Beef Stew

                                          

The number one comfort food. I love a good beef stew, and one of my favourite stews is Jamie Oliver beef stew on Jamie's Dinners. Yesterday I decided to do my own version since I have tried quite a few beef stews, so thought to myself why not try something without looking at a recipe. Even MAF my little guy loved it, for him I chopped up the beef and potatoes (doesn't like potatoes) and mixed it up with cooked spaghetti and he loved it.

500g beef, cut into 1-inch cubes
3 medium potatoes, peeled, cubed
2 carrots, peeled and roughly chopped ( big chunks)
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tsp ground cumin
a few sprigs of thyme or 1 tsp of dried herbs
1 tsp flour
salt
a good helping of ground black pepper
1 can of chopped or whole peeled tomatoes
2 cups water or stock

1 clove garlic
handful of parsley
1 tsp grated lemon rind

1. Dust your beef with a little flour and brown it in oil in a large heavy-based pot or casserole pot, i had a very thin-bottomed cooking pot and ended up burning the flour :(.

2. You can remove the beef or just slide it to one side and add the onions and garlic and saute' just to soften the onions.

3. Switch off heat, add carrots, potatoes, cumin, pepper, stock and tomatoes. Stir and put it back on the stove and bring to a boil and then cover and cook over low heat till meat is cooked through, about 1 1/2 hours. you can do this over the stove or in a moderately hot oven.

4. Finely chop the parsley and garlic and mix in with the lemon rind.



Sprinkle this on top of your stew just after it's finished cooking. Cover and serve after 5 minutes, You will get a lovely smell when you open the lid, to serve.

You can serve it with garlic bread or bread rolls or even plain cooked couscous.

Enjoy. Hope it warms bloggers who are stuck in cold weather.