Hearty slow cooked Beef Stew & buttery mash potato recipe

Slow cooked Beef Stew served with my buttery mash potato recipe.

Welcome to my winter meal recipes I'm sharing with you on this winter season.

Here you can find the full list of ingredients and method to making this rich hearty beef stew & my buttery mash potato recipe.

Serves: 4 Preparation Time: 30 Minutes Cooking Time: 3 to 4 Hours

Ingredients

Beef Stew:

Stewing Beef 500g (Cheap cuts work best for stew the best is chuck beef Because it’s nicely marbled with fat, it’s the best beef for braising for hours)

Baby Onions, 12

Garlic, 3 Cloves

Carrots, 2 Large

Vine Ripe Cherry Tomatoes, 15 (Make sure you do not store these in the fridge as they will lose lots of flavour).

Beef Stock, 1 Litre

Olive Oil, 3 tablespoons

Red Wine, 1 glass

Plain Flour, 3 tablespoons

Worchester Sauce, 1 tablespoon

Balsamic Vinegar, 1 tablespoon

Fresh Rosemary, 2 tablespoons

Fresh Thyme, 1 tablespoon

Fresh Parsley, 2 tablespoons

Tomato Paste, 1 tablespoon

Guinness cooking paste, 1 teaspoon (Available to buy at Tesco Superstores).

Dried Parsley, 1 teaspoon

Dried Oregano, 1 teaspoon

Bay Leaf's, 3

Onion Powder, 1 teaspoon

Salt & Pepper, to taste

Unsalted Butter, 1 tablespoon

Mash Potato:

Maris Piper Potatoes, 9

Dijon Mustard, 1 teaspoon

Unsalted Butter, 3 tablespoons

Milk, 200ml

Double Cream, 100ml

Fresh Chives, 3 tablespoons

Salt & Pepper, to taste

Method

We begin with preheating our pot and adding 2 tablespoons of olive oil, we then add our beef and season with salt & pepper to taste. At this point we want to get a nice hard sear on our beef as this will give a real beefy flavour to our stew, we looking for a good colour on our beef. Once we have our sear, remove the beef from the pot and place aside in a bowl.

We then want to chop our carrots into rectangles by first slicing in half, then into rectangle chunks. We also want to chop our fresh rosemary & remove the thyme leaf's from the stalks. We then want to heat up 1 tablespoon of olive oil in our pot, adding the baby onions, the carrots, salt & pepper to taste, add the chopped fresh rosemary. At this point we want to get nice colour on the baby onions and carrots as this will add another depth of flavour to our stew. Once we have a good colour on our baby onions and carrots we want to add 3 tablespoons of plain flour to the pot, make sure you cook off the flour here as you don't want a floury taste in our stew. The flour will thicken up our stew sauce as it simmers.

Once the flour has been cooked off, we at 1 tablespoon of tomato paste and cook this off for a bit. Once we've completed that, we add 1 glass of a good red wine to our stew, at this point we want to cook off the alcohol by reducing it by a third. Once the alcohol has been cooked off, you shouldn't be able to smell the alcohol anymore, we then want to add our beef stock, now homemade or shop bought is fine, homemade however would add even more depth and flavour to your stew. After we added our beef stock, we add 1 teaspoon of the Guinness cooking paste, then add 1 teaspoon of balsamic vinegar, 1 teaspoon of Worchester sauce, add 1 teaspoon of dried parsley, 1 teaspoon of dried oregano, 3 bay leaf's and then 1 teaspoon of onion powder. You want to bring the stew to boil and then turn down the temperature to a simmer, cover with the pot lid, be sure to leave a bit of a gap with the lid so the sauce can reduce as it cooks.

At this point we then want to move on to our mash potato.

We then want to peel our 9 potatoes and cut into smaller cubes or shapes as this way they will cook quicker. We then want to put a large pot of water on and salt the water to taste. Then add the cut potatoes while the water is still cold, this way it allows a even cooking in the centre and outside of our potatoes. Bring to a boil and boil these potatoes until a fork can slide right through.

Once our potatoes have cooked, we want to drain the water get out a ricer or a masher, and rice or mash our potatoes till lump free, the reason I prefer a ricer is you end up with fluffy totally lump free mash, but a masher is okay also and then add the Dijon mustard 1 teaspoon, the unsalted butter 3 tablespoons, 200ml of milk, 100ml of double cream, salt & pepper to taste, be generous with the salt as mash potato can take a fair bit of salt and nothing worse than under seasoned mash potato. Then we want to give our mash a good mix up until all the ingredients are combined. Finally with our mash, we want to chop up our fresh chives, 3 tablespoons worth and add to our mash and mix until combined. And then our mash is complete and ready to be heated up and served along side our beef stew when complete.

3 to 4 hours later, the beef should be falling apart when touching with a fork. You then want to add your cherry tomatoes to the stew, put the lid back on and allow this to simmer for a further 10 minutes. Lastly you want to add 1 tablespoon of unsalted butter and remove the pot from the hob then mix in the unsalted butter.

And finally you can serve up our mash potato and our beef stew, garnish the beef stew with fresh Parsley and tuck in!

Be sure to check out my other winter meals recipes, all will give you a hug this winter.

Please leave me any comments or reviews of the recipes as I would love to know how you got on and any thoughts on the dish.

Much love,

Dylan