My Mother’s “Hotch Potch” - Beef Stew

 

It’s cold here and definitely a good time for stews and hearty meals. One of my favourite stews is my mother’s hotch potch, pictured.

There is no set recipe for this - it’s about using what you have. In rough terms, to a large casserole dish, I added 500g cubed chuck steak that had been tossed in a mixture of salt and plain flour (I did this in a freezer bag for easy clean up), 500g peeled and chopped potatoes, and whatever other veg you have to hand (I used carrots and beans, but mixed frozen veg works a treat). Take a generous heaped metal tablespoon (the big spoon not a baking measure) full of plain flour and mix it with just enough water to make a paste - put that in the casserole dish with the meat and veg, and shake in some Worcestershire sauce and tomato sauce to taste. Crumble in a beef stock cube, season with salt and pepper to taste, then add enough water to the pot to just cover the meat and veg.

Cook in a preheated 180 degree Celsius oven for around 2 hours, and that’s it.

The crucial step is using enough flour to make the sauce thicken, otherwise you end up with tasteless watery stew (which I have done a number of times). 

A perfect dish served with crusty bread to soak up all of that  yummy sauce.