Making a Stew...

Winter is coming, and coming FAST.
Stew is an easy weekend meal for almost anyone to make.

Step 1: Meat
You can use any red-ish meat.  Lamb, beef, veal, pork, mutton... any of them would be excellent for a stew and usually the 'tough' parts of the animal can make good stews.
I use skirt steak most of the time.  It's cheap (at most $9/kg), it has a strong taste and is easy to handle.  But you could use any great meat.  I was very tempted to make one recently with a big rack of smoked pork ribs...

Step 2: Vegies
You need three things for a stew to taste beautiful.
1) Sweetness
2) Starchiness (to add thickening to the liquid)
3) Texture

Carrots are brilliant.  Swedes, Potatos (sweet or regular), 'white carrot', etc.  The big trick is to buy the things that come out in winter.  Pumpkins are brilliant.  I love sweet potatoes in things like mock-tagines...

Step 3: The Soupy Stuff
On the cheap end of things, I'd suggest you need to have about 3 things in the soupy stuff.
1) Stock
2) Starch (flour, cornstarch, potato starch..)
3) Caramel-tastes

Caramel tastes come from onions usually.  I can't help but also put mushrooms into almost every stew.  I end up starting all of my stews with basically a chopped onion, olive oil, mushrooms and beef.

Tricks and Tips
Coat meat in a starch mixed with salt and pepper.  I love paprika in stews, particularly smoked paprika.
Garlic and bay leaves should be in almost all stews...
Parsley goes in while you're letting it cool down on a bench so you don't make it sour/bitter.
LOW temperatures and LONG times. (150C for 2.5h + )