours or overnight.

2. Drain the steak reserving the marinade for later use. Heat oil in a fry pan and cook steak in batches until browned. In an ovenproof dish add steak, reserved marinade, stock and tomato paste. Cook covered either in a slow oven or very low stove top setting for 21/2 hours.

3. Melt butter in another pan add onions, cook until lightly browned, remove onions from pan and add chopped mushrooms cook for few minutes and remove. Wipe pan to remove any left over butter then add bacon, cook until browned and crisp, drain on absorbent paper.

4. Add onions, mushrooms and bacon to the steak mixture and cook for a further 30 minutes still covered. Boil or microwave carrots until just tender, drain and add to stew.

5. If cooking in the oven remove and place on stove top. Add a little water to the cornflour and pour into stew, stir until mixture thickens. At this point I add bisto to thicken it up all the way and it adds even more flavour. If your not using this you will need to use more cornflour for the thickness of the stew. Also taste test it, as if not using bisto you may want to add a little more beef stock powder to mixture.

To serve I either heap spoonfuls on a bed of mash potato or I serve it with baby new potatoes.

All photo’s taken by me unless otherwise stated.