Beef stew with winter vegetables

It's cold, damp, dark and miserable here today, so I wanted to cook something to warm the old cockles!  Inspired by an idea from Jamie Oliver I put some butternut squash and a few few other things into a beef stew to make a change to the tried and trusted stew recipe a little.  Here my recipe.

Ingredients
Small knob of butter
2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
1kg stewing beef
Tablespoon of seasoned plain flour
2 onions
2 sticks of celery
3 cloves garlic
A handful of sage leaves
3 carrots
2 parsnips
Half a butternut squash
4 medium potatoes
Half a bottle of red wine
500ml beef stock
Bottle of artichoke antipasti
Rind of 1 lemon
3 or 4 sprigs of fresh rosemary

Method
Preheat the oven to 170°C.  Choose a good, large cast iron casserole dish and heat the oil and butter in it, meanwhile peel and chop the onion, garlic and celery and coat the beef with the seasoned flour.  Once the butter starts to foam add the onion, garlic, celery, sage leaves and beef and sauté for 4-5 minutes until the beef is browned.

While the beef is cooking, peel and chop the parsnip, carrot, squash and potatoes and then add them to the dish with the wine and stock.  Bring to the boil, cover and cook in the oven for 3 hours.  Once the beef is tender, add the artichoke and warm them through, 20-30 minutes should be enough.

Serve in bowls and sprinkle with the lemon rind and finely chopped rosemary immediately before serving.  You can have the stew on it's own or with some crusty bread, even mash if you like, whichever you prefer.  The remaining half bottle of red wine really should accompany it but you can always keep it until the next time if you wish!

Bon appétit!