Something hearty for a winter night, and I’ve added some optional ingredients to spice it up a little, as I do.

Ingredients

• 1 large onion, diced
• 3 garlic cloves, sliced thinly or crushed
• 1 large carrot, sliced thinly
• 2 sticks of celery, sliced thinly
• 2 tbs oil / butter
• 400-500g minced beef
• 1 cube beef stock
• 1 dl water (more needed according to taste) (America: 1/2 cup)
• 1 can diced tomatoes (400g / 2 cups)
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1 pinch black pepper (or to taste)
• 1 dl crème fraiche (1/2 cup)
• cayenne pepper (optional)
• 1 tsp English mustard powder (optional)
• 2 tbs salt / Aromat
• Splash of Worcestershire sauce (optional)
• A bunch of frozen peas (or room-temp, put them in later)

Do it!

• Put the oil / butter in a pan and heat it up at 3/4-ish heat (7/12, 6/10 etc)
• Once it’s hot enough, throw in the carrot and onion for about 5 minutes, until the onion is soft and slightly translucent.
• Add the minced beef to the pan.
• Cook it all until the beef is browned.
• Add the water, garlic, celery, stock cube (crumble it down!), tomatoes, oregano, pepper, crème fraiche and salt.
• Cook for a few minutes. Lower the temperature to half.
• Add the optional ingredients. At this point, I add a LOT of Cayenne pepper.
• Add the frozen peas.
• Bring to the boil, then turn the heat down and put the lid on the pan. Let the mixture simmer for at least ten minutes, but preferably 20.
• Keep checking on the mix and dd more water when needed – you want to have it “sloppy” – not too dry, not too wet. It’s up to you!

You’re Done!

It’s very simple, but hearty. I recommend making it a little wetter when making it, then you can serve it with bread and use it to dip / soak in the sauce. There’s nothing better than soaking the sauce up with bread and having a good ol’ chomp!

Alternatives

I usually make my stews even hotter by adding a few drops of Da’Bomb Ground Zero sauce (330,000 Scovilles) or something as strong to BOOM it all up. It all depends on what you like of course. The main thing is to keep the sauce wet enough that it’s not too drippy but you can dip bread into it while eating it!