As the days become darker and colder I decided to spend the afternoon in the kitchen making this winter warmer. With the mens footy on the international breaking I had the WSL on my phone via SKY (Chelsea v Man City) and Paul Weller on Vinyl…what could go wrong, sounds great yeah??? Wrong. Sadly you spend 3 hours making a stew for the family only for them to turn their noses up at it 😞. Too be honest I thought it tasted really nice, to the point I went back for seconds and mopped that up with bread!!!

Food is like life…….you can’t please everyone.

When I put all the ingredients out I was really looking forward to this dish and the process. Big chunky veg, chunky shallots that break down, celery, aubergine, beef stock, seared beef which was nice and browned, roasted peppers, mushrooms, garlic, star anise, bay leaf, tomato purée with lots of chopped parsley…..yes I thought so too!!!

The process was as simple as it could be. Peel and cut the carrots into chunky pieces. Do the same with the shallots then chop the celery the same way, big pieces. Heat a touch of olive oil in a heavy based pan. Add the chunks of veg ( 3 carrots, 4 shallots, 4 celery sticks and 3 cloves of garlic) and bashed garlic cloves then gently fry.

Whilst the vegetables are gently warming through add a touch of olive oil to a frying pan. Heat the oil then fry the beef in small batches. Don’t be frightened to crisp up the outsides. This goes against how I like my beef, however, this retains the flavour inside, gives a lovely crust on the outside then the beef relaxes in the stock for the stew.

Fry the beef in small batches as not to over crowd the pan as this will poach their beef and slow down the cooking process. Retain the juices. As you put the final pieces of beef in the pan add diced aubergine, 1 tbsp of tomato purée, 1 star anise and a bay leaf in with the vegetables and give it a good stir.

Add the beef stock plus the jar of roasted peppers which you will need to chop up. These break down into the stew to take it to another level.

Add the pre-cooked beef.

Give this all a good stir then sit back to allow the favours to party away.

As the stock comes to a boil, reduce the heat then allow it to simmer for 1 1/2 hours.

If the stock looks a little dry, top it up with some boiling water from the kettle which I did. About 15 minutes from the end of cooking add your diced mushrooms.

Give the dish a good stir. Add the caramelised stew from the side of the pan as this contains lots of flavour. At this point I seasoned the dish with a good handful of sea salt and coarse pepper.

In the last few moments of cooking add a good handful of chopped parsley.

I served mine with some pre-cooked sticky rice.

Thanks for reading.

I’m so far behind with writing up what I cook it’s unreal. I’m trying to keep up but struggling due to how little by it takes, plus the website will be taken down in January as it costs £109 per year so it’s another cost that I don’t need. Originally I started this to help me shut off from my work but not I’m really only doing this for myself as I don’t get much interest or interaction from what I write. I’ll keep the site just for me but not for the wider public.

If you have read this then thanks.