As the days get shorter and colder, my thoughts turn away from salads and towards what I call "warming" food: fry ups, fish and chips, bread pudding, meat pies and of course, stew.  It's not hard to make stew, and the great thing about it is that once you've set it in motion, so to speak, you can just leave it to simmer for a couple of hours while you go and do something else.  Just remember to stir it occasionally, to make sure that it doesn't "stick" to the bottom of the saucepan, and to add more liquid if necessary.

You will need (serves two):

• A pound (or a kilo) of stewing steak, chopped into large bite-sized pieces
• A small chopped onion
• A large clove of puréed garlic (I use the finest setting on my hand-held grater)
• A chopped stick of celery (optional)
• Enough butter to fry the onions and the meat
• Tablespoon of white flour
• Fresh herbs to taste - choose from thyme, rosemary, oregano and/or sage. Don't go mad with them though. You can also use dried herbs, e.g. in the form of a bouquet garni (a sort of teabag filled with a dried herb mixture)
• A pint of stock (home-made chicken stock is ideal, but you can always use a stock cube)
• A couple of fresh tomatoes. You can also use tinned.

The whole process from start to finish should take 2 and a half hours. I like to serve my stews with tagliatelle but baked potato is equally nice. Or even bread.

In a frying pan or saucepan, seal the meat by frying in butter until all sides are browned. In another saucepan, fry the onion and celery until it goes glassy. (This is the pan where all the meat and stock is going to end up, so make sure it's a large one.) Add the flour and stir vigorously until the onion is coated with the flour. Add the puréed garlic and before the garlic burns, add a bit of the stock and stir until well mixed. (You should get a gravy-like texture.) Add the rest of the stock and all the other ingredients, including the meat. Don't worry if the consistency seems a bit thin and watery; the stock should reduce down nicely after the mixture has been simmering on a low heat with the lid off for two hours. And if it's still too thin, you can always add cornflour paste to thicken it. As I said before, it's important to check up on the stew every so often - give it a stir, add more liquid if needed - but basically, you can just leave it. You will be able to tell whether it's cooked by the condition of the meat: it should be tender and fall apart in the mouth, rather than being chewy.  When you're happy that it's done, add salt and pepper to taste, and serve.

When it comes to extras like mushrooms and vegetables: IMO mushrooms are also great with stew - simply wash, chop and fry with the onion (add them once the onion's been frying for a bit), before adding the flour and garlic etc. A lot of people also like to cook vegetables such as carrots and turnips in their stews. Personally, I'm not so keen - I don't think carrots taste their best when they've had the life simmered out of them for several hours. Far better IMO to do something else with carrots, like grate them and sautée them for five minutes before serving them on the side.

© M. Ibbotson October 2009