It’s time for the second instalment of Saturday Stew Season.
Last week we made Beef Bourguignon. It was very nice, although a little too salty. I think it was too salty because the bacon we used was very salty. This week, we’re going to try the Italian version. We were going to do Irish Guiness Beef Stew, but the Guiness has barley in it which Louise can’t eat because she has coeliacs disease, so its back to the drawing board.
The recipe we are using is from The Ultimate Italian Cookbook. Louise’s parents gave her this cookbook for her 15th birthday. It has a very nice baked macaroni with cheese recipe (not very authentic Italian food, but it still tastes nice). Today’s recipe is as follows (modified from the book for cooking in a crock pot):
Recipe: Spezzatino di manzo con vino rosso (Beef Stew with Red Wine)
Summary: A rich, hearty Italian beef stew
Ingredients
- 75ml of olive oil;
- 1.2kg of blade steak, in 3cm cubes;
- 1 medium onion, very finely sliced;
- 2 carrots, chopped;
- 45ml finely chopped parsley;
- 1 clove of garlic, chopped;
- 1 bay leaf;
- A pinch of dried thyme leaves;
- A pinch of ground nutmeg;
- 1 cup of red wine;
- 1 400g can of plum tomatoes, chopped with their juice;
- 100ml beef or chicken broth;
- 15 black olives, stoned and halved;
- 1 large red sweet pepper, cut into strips;
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Instructions
- Turn on crockpot.
- Heat 45 ml of the oil in a pan. Brown the meat, a little at a time, turning it to colour on all sides. Remove to crock pot.
- Add the remaining oil, and the onions and carrots to the pan. Cook over low heat until the onion softens.
- Add the parsley and garlic and cook for 3-4 minutes more. Remove to crock pot.
- Pour the wine into the pan to deglaze. Bring to a simmer. Stir in the tomatoes, olives, broth, bay leaf, thyme and nutmeg and reduce. Transfer to crock pot.
- Leave to cook on low in crock pot for 5 hours.
- Add strips of red pepper to crock pot. Cook for a further 1 hour.
- Season to taste.
- Serve with mashed potatoes or polenta.
Diet (other): Gluten free
Number of servings (yield): 6
Meal type: dinner
Culinary tradition: Italian
Isabella is six weeks old today.
She is still having trouble breast feeding, but it doesn’t seem to be holding her back. She put on 600 grams over the last two weeks. She has also slept through the night a couple of times this week. If only we could get the other children to do likewise!
by Kris on 24 July, 2010
This was the second stew we cooked in our stew season. We used a recipe from The Family Circle Recipe Encyclopedia, but modified it for the crock pot. It was very tasty – a little too salty, but I think that was because the bacon we used was too salty.
Recipe: Beef Bourguignon
Summary: The classic French beef stew
Ingredients
- 1kg of blade steak
- 2 cups of red wine
- 2 rashers of bacon
- 2 tablespoons of olive oil
- 12 small pickling onions, peeled
- 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
- 4 medium carrots, cut into 3-4cm lengths
- 1 teaspoon of thyme leaves
- 1 bay leaf
- 30 grams of butter
- 375 grams of mushrooms, quartered
- cornflour to thicken
Instructions
- Trim meat of excess fat, cut into 1.5 cm cubes.
- Soak meat in red wine overnight.
- Pre-heat crockpot.
- Cut bacon into 1cm strips. Heat oil in large pan; add bacon and cook until brown. Move bacon to crockpot.
- Add onions to pan and cook in bacon fat until well browned. Move onions to crockpot.
- Brown meat pieces in remaining fat. Move beef to crockpot.
- Add red wine and garlic to pan. Cook to reduce wine. Pour mixture into crockpot with carrots, thyme leaves and bay leaf.
- Leave in crockpot on low for 7 hours.
- Heat butter in small pan; add mushrooms and cook until soft. Stir mushrooms and juices into the stew.
- Leave in the crockpot for a further 30 minutes.
- Add cornflour to thicken liquid, as necessary.
- Season to taste.
Cooking time (duration): 8
Diet (other): Gluten free
Number of servings (yield): 6
Meal type: dinner
Culinary tradition: French
Saturday is usually my day for cooking. We’ve decided it’s time for a season of stews.
Last week we made our version of one of Jamie Oliver’s stew recipes. The photo above is a before shot, but I forgot to take any after shots, so I guess we’ll have to make it again.
My plan now is try cooking different traditional beef stews from around the world. Today we are trying with Beef Bourguignon.
Here is a list of the stews we’ve come up with so far:
- Beef Bourgignon
- Irish Guinness Beef Stew
- Hungarian Goulash
- Russian Stroganoff
- Indonesian Beef Rendang
- Indian Beef Vindaloo
- Spezzatino di manzo con vino rosso
- Cholent (Jewish Beef Stew)
Any suggested additions?
