It's wet, cold and mucky days like today that make me wish I'd made a bigger pot of beef stew last night.
Seriously, the easiest recipe on the planet.
There's no measuring, no weighing, no detailed instructions. This is a a real country-style pot of comfort food that packs a punch with flavor. Guaranteed.
You can save some time if your supermarket sells prechopped stewing meat, onions and carrot, and get one of those squeezy tubes of fresh garlic.
Ready?
QUICK AND EASY BEEF STEW
Ingredients
about a kilo (2+pounds) of chopped stewing beef
a big onion, roughly chopped
a big carrot, roughly chopped
3 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
2 generous tablespoons of mixed dry herbs
half bottle of good dry red wine (I used merlot here but also use Medoc)
equal measure of beef stock (not broth) as wine
2-3 tablespoons of plain flour
cooking oil
floury potatoes, about 2 tennis ball size per person
Instructions
Preheat your cooking pot with the oil. Toss in your meat and flour together and give it a good stir. Be sure the meat gets well-covered. When the flour has browned and the meat looks like it's startint to cook, toss in the rest of the ingredients.
Stir well, then cover and bring to a boil then turn down to simmer and cook for 90 minutes to 2 hours, or until the meat is tender and falling apart. Pretty much forget about it, but set your timer. By 90 minutes, your house should be filled with the smell of the stew.
Just before it's done, put the potatoes in the microwave (should be less than ten minutes). When they're done, roughly chop them up in a deep bowl and mash to break them up a little before ladling on the stew.
*Tip: the better cut of meat, the tastier it will be. I prefer skirt steak (not flank) when I can find it
That's it. 10-15 minutes prep and the meal is done in about two hours. If you want to eat at 7pm, get it in the pot for 5pm. That's it
Serves 2 to 4
And you have leftover wine for the table.
No matter how you say it, it's...
Ithe maith!
¡Buen provecho!
Buona mangiata!
Gutes Essen!
Bon appetit!
Bwyta da!
Liánghǎo de yǐnshí!
Dobré jedlo!
Ukutya okumnandi!
Khoroshaya yeda!
Yoi shoku!
'akl jyd!
Goed eten!
Good eating!
