Beef Stew

It's not winter without a stew..........

The cooking time is a couple of hours, but the preparation is really quick. You could vary the veg you use and also use fresh meat or left over beef from your Sunday roast.  

This will serve 4-5 people

Ingredients
800g diced stewing steak (or left over beef from your Sunday roast)
1 Large Onion, chopped
2 tbsp Plain Flour
1 tsp Mustard Powder
3 Carrots, peeled and chopped
3 Parsnips, peeled and chopped (you can use a different veg if you prefer. I only realised I didn't have any parsnips when I opened the fridge! so just added some cabbage instead, about 30 mins before the stew was ready) 
1 x 400g tin Chopped Tomatoes
1 pint Beef Stock (made with a stock cube, is fine)
1 tbsp Worcester Sauce
1 tbsp Brown Sugar
2 Bay Leaves
1/2 Bunch Fresh Thyme, leaves picked
Salt and Black Pepper. If you are using a normal stock cube (not a low salt one), you may not need too much additional salt.

Method
Heat some oil in a large heavy based pan and fry the beef until browned. Remove from the pan and then fry the onion until soft, adding a little oil if you need to. Or, If you are using left over beef, as I did, fry the onion first, then add the beef and fry them together for a couple of minutes.

Add the flour and mustard powder to the pan and stir until everything is lightly coated.

Add the stock, a quarter of it at a time. Give it a good stir after you add each 1/4.

Add the carrots, parsnips, tomatoes, sugar, worcester sauce, bay leaves and thyme. Give it all a good stir.

Leave to simmer on a low heat for 2 hours. You will need to stir it occasionally. If you are using cabbage, add it in for the last 30 minutes (I also had some left over potatoes from the Sunday roast so added them at this point). The sauce should be thick and the beef tender. Serve with mashed potato.