Cut meat in roughly 1 inch pieces and pat dry with a paper towel. Meat will not brown properly if damp.
Season the beef cubes with a generous amount of salt and freshly cracked black pepper.
Heat some butter and sauté the beef cubes a few pieces at a time until nicely browned on all sides. Don’t overcrowd the pan or they won’t brown properly.
As soon as the last batch has browned, transfer all the meat to a big Dutch oven. Provided you didn’t start out with a Dutch oven in the first place.
Chop onions into large cuts.
Saute the onions and then add to the meat cubes.
Spoon 3 tbsp flour on top of meat and onions, stir in and let it cook for a minute.
Stir in the tomato paste and give it an extra minute to sweeten up.
Pour in just enough water to submerge the meat. Most likely 4-5 cups.
Peel the apples and dice.
Add apples and remaining ingredients to the dutch oven.
Bring it to a boil. Put the lid on and forget all about it for the next, say 2 and a half to 3 hours. You can stir now and then if you really want to, though.
After about 3 hours, remove the lid and let liquid cook down a little.
Keep in mind that the longer you’ll cook this stew, the better it will taste! So it’s a perfect stew for your slowcooker as well.
Here’s my personal preference: I use my masher to break up the beef. Then I let it simmer for another 30 to 45 minutes until the gravy had the consistency I was looking for.
Check the seasoning and add pepper! A generous amount.
Discard the bay leaves, rosemary sprig, cloves and peppercorns.
Pour over mashed or cut up, boiled potatoes.
