The stew described below is one I have cooked for our family from time to time. I usually use about 1 kilo of beef but the recipe scales without problem. Tomorrow we have visitors so I have made it today with double quantities. As with most stews the quantities are not sensitive.
Serves 6-8 (we usually freeze or refridgerate about half the pot)
Ingredients
1 kg stewing or braising beef
400-500 g onions (onions vary a lot in size but this is like two large onions)
300 g celery (roughly half a celery)
300 g carrots
2 tins of chopped tomatoes
3-4 cloves
4 cloves of garlic
250 ml red wine
1-2 tsp dried thyme (or a few sprigs of fresh thyme)
2 tsp paprika
2 bay leaves
beef stock cube
salt and pepper
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
Method
(I normally do the following a day before serving as the taste usually improves with time or freezing)
1. Heat the oil in a large pot.
2. Meanwhile chop the beef into roughly 2 cm cubes. This is roughly half the size of the beef pieces I get from the butcher.
3. Season the beef then brown it in the pot.
4. Add the cloves and garlic.
5. Chop up the onion. I use the coarsest cutting wheel on my MagiMix food processor for this and for the other vegetables. Add to the pot.
6. Chop up the celery and carrot and add to thepot.
7. Add the stock cube, bay leaves, paprika and thyme.
8. Add the red wine and chopped tomatoes.
9. Simmer for about 2 hours.
(On the day of serving)
10. Bring to the boil and simmer for 30-60 minutes. I try to avoid using flour to thicken the stew as the onion should thicken it just like with a curry or Hungarian goulash. Take off the lid if you want to thicken the stew or top up with water if it is getting too dry.
Accompaniments
I particularly like this stew with either couscous or Spätzle (a southern German noodle which is hard to buy here) but it goes well with mashed or new potatoes too. We normally serve one or two boiled vegetables such as red cabbage, green beans (this is the background to my earlier posting) or peas with the stew.
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