Thick Beef Stew

This is my mom's stew recipe, and it's what I think of as a "proper" stew: very thick, practically spreadable when fresh and capable of standing a knife up in it when cold; full of vegetables, but visually homogenous. It's tasty in its own right, and goes excellently with rice, or, better yet, baguette.

The recipe is somewhat vague and quite open to variation; while written for a dutch oven, it can also be made in a crock pot, and I think that using an instant pot it could be done as a one-pot countertop meal.

Ingredients

• 1-2kg of beef or veal, cubed
• flour
• thyme
• majoram
• savoury
• paprika
• black pepper
• at least one each, finely chopped; preferably more
• carrot
• onion
• celery
• a bunch of garlic cloves, peeled and whole
• liquid; typically 250-750mL wine or (half-strength) stock. If using stock, cut with worchestershire sauce and/or balsamic vinegar; if using wine, add some salt.

Procedure

1. Trim meat as needed.
2. Heat ~60mL oil in a dutch oven over medium heat. Add vegetables and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened and starting to become translucent.
3. Combine flour and herbs in a bowl.
4. Toss meat in flour-herb mix until coated.
5. Brown meat in the dutch oven. It will probably take several batches. Do not overload it! Remove and buffer each batch of meat as you finish it. Adding more oil with each batch may be necessary.
6. Once all the meat is browned and has been removed from the pot, add the liquid and deglaze, bringing the liquid to a boil.
7. Return the meat to the pot. Add the garlic cloves.
8. Cover the pot and bake at 325°F for 2-3 hours (or more, to taste). Check periodically to make sure there's still enough liquid, and top up with hot water if needed. Alternately, cook in a slow cooker, or on the stovetop at the lowest simmer possible.