It’s a rainy day and for the life of me all I feel like doing is embroidery. Sitting down with a hoop and some silk and painting a picture with thread. We’re camping though, albeit in a house, with most of our possessions still packed away in a shed – for the most part it’s very easy… but right now all I want is for everything to be put away and my home to be a home and for us to be settled. It’s an incredibly selfish attitude with many people in our region struggling with housing – a point I’ll ponder on more in another blog.

Circling back to an earlier post, where I publicly bemoaned the state of Mr Incredible’s dinners, I am here to announce an incredible and brilliant transformation. He’s cooked a stew… and it was bloody brilliant. Rich, deep flavours and enough for leftovers. So good in fact, all it needed was some bread and butter to make it the perfect meal. It was cooked in the slow cooker (something I admit I’ve never mastered) and I’ll be requesting it again soon. Thanks love.

I also have to thank Anabel Langbein, a cook my sister-in-law introduced me to years ago but someone whose food I’d never cooked. Her book Winter Goodness came on sale recently and I snatched it up with menu planning in mind and having had some of her recipes raved about by work colleagues. I adore how this book is set out – easy enough for the timid cook but deep enough flavours to satisfy any palate. The menu plans and tips and tricks are also brilliant – all in all, a book I’d hugely recommend and will use often (or menu plan out of it from often as the case might currently be).

Mr Incredible’s Stew: AKA Annabel Langbein’s Tender Beef Bourguignon from Winter Goodness

Ingredients:

• 1.3-1.5kg stewing beef, trimmed and cut into 3cm chunks
• 1/2 cup rice flour (if GF) or plain flour (if not GF)
• 1 tsp salt / 1 tsp thermomix veg stock concentrate
• 6 rashers streaky bacon ( I use Henderson’s nitrate free)
• 500 gr mushrooms halved/quartered
• 2 carrots, diced
• 2 onions, diced
• 4 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 2 x 400 gr canned chopped tomatoes
• 2 cups red wine (Mr Incredible has since bought a cask rather than use “the good stuff!”)
• 2 tbsp dijon mustard
• 2 tbsp soft brown sugar
• 2 tsp rosemary leaves, chopped

Method:

1. place beef in the slow cooker with flour, salt and pepper and mix to coat
2. Add all other ingredients and cook on high for 6 hours or low for 9-10 hours
3. Serve and then freeze

Photo note: I’ve chosen one of my embroidery projects from years ago (a simple design to go on a night shirt) as the feature picture because, let’s be honest, stew rarely photographs well!