Beef and beer stew with a mediterranean twist

This is an "iphigenie fusion" read-merge-extend recipe. I was planning to do the lamb stew I had found here but R came back from the store with beef stew meat, so I had to change my plans.
I found a couple recipes with the kind of ingredients I had, then took the best bits of several and merged into this. It turned out nice and tasty, with most of the flavors blending and none dominating too much. It's got a base which is a irish/british mix of ingredients, with tomatoes and herbs added in a mediterannean style - and it worked!

The main taste reminded me of a north italian rabbit stew, but with more punch.

• 2 lbs beef stew meat, chuck, shoulder or bottom round steaks
• ¼ cup flour, mixed with salt, pepper, paprika
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tablespoon thyme
• 1 tablespoon rosemary
• 2 teaspoons tarragon
• 2-3 teaspoons horseradish cream (optional, to taste, you cant taste it but it adds a little something to beef stews so I often use some)
• 3 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 tablespoon mustard powder
• 1 cup onion, peeled and diced
• 1 bottle (33cl) dark beer
• 1 liter beef broth, hot
• 1 can chopped/crushed tomatoes
• ½ cup carrot, peeled and diced
• ½ cup celery, peeled and diced
• 1 cup swede, peeled and diced (rutabaga)
• 1 cup parsnip, peeled and diced
• Note: we really like vegetables in our house so we put a lot more of them, but most people like the meat/veggies ration to be higher so I kept the amounts from other recipes. My mix was more like 2 cups celeri (cause it needed using), 1 cup parsnip/carrots/swede (each)

Combine the oil and mustard powder, heat in a pan, add the onions and caramelise the onions.

Toss the meat in the flour,salt,pepper,paprika mix. remove any eccess.

Once the onions are caramelised, add the meat and quickly brown to sear.

Transfer to large stew or casserole dish, add beer, broth (i put only half at first and add the rest later to get the right amount of juice), tomatoes and all herbs. Stir in the horseradish.

Simmer for 30 minutes to an hour, depending on the kind of meat

Add all cubed vegetables

Cook for another hour, depending on the size of the vegetable chunks.

I cut them in small chunks so it takes about 1h30 altogether.

Serve with dumplings or mash, I would say, or polenta

I just made polenta with half water half stew liquid, salt and butter, and it was nice as polenta is great for soaking up liquid from stews.

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