Uncle Ted's recipes #1: Belgian winter beef stew

Ok so its been like what?  A year or two since I did a post about food?  Admittedly I originally made this blog with the primary aim of game and film reveiws and lists but this is still my favourite subject alongside millitary history, video games, action films and microwaveable popcorn.  Discussing and scratching together recipies is one part of my lifeblood and I'll be dammned if I'm never to share any of them with you.  The format of this post and any subsequent ones like it will be considerably more methodical than other posts I've made before as I'll take you guys not only through what steps and ingredients you'll need for each recipe but what order they must come in and what utensils you'll need as well as what recommendations I would make for how and what you might eat with said dishes.

So without any further dues lets get into warming the cockles of your heart this december with some tasty ass stew!  (Don't worry, actual anus isn't an ingredient here).

Ingredients (serves 3-5)
250-440ml belgian ale
4 x large carrots
3-4 x shallots
3-4 x large potatoes
400g tinned butter beans
1 x large courgette 
250g-350g brussel sprouts (optional because let's face it, these things are quite the aquired taste)
350g-500g diced casserole beef or 300g-400g lentils if you're a vegitarian
400g chopped tinned tomatoes
2 tablespoons tomato puree
2-3 x bay leaves
1/2 a handful of corriander
2 x handfuls of thyme
3-4 x pinches each of salt & pepper
vegetable or sunflower oil (for cooking the ingredients)

 Cooking utensils
1 large metal pot with a lid
1 cutting board
1 large cutting knife 
2 collanders and/or sieves 
bowls with spoons for eating
a ladel for dishing up
1 wooden spoon

Cooking method (preperation time 20-30 mins, cooking time 1-2 hours)

Step 1: place the pot ontop of the cooker with about two to four sloshes of oil and DON'T turn on until you've prepared the vegetables.

Step 2: dice up the courgette and potatoes and slice up the carrots into reasonably small chunks but not too small so that the stew can be quite chunky. Then place these vegetables into the collanders/sieves and wash them with cold water for a short bit each.

Step 3: Turn the cooker onto a medium heat and prepare the shallots first by peeling them but keeping the stem end intact.  Slice the shallots into halves then cut into halves and then slice each half lengthways up to the root end and then dice up from side to side then place the diced up shallots into the pot with a couple of shakes of salt.  Simmer for 10 mins and then add in the rest of the fresh vegetables, stir, place the lid back on then stew while sometimes stirring for about 20 mins.

Step 4: add in the tinned butter beans into the mix along with the ale, tinned tomatoes and beef along with the tomato puree and rest of the seasoning after washing the herbs quickly in cold water and stripping the thyme and corriander from their stems.  Then place the lid back on and let the stew simmer for roughly 1.5-2 hours so that the meat has time to tenderise, soften and absorb more of the flavours.  Of course if one is making the vegetarian version then this shouldn't take too long and you can just simmer for about 30 minutes.

Serving suggestions

After dishing up the stew into the available bowls you could easily eat the dish as it is considering how chunky and filling it is with the amount of beans and potatoes there are.

However, if you do fancy spicing up your dinner I'd suggest serving the stew with either a small amount of brown rice or a thyme and sea salt foccacio bread from the bakery section of your local supermarket.  Another nice thing to have with this dish would be suet or traditional English dumplings into the stew itself.

Hopefully this has been a helpful recipe for a simple winter dish for you guys and if you've enjoyed it as much as I have making it please let us know if you'd like to make any more (tbh I may do some more in the future but maybe let me know what type of stuff you'd like me to make then upload to you guys).

In any case, eat well and I'll see you lot next time!