Beef stew

Winter is approaching (and I found some cheap casserole beef at Tesco), so I thought I'd try making a beef stew. I looked up a few different recipes and sort of blended them into the following, taking into account practical issues and the ingredients I could find.

I bought half a swede because it was also cheap, but I think that was a mistake; it's a real pain to cut, and I'm not sure how much it adds. Next time I'll use mushrooms instead, which I also bought, but -like an idiot- I forgot to add.


Ingredients
0.5 Kg beef
2 large onions
3 large potatoes
2-3 carrots
2 parsnips
A quarter swede

Tomato puree (I used a 142 g can)
Half a bottle of red wine

Olive oil
Flour
Garlic granules
Half litre of beef stock
Dried thyme
Dried sage
Dried rosemary
Zest from one small lemon
Salt
Pepper

Directions
Slice the carrots and dice the meat, onions, parsnips, swede and potatoes into good chunks for a stew. Prepare the stock by diluting a stock cube in about a pint of hot water.

Season some flour with salt, pepper and garlic and mix with the beef. Remove any excess flour.

In a big pot (because there are a lot of ingredients), put a bit of olive oil and brown the meat with some sage on a low fire. (Note: although this step is standard for stews and casserole dishes, I don't think it's necessary. For example, when I cook tavas, I put the meat straight into the oven dish. The main reason I did it this time is because the oven dish was almost full with the ingredients, so I had to put them in a big pot to stir them, anyway.)

Add the vegetables and season with salt, pepper and garlic. Add the stock, tomato puree and wine. For convenience, it might be better to dilute the tomato puree with some stock or wine before adding it to the vegetables.

In any case, add some thyme, stir everything together and put the stew in a deep, greased oven dish with a cover. If it doesn't have a good cover, use some aluminium foil to close it up. The reason is that it will be in the oven for a long time, and you don't want all the water escaping.

Put the dish with the stew in the oven at about 440-450 K and bake for maybe two to three hours. When it's ready, the meat should be very soft. Uncover, sprinkle the lemon zest with some rosemary and stir. It should be ready to serve.