This is a classic dish using Stephanie Alexander – The Cooks Companion’s recipe which I have modified slightly. You do not need to use an expensive cut of meat to create an amazing dish that simply falls apart!
Hints & Tips
- I recommend you cook the dish in the oven the night before and finish off the dish on the stove top prior to serving.
- SF.
- Category: Baking & Roasting, Beef, Main Course, Sugar Free
Ingredients
- Olive Oil
- 18 Small Flat Mushrooms
- 2 cups Meat Stock
- 12 Cloves Garlic - Minced
- Medium Piece of Orange Zest
- 6 Stalks Parsley
- 6 Sprigs Thyme
- 3 Bay Leaves
- 3 cups Red Wine
- Plain Flour
- Freshly Ground Black Pepper
- 2 kilograms Blade or Chuck Steak Cut in to 5cm Cubes
- 12 Small Onions or 24 Shallots, Peeled
- 300 Streaky Bacon, Cut in to 1cm Cubes
- 50 grams Softened Butter
Instructions
- Make a bouquet garni by tying the herbs and orange zest with a piece of string.
- Preheat oven to 170 degrees Celsius.
- In a large frying pan, heat some olive oil and brown the bacon slightly. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside.
- Add the onions/shallots and brown all over before setting aside with the bacon.
- Season the pieces of beef with pepper and brown all over. Add extra olive oil if needed and brown a few pieces at a time otherwise too much meat in the pan will cause the meat to stew rather than brown! As each piece becomes a rich brown, remove and set aside.
- In a large cast iron casserole dish that will hold all the meat with some room to spare, heat a little olive oil and then add all the meat. Sprinkle 3 tablespoons plain flour over the meat. Turn the heat to high and turn and stir the meat to allow the flour to cook a little.
- Still keeping heat high, slowly pour in the red wine. Stir and lift the meat again so that the wine bubbles and reduces somewhat as it hits the hot pan.
- Add the bouquet garni, garlic, reserved bacon and onion and their juices to the meat. Pour on sufficient stock to barely cover the contents.
- Cover the dish with 2 sheets of baking paper and then the lid, and ensure it is well fitted.
- Bake in the oven for 2 hours. If the meat is tender, add the mushrooms and return to oven for 30 minutes. Otherwise cook for a further hour before adding mushrooms.
- At this stage, the dish can be cooled and refrigerated overnight and gently reheated when required.
- Ladle off 1 cup of the juices from the dish. (If dish has been refrigerated overnight, gently reheat before doing this!).
- Work butter and 3 tablespoons plain flour to a paste. Add paste to juices and mash quickly using a fork until quite smooth. Tip this liquid into the casserole and lift and stir to distribute.
- Bring casserole to a boil on top of the stove to thicken slightly. Remove the bouquet garni and serve immediately.
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