Ingredients:
- Beef chuck (or shoulder), G prefers chuck.
- Rosemary, thyme, bay leaves
- 1 box beef stock, Red wine
- 1 cup cream (or half & half or whole milk)
- Carrots, Gold potatoes, Mushrooms, Pearl Onions (frozen bag), Peas (frozen bag), Parsley
- 1 large Onion, many heads of garlic, kosher salt, pepper(corns), olive oil

Marinate:
Cut up beef in large chunks. I cut across the grain into about 1.5"x2"x whatever size. Divide the chunks from each of the roast into large gallon zip lock bags, turn the zipper out, and put each bag in a mixing bowl. (I get the large package of 2x beef chuck roast from Costco. Each of the roast fits into one bag. )

Cut onion and carrots into chunks. Smash a head of garlic. Add onion, carrots, and garlic to the bags, along with a tablespoon of peppercorns, generous sprigs of rosemary & thyme, and a bay leaf. Fill the bag with beef stock and a very generous pour of red wine. Zip up and marinate overnight. (I always keep the bags in the mixing bowls to ensure there will be no spills.)

Brown meat, slow braise, and rest overnight:
Preheat oven to 250. Drain the marinate, reserve the liquid, discard all the solids. Dry the beef with paper towels. Heat pan on high heat, add a little olive oil, brown meat on all sides, in batches. Do not crowd the pan. Divide the meat and wrap tightly in heavy aluminum foil. Bake for 4hrs, I have left it for 6hrs. Cool and let the packages rest in fridge overnight. (It is very important to rest the meat at least overnight. Meat can be held in the fridge for a couple of days at this stage.)

Garlic mash and roasted vegetables:
Preheat oven to 450. Smash and peel garlic. (in proportion of 5 heads to 5lbs of Gold potatoes). Wash potatoes. Chop carrots. Combine garlic and potatoes in one pan, and carrots in another, toss in olive oil with salt, and pepper. Roast (in different pans, at the same time) for about 45 minutes until golden brown. Cool slightly, mash potatoes and garlic together, add cream to the right consistency. Keep warm.

Stew:
In a large pot, heat the reserved marinate liquid, bring to a boil, then turn down to medium. Open the meat packages, discard any fat. Add spring of rosemary, thyme, and bay leaf, plus meat to liquid, heat through, about 45 minutes. Taste, season with salt and pepper. Then add roasted carrots, pearl onions, mushrooms, peas, then enough beef stock to balance liquid with solid ingredients. Simmer until all ingredients are warm. Taste again, add seasoning if needed.

Assemble and serve:
Chop parsley. In each dish, put a scoop of garlic mash potatoes, a chunk of meat, spoonful of liquid & vegetables, and sprinkle parsley. Or, better yet, let the diners assemble their own. My dish is always more veggies & liquid than meat, vs G's more meat, less everything else.

Enjoy! (Pic on flickr)