Yummy beef stew - cheap too

Ok, so I didn't entirely make this up myself, I got the quantities of beef to liquid from various internet recipes but the rest is mine alone!

It makes enough for four hungry people if served with swede/potatoe and a vegetable.

400g beef suitable for slow cooking - stewing, braising etc
oil, preferably something flavourless like vegetable
4 tablespoons plain flour
2 pinches each celery seeds and savoury
3 pinches dried sage
salt and pepper
6-8 shallots, the smaller the better, peeled
2-3 carrots
1 can tomatoes
water
small bottle red wine (one of those third size bottles they sell for single people!)

Add the herbs to the flour, season and stir. Toss the beef pieces in the flour and fry in a dutch oven in the oil, in batches so they can brown without getting steamy. Don't worry about cooking them through, they only need browning on the edges, it will get fully cooked later.

When all the beef is browned add it all to the pot with the remaining flour, shallots, carrots, tinned tomatoes and wine. Also, fill the tin half full with water and add it.

Put the lid on and cook it in the oven for about an hour and a half at 180 degrees C.

Serve with a green vegetable and some form of carbohydrate. With stew, I have a preference for swede that stems from my childhood.

Yummy!

For the really budget conscious amongst my non-existent readership, you could substitute other English herbs in instead of buying celery seed, savoury or sage specially. Thyme would work well.

New Year, new cook books, new recipes!

I think you can tell a lot about a person from what books they got at Christmas. I got the following:
Hats, An Anthology By Stephen Jones;
Vogue Covers;
Latin, A Biography;
German Cooking;
Illustrated Food and Cooking of the Caribbean, Central and South America;
Illustrated Food and Cooking of Africa and Middle East;
The Hummingbird Bakery Book (I also got given silcon cupcake cases and a cupcake stand - people know me well);
and, which I bought myself with Christmas money, Warm Bread and Honey Cake.

Fairly representative of my interests - fashion, history and cooking. I should have studied historical chefs outfits at university.

I am extremely excited to start trying out my new cookbooks and sharing the results with my imaginery readership. We've been a bit slow recently but I am pleased to announce that very soon, for the first time, I will be listing a recipe I have INVENTED MYSELF. Yup, a new stage in my cooking and blogging. It's a paneer and chick pea salad, very fresh tasting for the new year if you're tired of all the heavy stuff we seem to be eating at the moment.

Until then, I'm off to eat my lovely lunch - pheasant and red cabbage soup, made with the left overs from Wednesday night's roast.

Toodle pip.