Simple red wine beef stew

Here's a simple red wine beef stew that I cooked over the weekend. We enjoy having stew most when it's cold & windy outside. This is my own recipe adapted from several Beef Bourguignon recipes that I found online.

Ingredients

1.5lb stewing beef, cut into bite size cubes

1 large onion, diced

2 celery ribs, cut into bite size

2 carrots, cut into bite size

1 tbsp flour plus extra for dusting

1.5 cup of red wine

2 cups beef broth

1.5 tsp sugar

1 can diced tomato
1 tbsp tomato paste

2 tbsp worcestershire sauce
2 bay leaves
1/2 tsp of dried thyme
salt & black pepper 

Method
1. Heat up oven to 160 deg C.
2. Use a paper towel to wipe off any water/moisture on beef. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and mix thoroughly. Dust with flour.
3. Heat 1 tbsp of oil in an oven proof pot and brown beef on all sides. Remove.
4. Saute onion in the same pot. Add a little bit of oil if it is not enough. When onion has turned translucent, add in carrot and celery. Cook for 2 mins.
5. Add in red wine. Use a wooden spatula to scrape off the browned bits at the bottom of the pot. The wine will start to bubble now.
6. Add in all the browned pieces of beef into the pot. Add in beef broth. The level of the liquid should barely cover the meat.
7. Add in diced tomato, bay leaves, worcestershire sauce and sugar. Mix well. Add salt and pepper to taste. I usually do not add anymore salt as the beef will give out more flavor during the cooking process.
8. Bring contents of the pot to a boil, then simmer for about 10mins. Give the contents a stir halfway through the simmering to make sure that the beef / vegetables are not stuck to the bottom of the pot.
9. After 10mins of simmering, turn off the heat and put the pot into the pre-heated oven to cook for 2.5 hours. Check every hour to make sure that there is sufficient liquid in the pot. Top up with beef broth if necessary.
10. The beef should be very tender at the end of the cooking time. Remove from oven to the stove top and thicken the gravy with flour.

This goes very well with mashed potato (our favorite way of eating this stew), pasta or bread. I usually cook a large batch of this with enough for lunch the next day. The flavor is more intense the next day and I enjoy having it more as leftovers :)