Feeds

4-6

Prep

20 mins

Cook

2½ hours

Ingredients

  • 1 kg stewing beef (stewing cuts of beef include chuck steak, gravy beef, round steak or blade steak)

  • ½ teaspoon salt

  • ½ teaspoon pepper

  • 2 medium (or 1 large) onions,
    peeled and sliced

  • 250g (about 2 cups) mushrooms, sliced

  • 2 cloves garlic, crushed (optional)

  • 2 cups stock (beef is best, but any is fine)

  • 2 tablespoons tomato paste

  • 4 tablespoons cooking oil
    (canola, sunflower, or olive)

  • 2 tablespoons flour

  • 2 tablespoons of fresh herbs, chopped (optional)

To serve

  • Rice or potatoes
  • Steamed vegetables

Let’s get cooking

Step 1

Trim any excess fat off the beef. Cut the beef into 3 cm pieces.

Step 2

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large saucepan (over low heat). Add the onion (and garlic), and stir around until it starts to brown. Remove from the saucepan.

Step 3

Heat half the remaining oil and put in half the meat. Cook the beef for a few minutes until it starts to brown. Stir the meat around to make sure all sides are browned. Take out the beef and repeat, using the remainder of the oil and the meat.

Step 4

Add all the remaining ingredients to the saucepan, except the flour. Stir well.

Step 5

Put the lid on the saucepan and let the stew cook slowly for on the lowest heat for two hours. Stir every 10 minutes to make sure it is not burning on the bottom of the pan. If it is beginning to burn, add about ½ cup of water and stir well.

Step 6

Mix the flour with half a cup of cold water, making sure there are no lumps.

Step 7

After two hours, add the plain flour mixture to the stew and stir through. Cook for a further 5 minutes. Taste the sauce to see if it needs more salt or pepper.

Step 8

Serve with the rice or potatoes and steamed vegetables.

This stew will warm you up on a cold, wintry day.