STOVETOP BEEF BURGUNDY (BOEUF À LA BOURGUIGNONNE )

Steps:

• Clean and chop onion, parsnips, and green pepper. Put parsnips in a little water in a microwave safe dish, and cook until they begin to become tender in your microwave. (This speeds preparation.) Bake one, medium potato in microwave, let it cool, and remove the skin, then chop into small cubes,mash, and set aside. (You will eventually want this to break up entirely in the stew to thicken it when you add it at end, so mashing the cubes with a fork is a good idea before adding it to stew.) Introduce olive oil and stew beef into a large stew pot on stovetop on medium heat and begin to brown beef on the outside. Add onion and green pepper strips and cook until onion begins to soften. Add mushrooms, and wait until mushrooms begins to soften (if you aren't using pre-cooked mushrooms from a can), then add entire bottle of wine to stew pot. Turn the heat down to medium low. Add partially cooked parsnips, and put a lid on this. Let it slow cook until beef becomes tender, stirring occassionally. This may take up to an hour or so. (Stew meat will remain tough unless slow cooked over a low heat for a long time. If slow cooked long enough, it will become very tende.) When you are near the end, add garlic and salt to taste. When beef is done, Add your mashed potato and stir it into stew until it disappears. This should thicken the stew via the potato starch. At the very end, add about a tablespoon of tomato paste. (Use more or less to your taste. If you add more tomato paste, you can add "Italien" to the end of the French name). Bon Appe'tit!