Mise En Place

This is some of the prep done for making dinner tonight (and tomorrow night. Probably the night after that, too). We made a pot of beef stew.

We took about 1 kilo of topside beef, which was diced; then tossed in a combination of flour and paprika to lightly coat. Once coated, the beef was browned in batches, then set aside.

Next, 1 red onion, 1 white onion, about five cloves of garlic and a capsicum (bell pepper) were diced, then sauted in the pan the beef was in. Once the vegetables were nice an translucent; I added a couple of splashes of chicken stock to deglaze the bottom of the casserole dish (to get the delicious bits from cooking the beef). Return the beef to the casserole dish, along with two diced potatoes, and add a combination of chicken stock and water so there is enough liquid to reach most the way up the solid ingredients.

Every half hour or so, give the stew a bit of a stir. After about two hours, add six sliced flat mushrooms. Another half hour later, add about three “leaves” of silverbeet which have been shredded. Another half hour later, the stew will be fabulous!