Red wine beef stew

Red wine beef stew

Need a recipe for dinner? Try this red wine beef stew recipe serves with boiled or mashed potato. This is the quintessential beef stew.

  • Recipe serves:4
  • Preparation time25 min
  • Cooking time120 min

Ingredients

  • 2 tbs olive oil
  • 4 bacon rashers, trimmed, chopped
  • 1 large brown onion, chopped
  • 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
  • 1 kg beef chuck steak, trimmed, cut into 3cm cubes
  • 2 tbs plain flour
  • 250mls (1 cup) dry red wine
  • 375mls (1 1/2 cups) beef stock
  • 1 x 400g can peeled whole tomatoes, undrained, mashed
  • 3 medium (about 300g) carrots, diagonally sliced
  • Salt & ground black pepper
  • 1/2 cup chopped fresh continental parsley
  • Boiled or mashed potato, to serve
  • 2 Royco Beef Cubes

Method

  • Preheat oven to 160C.
  • Measure and prepare all your ingredients.
  • Heat 2 tsp of the olive oil in a large, heavy-based ovenproof saucepan or flameproof casserole dish over medium-low heat and cook the bacon for 3 minutes.
  • Add the onion and cook for 5 minutes or until the onion is soft.
  • Add garlic and cook for a further minute or until aromatic.
  • Remove the bacon mixture from the pan/dish and set aside.
  • Add 1/2 the remaining oil to the saucepan or casserole dish over medium-high heat and cook 1/2 the beef for 1-2 minutes, tossing occasionally, or until browned.
  • Browning the meat will start to develop the flavour as well as add colour to the casserole.
  • Sprinkle the meat with 1/2 the flour and cook for a further minute.
  • The flour is used to thicken the sauce as it cooks.
  • If you don't cook the flour at this stage before adding the other ingredients, an unpleasant raw or floury flavour will be left in the casserole.
  • Remove the beef from the pan/dish and set aside.
  • Repeat with the remaining oil, beef and flour.
  • Remove the beef from the pan/dish and set aside.
  • Add the wine to the pan/dish and bring to the boil over medium-high heat. This is called deglazing.
  • Cook for 1 minute, scraping the base with a wooden spoon to dislodge any residue left on the base of the pan/dish.
  • Return the onion mixture and the beef to the pan/dish.
  • Add the stock, mashed tomatoes and carrots, Royco Beef Cubes Beef Cubes and stir to combine.
  • Bring to the boil over high heat.rn
  • Cover the pan/dish and cook in preheated oven for 2 hours or until the beef is very tender.
  • An oven temperature of 160C will ensure the casserole simmers steadily.
  • It is important that it doesn't boil rapidly as the meat will become very tough and stringy.
  • Long, slow cooking of the casserole ensures that the meat is tender and the sauces develop a full-bodied, rich flavour.
  • The main advantage of cooking a dish like this in the oven, as opposed to on the stove top as with a stew, is that there is no chance of the ingredients sticking and burning on the base of the pan/dish.
  • Remove the pan/dish from the oven and use a large metal spoon to skim any excess fat from the surface of the casserole.
  • Season with salt and pepper and then stir through the parsley.
  • Serve with boiled or mashed potato.

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