Beef, Red Pepper and Kidney Bean Stew

Beef stew, made with celery, beef, one large red onion, kidney beans, red pepper, and chopped tomato, served with semi-skinned boiled potatoes, some Brocolli and some Brussels Sprouts.

I prepared the sauce in a large saute pan, adding the kidney beans (half a 400g tin), a whole tin of plum tomatoes, which I diced with a spatula, the chopped onion, the strips of red pepper, and chopped celery. Great flavour provided by the celery. I also added four bay leaves, some dark soy sauce, and some beef stock.

Cook the sauce for at least half an hour or so, during which time you can brown the diced beef in another pan. This core of this sauce was made a couple of days earlier for a beef and kidney bean stew, and then later augmented with the beef stock, the soy sauce, and the bay leaves, and so was now a much thicker and richer sauce than it it was before.

Drizzle the pieces in a little sunflower oil, and turn up the heat until the beef pieces are sizzling. Turn the heat down at that point, and stir and turn the pieces until they have browned (ten to twelve minutes or so). Add the pieces of beef to the sauce, and cook for at least another twenty minutes or thereabouts. If you can leave it to simmer for at least an hour and a half under glass, you will not be disappointed at how tender the beef will be.