hearty beef and mushroom casserole

It’s the beginning of summer storm season here in Brisbane. In light of the fact that it’s raining outside and the skies are dark and grey we felt like something hearty and cosy.. and yes, I know it’s meat-free Monday, but I wanted meat, and so did Bart. Plus I will make up for it during the week Promise!

Ingredients:
- 500g of lean diced beef
- 1 cup of Swiss brown mushrooms, halved if small, quartered if large.
- 2 medium sized carrots, diced into chunks
- 1 large onion, diced
- 1 length of celery, diced
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 500ml of beef stock
- 1 tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce
- 4 tablespoons of tomato paste
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 teaspoon of dried thyme – fresh would have been better, but I didn’t have any on hand.
- olive oil
- salt and pepper
- finely chopped parsley to garnish

1. Place your beef in a large bowl, add a good splash of olive oil, and a decent cracking of fresh pepper and a good couple of pinches of salt. Using your hands, massage and make sure each chunk is coated evenly.
2. In a hot pot, brown your meat in batches – searing your meat ensures that the meat doesn’t dry out during the cooking process. Once all your meat is sealed, turn down the heat and add a little more oil, and throw in the onion, garlic, celery, carrot and mushroom. Cook until soft.
3. In a medium sized mixing bowl combine the stock, tomato paste, thyme and Worcestershire sauce. Return the meat back to the pot, add the stock sauce, chuck in the bay leaves and stir to combine, making sure all the meat is submerged. Simmer uncovered on a gentle heat for 35-45minutes.
4. If by 45minutes the stock sauce hasn’t yet reduced, remove half a cup, add three teaspoons of cornflour, whisk well to combine and make sure there are no lumps, and return to the pot for a further 10minutes.
5. Serve aside mashed potato and your favourite greens

Serves 4+. Infact you don’t have to serve it aside potato, in the early stages of cooking, you could add large diced potato and make it into a one pot wonder!