a meatier beef burgundy

While staying with my folks recently, Mum and I made a batch of beef croquettes. This starts with simply boiling stewing beef in water. That smelled so good that I had a sudden thought that maybe the problem with my beef stews is the vegetable bulk? So I'm trying a more beef centric stew version to test that. Of course I couldn't resist making it more complex than just beef in water, but there is very little volume in there other than beef and enough liquid. Anyway while I remember what I put in the pot:

750g stewing steak, cubed and with the chunkiest fat evicted
brown this in olive oil in 3 batches
deglaze with a glass of red wine
add: 3 smallish flat mushrooms chopped
~1T tomato juice/passata
1 cube frozen parsley
~1/2t dried thyme
shake of hing powder
~8 turns black pepper
grated nutmeg (maybe 1/8t?)
enough water to barely cover

bring to the boil, drop to a simmer for 2-3hrs, lid on. Must check for seasoning later, the only salt in the above is in the parsley (and tomato goop I suppose). I mean to thicken it a little at the end and treat as pie filling.

chicken ragu

2 chicken thighs
brown in olive oil-until some crispy bits and the fat runs
deglaze with a glass of white wine, reduce a bit.
add:
1tin diced tomatoes
1t dried oregano
3 sticks celery, sliced
1/4t salt
~10 turns black pepper

bring to a boil, drop to a simmer for about an hour (if on a slightly too high heat it will reduce)
pick out the bones, stir to divide the meat. Add in 6 halved, destoned calamata olives

serve with spaghetti (or rice) and grated parmesan, pecorino or similar

Yum!