Beef Stew for all seasons
Slow cooked beef with caramelised onions, sweetness from the carrots and potatoes to add to the texture of this simple beef stew and the slow cooking adds a lot of depth of flavour to the dish.
Recipe Author- Madhushree
Ingredients
- 500 gms beef cubes better to get a brisket since it will be slow cooked
- 2 large potatoes cut into halves
- 2 nos carrots cut into big pieces
- 1 large onion chopped
- 2 nos shallots cut into halves
- 8 nos garlic cloves chopped
- 3 nos cloves
- 1 no bay leaf
- 10 nos peppercorns
- 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- 2 tsp All purpose flour
- 1 1/2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 cups beef stock or any other stock that you have
- 1/2 cup red wine I used a basic port wine
- 1 sprig rosemary You can even use thyme instead of rosemary
- salt as required
Instructions
- In a crockpot or any other heavy bottomed pot, drizzle some olive oil (not all of it) and brown the meat over medium heat. Sprinkle some salt over the beef cubes. Once they are nicely browned, take them out and keep aside. Do not worry about parts sticking to the bottom since they will all add to the flavour later on.
- Drizzle the rest of the olive oil and add the chopped onions and garlic. Sweat the onions and scrape the bottom of the pan in the process.
- Once th onions are a bit translucent, add the balsamic vinegar and properly scrape off all that was sticking to the pan. Caramelise the onions while making sure to not burn them.
- Add tomato paste, red wine and all the spices. Bring them all together.
- Sprinkle some flour over the browned meat pieces and then add them to the pot.
- Add the stock and season if required.
- Give it all a good stir and then cover and cook for an hour and half in low to medium heat.
- After that add the potatoes, carrots and rosemary and some more water and transfer the pot to a pre heated oven for further cooking at 180 degrees for 2 more hours.
- In case you want a faster cooking with the same result, after adding the root vegetables and rosemary with some water, transfer everything to a pressure cooker (my failsafe). Cook for 20 to 25 minutes in the pressure cooker.
- Release the steam and check if the meat is done. The meat should ideally be quite tender by now. Add the shallots and give it another boil.
- Add more liquid if you feel the need.
- The beef stew is ready to be had with some bread on the side or even with some herbed rice.
- Other than cooking in the oven or in the pressure cooker, you can even cook it completely on stove top. In that case it has to be covered and cooked over low heat over a long period of time- at least 4 hours. And one needs to check every now and then to see if anything is sticking to the bottom and adding liquid if required.