Beef and vegetable casserole

1 onion, diced
1 carrot, diced
1 leek, diced
2 celery  sticks, diced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
75g mushrooms, sliced
500g braising steaks, cubed
2 tbsp plain flour
3 sprigs of  thyme
750ml stock


Heat 1 tbsp oil in a large pan then add the onion, carrot, leek, celery and garlic, and cook gently for 5 minutes, do not brown. Add the mushrooms and cook everything for a further 5 minutes then remove from the pan. Heat a little more oil in the pan, add the beef (in batches if necessary) and brown all over then stir the flour in well.

Return the veg to the pan and add the thyme and stock. Season and mix well. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook covered for 1 1/2 hours until tender, stirring occasionally. Serve with jacket potatoes, rice, pasta or mash.

I don't usually do the vegetables first, but it seemed to work very well in this case.

I served this with mash, which did very nicely. All the vegetables were locally sourced, as was the beef. The thyme came from our garden. The flour is from elsewhere in the UK. I used organic vegetable stock; I can't verify where that or the oil came from, so I gave it 8/10 for local purchasing.