Festive Beef Stew

You know Christmas is coming when supermarket starts playing 'A spaceman came travelling' while you're buying cloves.

With ten days to go now, it's coming right for us again like a snowballing reindeer and I'm starting to get that unnerving feeling that I haven't pulled my preparatory finger out as much as I should've. The ghost of Christmas Last Minute will be a guest at my table once more. Eek.


But apart from the panicked retail spree on Christmas Eve that I seldom seem capable of avoiding, I actually really enjoy the festive season - probably more so than the people who end up with the mediocre gifts I impulse-buy on December 24, anyway.


I enjoy the music, I enjoy the board games, I enjoy the not having to go to work (although I might very well end up with more of that than I'd like in 2012!). And I enjoy the food and drink, obviously. 

Maybe add some tinsel...

I probably said something very similar this time last year and if not I definitely thought it. 


Anyway, I had to do something with those cloves, so I've come up with a new recipe - a variation on my classic beef stew with a festive twist in the form of a mulled wine-style sauce.
 
I'll include the original version too, as this dish is good at any time during the winter, especially if you can get bargain packs of winter vegetables which tend to be very good value. 

My hunch (or indeed haunch) is that the festive variant would work equally well with venison or perhaps rabbit. Enjoy! 

Beef Stew / Festive Beef Stew

Ingredients - makes four portions. If you don't have all the vegetables it doesn't really matter!

Don't overcook too soon, mind!

Diced stewing beef, about two pounds

Onions, two or three quartered

Leek, one sliced

Carrots, a few sliced

Swede, one sliced

Celery, two sticks chopped

Chestnut Mushrooms, chopped bite-size

Tomatoes, three or four, quartered

Plain Flour

Garlic Salt

Celery Salt

Chilli Powder

Black Pepper

Cumin

Worcestershire Sauce

Olive Oil

FOR THE ORIGINAL VERSION ONLY:

Green Pepper,  one sliced

Dark Beer, about 2/3 pint

Maille Mustard, a generous spoonful

FOR THE FESTIVE VERSION ONLY:

Parsnips, two sliced

Red Wine, about half a bottle

Ground Ginger

Ground Cinnamon

Ground Nutmeg

Whole Cloves, about 6-8

Method

Peel/chop/slice your vegetables as required, and place them in a big casserole - make sure there's room left at the top for the beef.

Mix up the flour with the garlic salt, black pepper, cumin, chilli powder and celery salt (and if you're doing the festive version include cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger as well). Aim for a roughly 50/50 mix of flour and spice.

Dust your meat with the seasoned flour, and brown in a big pan with a little oil, but don't let it overcook. Take it off the heat and add to the pan the beer (or wine), Worcestershire sauce, mustard (or cloves), and maybe another pinch of all the required spices - but if you're doing the Christmas edition, be careful not to overdo the cloves as a little goes a long way in the cloven realm.

Pour the meat and sauce into the casserole, making sure there will be enough liquid to more or less cover the meat and vegetables - eg not quite up to the top because the liquid level will rise during cooking.

Put the lid on the pot and whack in the oven on a low heat (~100 degrees) for at least three hours, taking it out the oven to shuffle the ingredients around and make sure nothing is exposed and burning mid-way through. 

You can slow-cook the stew almost indefinitely, so it's a dish that can easily be prepared the day earlier and heated up before serving.

Serve piping hot with your choice of fresh bread, potato or rice, and enjoy!!!.