Beef and Vegetable Stew

This is a great Winter dish.  Though the total cooking time is long, most of this is done at a low temperature in the oven and requires very little attention from the cook!  You can make this the day before you want it or put it on to cook in the morning so it is ready to eat whenever you are. Lovely with some creamy mashed potato and steamed green beans or broccoli.

1. Preheat the oven to 150˚C Fan or 160˚C.
2. First, prepare the vegetables.  Remove the ends, peel and slice the carrots, parsnips and celery. (I peel the fibrous strings from the back of the celery sticks).  You want the slices to be reasonably thick as the vegetables will be cooking for 3 hours and you don’t want them to be a mushy heap at the end.
   
   
3. Remove the ends from the onions, peel them, halve them and chop into a medium dice. Remove the ends from the garlic cloves, peel them and then with the flat side of a knife, squash the cloves and then chop them roughly.
   
4. Remove any dirt from the button mushrooms.  Halve any larger ones.
   
5. Put the steak into a plastic bag (or bowl) with the flour and a good grind of pepper and pinch of salt and shake the bag to coat the pieces of meat.
   
6. Heat a tablespoon of the oil in a frying pan.  When the oil is hot, put 1/3 of the meat into the pan and brown the pieces on each side and then remove them to a large casserole dish.  Repeat with 1/3 of the meat at a time, adding more oil as necessary.  (Browning the meat in batches keeps the temperature of the pan nice and hot and ensures the meat browns rather than steams.  The browning adds flavour to the stew).
   
   
7. Pour the Worcestershire Sauce into the casserole dish and add the tomato paste.  Give everything a good stir.  Then add the carrots, parsnips, celery, onion and garlic.  (Don’t add the mushrooms at this stage).  Add the stock and mix everything well.  Tuck the herbs in and bring the casserole dish up to a simmer on the stove top then put the dish into the oven.
   
8. Cook for 2 1/2 hours (stirring occasionally if you happen to be in the kitchen).  Then add the mushrooms and cook for a further 30 minutes. Remove the cooked herbs before serving.