Post 97: The dark night's are closing in Beef Stew.

Fortunately my humour isn't as black as them.

To celebrate this cold, wet and miserable weather, I went for a beef stew. I had plenty of time on my hands and plenty of vegetables in the garage, so it all suited me well. Maybe not quite so well as a BBQ would have, but beggers and choosers.

And it went a little something like this:
- I scrubbed the pink fur spuds and peeled the ones that had come out of my garden; somehow the skin on my ones wasn't quite so nice and I started these and some turnip in some boiling water. Next I chucked in some of my plethora of carrots. I did this, as the last time I tried something like this, the veggies hadn't gone soft and I wanted to make extra sure
- Once these had bubbled for ten or fifteen minutes or so, I chucked in a pint of stock
- Then fried some onions, and garlic, sealed the floured beef and into the pot
- Next the teeny weeny cauliflowers, a few beans and a cabbage
- And finally a generous dollop of chopped fresh parsley, a some bay leaves and a good shake of salt and pepper
- Next simmer very slowly for about 7 hours, letting some of the liquid evapourate away

Because I knew the sauce would be thin, I baked a loaf to serve it with - that came out nice too!