Warming and Delicious

The countdown is on to our new Tuesday Tuckshop at my girls school – notes to send out, suppliers to call, deals to be made…busy, busy, busy……

So what do I decide to do in the midst of the 4000 things that I have to get done by - tomorrow?

Cook a stew!

After all it’s super cold in Sydney (which I LOVE) and anyway, we’ve got to eat!

Slow cooked beef - Ragu

We all, (except frank) ate stew for dinner tonight and last night.

Wilco had it with brown rice.

Mima had it with gnocchi, baked in the oven with ricotta

Max and I had it with wet polent...mmm...delicious!

You’ll need;

1 ½ kilos of gravy beef (I would have loved shin or something with a little more 

connective tissue, but they were out) – cut up into bite size pieces

2 stalks of celery

2 carrots – peeled

1 large onion or 2 small – peeled

4 cloves of garlic – crushed

2 sprigs of rosemary

50g butter

olive oil

1 ½ cups of red wine

3 x 400g tins of crushed tomatoes

salt & pepper

To Cook;

Pre-heat the oven to 160c

Prep all your ingredients, because once the meat is browned it’s all pretty fast

Cut your meat – set aside

Pop your, celery, carrot, onion and rosemary (minus the stalks) in a food processor and blitz till very fine (this is your base for the stew)

Crush your garlic

Measure your wine

And de-lid your tomatoes

Ok, get your pot really hot and then add a little olive oil and start browning your meat in small batches – this is the bit that takes the longest, making sure your meat collects a lot of colour without burning

I ended up finishing browning my meat in 3 batches – remove meat into a bowl

If for some reason your pot looks a bit burnt from the browning of the meat, wash it. But if it looks like mine (see photo below) continue….

Add half the butter to the pan and the vegie mixture and cook until the vegies smell cooked about 10mins – stirring here and there

Remove the vegies from the pot, then add the rest of the butter and your garlic, cook gently being careful not to burn it (this will take a min or so)

Throw your meat back in and give it a good stir, so the garlic isn’t sitting on the bottom of the pan burning, pour in your wine and cook it off till that really sharp alcohol smell is gone – about 10min

Then put your veg in and tomatoes in – stir well and put it in the oven and forget about it till dinner. It needs at least 3 hours, but It will happily cook for 4-5 hours as long as you have the right kind of meat (with lots of connective tissue)

Serve with polenta, mashed potato, gnocchi, pasta, brown rice or eat it all by itself!

Leave enough to freeze in-case you need a quick meal during the week or something warm for the kids school lunch.

For me it’s back to all things ‘Tuckshop’!


(Tasty Tuesday Tuckshop is the Seasonal/Eco tuckshop I am trying to set up at our Public School, with the help of some other dedicated mum's. Finger's crossed we get the support and our kids can have a great place to order food!)

©Michelle Schoeps 2013

All photos taken by Michelle Schoeps