It's a nice wintery Saturday afternoon, cold, overcast, threatening to rain, and it's Iron Chef time.

But this one's extra special because this afternoon/evening we get to take the Chasseur out for a spin!

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Allez Cuisine!

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This recipe is based on an old Women's Weekly one, and there are a few differences today, mainly because I'm using a casserole dish that you can put on a hot plate, fry/sauté with, then put in the oven. Yes, I know, I keep on harping on about this dish but it really is quite something being able to do that. If you don't have something similar then a normal casserole dish and a frying pan will do quite nicely. The other difference is that we go the slow gentle approach with a long cook time rather than just a "quick" 1.5 hours the original recipe calls for. This is intentional: when you have the time, cooking should never be a chore, it should be a relaxing pastime. Give it time to develop, and for the aromas to permeate the house. Just so comforting done this way.

This is deliciously hearty, somewhat healthy, and will easily stuff four people to the gunnels. We eat on this for days if we don't freeze some of it (which it does very well.)

Okay, let's get started. Ingredients:

~500g of good beef, preferably a good thick cut fillet, but you can just as easily use something like topside or round steak
3-5 bacon rashers
6 small onions (about 2.5cm in diameter)
2-3 carrots
6 small potatoes (again around 2.5cm in diameter)
10-12 button mushrooms
butter
oil (Olive, sunflower, whatever you prefer)
2 gloves of garlic crushed (or 2 heaped teaspoons of the jar stuff)
3 tablespoons of plain flour
lots of tomato paste (140g)
500ml of beef stock (salt reduced if you can get it)
1/2 cup red wine

Method:

Peel the carrots, chop into 2cm rounds, scrub the spuds leaving the skin on. Peel, top & tail the onions. Don't be scared by the size of these, by the time the dish is done they'll be soft, caramelised, and able to be cut with a fork. Really, they're magic, trust me on this. Put the carrots and spuds in the casserole dish. While we're at it mix the tomato paste, beef stock and wine in a bowl.

Pre-heat the oven to ~170-180° C.

Chop the bacon into bits at least 1-2cm a side. This way you get nice little bursts of bacon rather than it just dissolving and fading into the background. Dice the beef into nice big chunks, about 2-2.5cm aside. Again, these will shrink a little but they need to retain coherence. With the long cook time they'll end up just falling apart. [insert Nigella-esque 'MMMMM!' here...]

Melt a good tablespoon of butter with a slosh of olive oil on high heat, then seal and brown the beef in batches (don't let them stew!) and set aside in the casserole dish keeping the oil in the pan. In the same pan add the onions (place them in with tongs so you don't get splash-back) and the bacon, stirring around until the bacon is cooked and the onions are just starting to brown, turn the heat right down, then when it's calmed down, set the onion and bacon aside in the casserole dish, again keeping the oil.

Add another tablespoon of butter to the pan then when it's melted and bubbling, add the flour and stir to a rue (smooth paste) letting it brown a little so you don't end up with a raw flour taste. Add the stock mix, stirring constantly, then when it's a consistent texture bring to the boil.

Now add the sauce to the casserole dish, distribute everything evenly making sure as many of the ingredients are submerged, then cover and place in the oven.

And now aside from taking it out of the oven every 45-60mins for a stir, we wait as long as you can stand.

If it starts getting too gluggy (you'll know what you like) add a little more beef stock.

When you get within about an hour of serving, clean the mushrooms, chopping just the dried bit of the stem off, then add them to the dish, returning it to the oven. You could also prep and steam some greens like chopped broccoli or broccolini to go on the side. I'd also recommend a nice batard or small bread rolls.

Serve in smaller than you think necessary servings (remember it'll be very hearty at this stage) with the greens and bread. Enjoy!