Jim asked what was for dinner.  A fleeting look of fear flashed behind those beautiful blue eyes of his as the words came out of his mouth.  He remembers the last time we did the GHCC Challenge.  He hadn’t forgotten the horror of The Vegetable Flan of Nightmares.  “Brown Stew” I replied, lowering my chin to my chest and grinning in a manic fashion.  I don’t help matters in the house y’know.

I shit you not (probably the wrong phrase to use here). Brown Stew. That is the name given in the GHCC. Sounds really appetising and appealing. And that’s exactly why I picked it.

“But, what’s in it?” he asked, coming into the kitchen and peering into the cast iron casserole pan as I called him.

“Brown”, I replied.

He still ate it. I ate it.  It was good.

Simple beef stew might have been a better name for it though.

Taste?
Really good considering the short ingredient list and unfortunate name.

Difficulty?
Easy as pie. If you can chop an onion and fry off some stewing steak without burning the house down then you are good to go. Plain flour is the thickening agent.

Make again?
It takes two hours on a stovetop. Maybe adapt it to the slow cooker and bulk it up with veg. And red wine. Defeats the object though.

Learn anything new?
You can make a simple stew with five ingredients and a bit of seasoning.

Alterations?
None, apart from scaling it down for two.

Score (out of 10)
A warm, cozy, brown 9 out of 10

You can find this recipe on page 36 of the GHCC.  You can read about the challenge so far by clicking here.