Slow Cooked Beef & Barley Stew

Ingredients

• 900 g beef chuck, cut into 4cm chunks
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 litre good beef stock
• 150 g pearl barley, rinsed
• 1 tbsp plain flour
• Crusty sourdough bread, to serve
• 3 carrots, cut into chunky pieces
• 2 parsnips, peeled and cut into chunks
• 300 g swede, peeled and cut into 3cm cubes
• 2 tbsp tomato purée
• 2 medium onions, roughly diced
• 4 fresh thyme sprigs
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 2 bay leaves
• fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped, to serve

Method

1. Pat the beef chunks dry with kitchen paper — water means steam, and steam means no browning. Season generously with salt and pepper, then toss with the 2 tbsp flour until each piece is lightly coated.
2. Heat the oil in a large, heavy-based casserole over a high heat until it shimmers. Brown the beef in three batches, 3–4 minutes per side, until deeply mahogany. Don't crowd the pan — all at once and the meat steams in its own juices instead of building those dark stuck bits on the base, which is half your flavour. Lift each batch out to a plate.
3. Drop the heat to medium and add the onions. Cook for 6–8 minutes, stirring and scraping, until they're soft and lifting the brown fond off the base. Add the garlic and cook for just 30 seconds until fragrant — don't let it catch and turn pale gold to brown, or the whole pot turns bitter. Sprinkle over the remaining 1 tbsp flour and stir for 1 minute to cook out the rawness.
4. Stir in the tomato purée and cook for a full minute until it darkens from red to brick — this drives off the tinny edge. Splash in the Worcestershire sauce, then pour in the beef stock in three additions, stirring constantly so the flour goes silky, not lumpy.
5. Return the beef and any resting juices to the pot along with the lentils, thyme, and bay leaves. Bring to a gentle simmer, cover, and cook over a low heat for 45 minutes — you want lazy bubbles, not a rolling boil, or the beef tightens up.
6. Add the carrots, parsnips, and swede. Stir to submerge them in the broth, re-cover, and cook for another 30 minutes.
7. Stir in the rinsed pearl barley, replace the lid, and cook for a further 35–40 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes or so to stop the barley sticking to the base. The stew is ready when the barley is completely tender and the liquid has thickened to a glossy, spoon-coating consistency and the beef yields under gentle pressure.
8. Fish out the thyme stalks and bay leaves. Taste, season, taste again — beef stews drink salt, and this is the moment to fix it, not at the table. Ladle into deep bowls, scatter the chopped parsley over each, and serve with crusty bread or buttered dumplings on the side to mop the bowl.