What a dreamy aroma to come home to: wine, beef… beef, wine… Well, that’s what Nadia thinks. Me? I’m more to the point. The dinner is ready. Wine, glass… glass of wine.
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil, plus extra if needed
- 2 tbsp plain flour
- ½ tsp salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 2 lb (900 g) chuck, braising, or stewing steak, in chunky pieces
- 10 small onions or 1 large onion, sliced
- 4 rashers of streaky bacon, chopped
- handful of button mushrooms
- 2 garlic cloves, crushed
- 2 tbsp tomato purée
- 16 fl oz (500 ml) dry red wine
- 1 bouquet garni (a bunch of herbs in a muslin bag), or a herby jellied beef stock jelly cube
- pinch of sugar
How to Make It
- Heat half the oil in a heavy-based frying pan. Put the flour on a plate and season it very well. Dust the meat in the seasoned flour.
- Fry half the meat in the pan until browned on all sides, then remove with a slotted spoon, put it in a slow cooker, and repeat for the remaining meat, adding more oil if you need to.
- Now add the onions or onion slices, bacon, mushrooms, and garlic to the pan, and stir for a few minutes. If you need a little more oil, make sure you heat it up in the pan first. Add the tomato purée and fry for a minute.
- Pour in the wine, drop in the bouquet garni or stock cube, and bring to the boil, then add the sugar. Pour the contents of the frying pan over the beef.
- Cook on the low setting for 8 hours. Do not open for a peek! If you’d like the sauce thicker, remove the meat with a slotted spoon and boil the sauce until it has reduced (which means some of the excess liquid boils off).
- Serve with peas and boiled new potatoes. Oh, and garlic bread is nice with this.
