Post 141: Jamie Oliver-esque Beef Stew

For the first sunday in what feels like a month of sundays, I finally didn't have a roast dinner for sunday dinner. There's been rain, rain and more rain here, so it was difficult to move away from my beloved roast. But I thought that even more warming than a roast could be a stew.

Unusually for me, I tried to find a recipe before I started cooking. I found a lots of spanish options which included chocolate; that's just dirty. So I found myself finding Jamie Oliver's recipe the most appealing.   This ended up Oliver-esque, due to a memory lapse (I'd convinced myself tarragon was needed, when it was rosemary in the recipe). Here's my recipe:

• 2 onions chopped and cooked in butter and oil with a handful of sage (me dried. Jamie fresh) for 3 -4 minutes
• 1.5 kilos stewing beef, tossed in flour (and not cooked prior to putting in the liquid, which seemed strange)
• 2 pints beef stock, a really big squeeze of tomato puree
• 1 bottle red wine (me the cheapest I had, I'm sure Jamie would've chosen with based on other priorities)
• (this is where I really diverged from Jamie) Roughly 1 kilo potatoes, 4 smallish parsnips, 6 small carrots, two little white turnips. Basically I carried on adding root-veggies out of my vegbox until the mix looked nice.
• I then added a couple of cloves of garlic. Because I'd assumed they must go in at this stage: I was wrong on this bit, but it didn't seem to spoil anything

I then cooked all this in my bit pot @160c for 4 hours, and then turned down to 110c until we were ready to eat. In the meantime, I prepared the garnish of lemon zest, fine chopped garlic clove and thyme (coming on as a late sub for Jamie's intended Rosemary). This added a very fragrant touch to the finished dish. The meat was beautifully soft. Following Jamie's lead I served with crusty white bread and some Shiraz. I can recommend stew with both!

I'd never cooked a Jamie recipe before; very easy, very nice - can't wait for tomorrow's seconds!