Winter warming economical stew

There are many recipes online which will show you how to make an economical winter-warming stew but this one is mine.

I bought a pack of diced beef from Iceland which retailed at £2.

This will easily serve four persons or a stew for two over successive days.
Stew is one of those cooked foods that just gets better with age. Remember to re-heat thoroughly and do not keep too long though. Like all cooked foods it can go off!

Along with the diced beef I bought a pack of potatoes for £1.49 but only used half for the stew. A vegetable stew pack that contained a few carrots, small turnip, one onion and a decent sized trimmed leek was purchased for a £1.

A quick cost then shows the basic ingredients cost me £3.74 roughly. Much cheaper than buying a handful of ready meals, more nutritious and better value for money.

So we have our ingredients let's make a pan of tasty stew:

• Brown the meat in a pan with a little oil. You are not cooking the meat at this stage but simply browning it. This should only take a couple of minutes.
• While it is browning prepare potatoes and the other vegetables.
• Peel and cut the potatoes and turnip into chunks, the carrots and onion into slices and the leek into long slices. Remember to rinse with cold water when peeled.
• Put all the vegetables into a large pan of cold water, add seasoning if liked such as salt and bring to the boil.
• While this pan is boiling transfer the browned meat into a casserole dish and cook on a medium heat in the oven adding meat or vegetable stock.
• When the pan of vegetables has boiled turn it down to simmer.
• After 10 minutes add the meat, stock and any gravy from the casserole to the pan of veg.
• Stir well and simmer for ten more minutes.
• Add gravy granules or stock and cornflour to season and thicken the liquid as required.

This basic stew is very easy to prepare, cook and serve. Add other veg such as frozen peas a few minutes before serving.

Once you have mastered this very basic easy stew try adding dumplings or varying the ingredients.

Tips:

• Invest in a very large stew pan, with a lid, so you can cut down on the number of burners in use on your cooker.
• Our stew served two day one, two more day two and provided supper as a type of big soup when it had more peas added.
• When I was a child in 50's Britain my mum would add lentils and pearl barley to soups and stews. This helps bulk the stew up but also adds nourishment at a cheap cost. It certainly makes stew go much further.
• Parsnips and swede are also suitable for use in this dish.

Now you have mastered the basics check out Jamie Oliver's range of stews here.

Also http://www.food.com/recipe/economical-beef-stew-407090