Beef Casserole With Schwartz*

AD | Hey lovelies, today I’m going to be sharing with you a recipe, and food that I actually made. Hoorah. As the weather gets colder, we all love a lovely winter warmer esq recipe, and if you ask me beef casserole is a perfect dish for this. I have such fond memories of this meal as child, sitting around the dinner table with my family members why it’s cold and probably raining outside, enjoying ever bite, so I’m really happy I finally got a chance to make it myself. I hope you all enjoy reading it.

I was lucky enough to receive a sachet of the Beef Casserole Mix* which can be purchased from Tesco’s here* for just 85p which is an absolute steal. When I received it in the post, I went straight to the shops to get some ingredients and start cooking. I’m not going to lie, this was my first time ever making a beef casserole, so I spent half a day reading up on all the different ways I could make the casserole, jut to find out that the packet had the preparation and recipe on it.

If anyone is wondering where I sourced my ingredients from I got 400grams of diced beef from Aldi ( I’m really weird about cutting meats so I got one pre cut to save time and effort) and my carrots, onions, and celery all came from my local Tesco Express.

For the preparation of the dish the packet states that for the recipe all you will need is the following:

The recipe also suggests adding in a dash of red wine, and serving the casserole with creamy mashed potatoes and steamed broccoli, but this is completely optional.

I decided to follow the cooking information on the back of the packet, which where as followed:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180°C, 350°F, Gas Mark 4
2. Heat the oil, brown the beef, onion and carrots for 5 minutes, until golden. Drain excess liquid and transfer to a casserole dish.
3. Mix the sachet contents with the water and stir in. Cover and cook for 2 hours until the meat is tender and mouth-watering.

For the most part I followed the recipe, but for me a classic casserole always has celery in it, and bayleafs. Whether that is just the way my family make it, I don’t know but I made sure to add two large bits of celery that were diced into chunky bits, and two bayleafs. I also added an incredibly healthy amount of the Barefoot Malbec into the casserole before cooking.

The Outcome

I’m not going to lie I was absolutely petrified when I got to this part, and spent my time with my oven gloves absolutely shaking as I opened the oven door in anticipation. As soon as I got the casserole out the oven I could smell the most gorgeous herby aromas from it, you could smell the paprika and the parsley from the mix. It was gorgeous.

I checked the meat was tender and not under or over done, and then went to serve it up. For testing the product I went with serving it alone, rather than with mash or seasonal vegetables. I served it up in a big old pasta bowl and dived in for a taste. It was so delicious. I thought it would be rude not to finish of the rest of the wine with the meal, so had a large glass of Malbec to accompany it.

The dish was so warm and filling, the carrots and the onion were so beautifully done, and the beef so nicely cooked. I was so happy with he flavour that came from using the Beef Casserole Mix*, it took away all the pressure from making the traditional casserole mix and tasted delightful. There is no exaggeration when I say you could taste the herbs from it, even with a healthy dash of wine. I will definitely be cooking this up again.

I’d love to know what your favourite winter warming dish is, and how you’d serve it up.