Beef and Red Wine Stew

If I had to single out the greatest contribution the French have made to cookery it would have to be jargon. Take the humble stew for example. I can think of countless different terms the French would use to describe this classic staple. There are ragouts, fricassees’, blanquettes and casseroles just to name a few. And the French have rules for all of them. If the game has feathers - it is a ‘salmis’, if it has fur – they call it a ‘civet, if it is from Burgundy - it is a la Bourgogne - I could keep going all day!

Down under though, we like to keep things simple. A stew is a stew. But this recipe here, my beef and red stew, is not just any stew. It is the richest, most tender and basically the all round best stew you will ever eat. And with winter setting in fast there is no better time to enjoy classic slow cooked soul food.

Ingredients
2kg beef shin, diced
200g smoked pork (kaiserfleisch or bacon), diced
1.5 litres red wine
75g plain flour
75ml olive oil
12 baby onions, whole peeled
1 cup celery, diced
1 bunch baby carrots, cleaned and peeled
3 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
300g mushrooms, quartered
5 sprigs fresh thyme, no stalk just the leaves

The Roux
The first step is to make what is known as a roux. This is just equal quantities of flour and fat, the same as when you make a white sauce. For this recipe though it will need to be a ‘brown roux’, so as to add colour the stew. Add the flour and the oil to a heavy bottom saucepan and cook over a gentle heat until dark brown. Continuously stir to prevent it from catching and burning. You will know when it is ready as it will smell like pop corn or freshly cooked bread and be the same colour as almonds.

The Wine
It is up to you as to how much you want to spend on wine for this recipe but just remember if it is not good enough to drink; it is not good enough to cook with. Never use old or corked wine thinking it will be fine, it won’t be - I have used good quality cask wine as quite a bit is required. Now you are going to add the wine to the roux. When the cold liquid hits the hot roux it will bubble and thicken immediately. Add half the wine and whisk until very smooth then add the remaining wine, whisk and bring to the boil. The base for the stew is now ready to add the remaining ingredients.

The Meat
The best thing about slow cooked dishes is you can use cheaper cuts of meat and they will be super tender and flavoursome. Never use prime cuts, such as porterhouse or eye fillet, as they will be to lean and become dry. I think beef shin is the best for this dish and if you ask the guys at Norfolk butcher for Chris’ cut, they will know exactly what you need. Along with the roux, the rich flavour and colour of the final product comes from browning the meat really well.
Heat a fry pan and fry of the smoked pork. Use a slotted spoon to take the pork out so as you can use the fat in the pan to fry the meat. Season the beef with salt and pepper and then fry in a hot pan until dark brown all over. It is best to fry small batches at a time. You will need to add a little more oil though after each batch of beef is fried. Add this meat to the stew base.

The Vegies
As this recipe doesn’t use stock using what is known as ‘mirepoix’ will add complexity to the flavour. Mirepoix (mirror-pwa) is just a combination of carrots, celery and onions. Fry of the baby onions until they are brown, sauté the celery until it starts to sweat and add them to the stew. I am using baby carrots, so rather than adding them at this stage I will blanch them and add them to the stew at the end. The mushrooms, thyme and garlic can be just added to the stew raw.

Slow cooking
Slow cooking became a real icon in Australian cookery about 20 years ago when a group of people formed the ‘slow food movement’. This name came as both a tongue-in-cheek remark against the growing ‘fast food’ industry and a literal derivation from cooking food slowly. When food is cooked slowly for a long time, the toughest of fibres will break down and become tender. Sinew and fat will break down and become beautifully rich and gelatinous, which is why the cheaper cuts work best. If you are worried about eating too much fat, please don’t be tempted to use a lean cut for this dish, instead, I suggest having a salad for dinner the next night! This stew will take about three hours or so to cook but like any stew, it is best to cook it a day or two before, refrigerate and reheat when needed. Serve with Mash potatoes, green beans and a garden salad.

If there is any stew left over, the next nights dinner can be made by adding the stew to a saucepan with a little extra water and cooking it down until the meat becomes stringy. Cook your favourite pasta, I like to use pappardelle, and use the stew as a pasta sauce with fresh peas and parmesan.

Tattoo