Beef stew, delicious on a cold evening.
I need a stew right now. This is stew weather in Cape Town. Warm and bright during the day and bitterly cold at night. This is hearty warming food. Stews are one of my favourite types of recipes.
Stews are the ultimate in real, comfort food. I also love slow cooking. For me a stew is not a proper stew unless you eat it a day after you make it. When cooked it needs to rest overnight and then you heat it up again. Whatever it is about the ingredients, the cooking, and resting, the flavours just marry beautifully. There are so many recipes for stews and I’ve tried many but the one I keep coming back is a beef stew inspired by Jamie Oliver.
I once read that he had given up browning the meat for stews although it went against all his training by doing this. He felt the meat was sweeter and had a cleaner taste. So I stick to that now.
It’s the final flourish on this recipe which is Jamie’s. It’s so clever.
He's a decent bloke, our Jamie is.
Ingredients.
Butter and olive oil
Flour for dusting
1 onion peeled and chopped
A handful of fresh sage leaves
800g stewing beef
2 parsnips, peeled and quartered
4 carrots, peeled and halved
4 celery stalks, chopped finely
500g small potatoes
2 tablespoons of tomato puree
Half bottle of red wine (don’t use plonk)
285ml vegetable stock
When stew is ready to serve you will need a handful of rosemary, crushed. 1 clove of garlic peeled and chopped finely and a teaspoon of zest of lemon.
Method.
Preheat oven to 160 degrees.
Put a little oil and a knob of butter in a casserole pot. Lucky you if you have a Le Creuset pot, off you go.
Add onion and sage. Fry for a few minutes. Toss cubed meat in flour. Add to pot. Stir. Add all vegetables. Add tomato puree, wine and stock. Stir. Season to taste. Simmer. Put in oven
Cook for 3 hours. Check that the meat falls apart. Turn off oven. Let stew sit overnight.
Heat for 20 minutes the next day for evening meal. Mix lemon zest, rosemary and garlic. Sprinkle over stew before serving. The smell is out of this world. Jamie, you are clever.
This stew is a winner and is actually very easy to make.
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are you sure – 500 potatoes?
500 potatoes – well I know you’re Irish and they love potatoes….
Well spotted Michael. Just testing how eagle eyed our readers are.
And for being quick off the mark, and saving me more blushes, I are awarding you a prize of a Benguela Trading wooden chopping board.
These are exceptional boards, made from french oak wine barrels, and a selection of cheese, fruit and crackers looks so good on one.
From now on we will be running a weekly ‘comment of the week prize’, and you, MIchael, are the winner this week. Well done!
Please e.mail with your contact details and address.
The stew looks lovely! I am definetly going to try that out myself!
I totally agree with not browning the meat before. I’ve never browned the meat beforehand when making stew. This recipe is very different from my stew recipe and looks divine!! Definitely need to try this.