Root veg and beef bone stew

Rich, nourishing and warming when the weather cools down, this stew makes the most of all those wonderful autumn pumpkins, parsnips and purple potatoes. Boiling the beef bones takes all day so start in the morning. In normal non-lockdown times when you don’t have all day to cook, you can put these in a pressure cooker, a crock pot or cook them the night before. Our supermarket is generous with the meat on those bones – 800 g of bones (cost about $3) yielded me 300 g meat and if I had known that probably wouldn’t have used the shin beef.

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

  • 800g beef bones
  • 300 g shin beef cut into bite sized pieces
  • 2 onions
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 1 stalk celery
  • 700 g root veg (carrots, kumara, potatoes, parsnips) and pumpkin, all chopped into chunks
  • Sprigs of thyme, rosemary and bay leaves
  • 2 tbsp pearl barley
  • ½ cup flour
  • 1 cup tomato puree
  • 4 tbsp rice wine vinegar
  • 2 tbsp brown sugar
  • 2 tbsp soy sauce.
  • Something green: – silverbeet; kale; beetroot tops

Method

  1. Cover the bones with water and boil for several hours with the celery and one of the onions. When the meat is tender and falling off the bone take the bones out and boil the liquid down until you have about 3 cups remaining. Take the meat off the bones and reserve.
  2. Cut the remaining onion into large chunks and soften in the oil with the garlic.
  3. Dredge the shin beef in the flour and fry with the onions until crusty. You can omit this part entirely if you wish. Reserve the rest of the flour.
  4. Add the veg and the herbs and stir fry for a bit then pour in the bone broth with the pear barley and bring back to the boil.
  5. Add tomato, vinegar, sugar and soy sauce. Cover and reduce to a simmer.
  6. Cook until the meat is tender, about 90 minutes. 20 minutes before you are ready, stir some of the liquid into the remaining flour and slowly pour it back into the pot, stirring. Add the cooked meat and check for seasoning – you may need to add more sweet, salty or sour. Bring back to the boil and simmer for 20 minutes more.
  7. Chop up the greens and stir through. Serve.