This, ladies and gents, is a hearty variation of a regular stew. every where you go in the world, they have their own variation of beef stew. This is a french take on the humble beef stew. Red wine lends some much needed complexity to the flavours and elevates what is essentially just a plain old stew.
It's also a perfect food for cosy family meals or a winter warmer. I particularly like to serve mine with ugali (read: polenta). The combination sits heavy and to be honest once you eat this meal, the right thing to do is to sleep because its slaps heavy lol.
For a lighter meal you can also serve it up with steamed rice or mash potato or a flatbread like chapati.
Serves 4
500 grams beef cubes
100g mushrooms, halved
100 grams streaky bacon, cut into small strips
1 large onion, cut into chunks
4 cloves of garlic, minced
2 bay leaves
2 tbs cornflour
Bouquet garni ( if you don't have this you can use dried mixed herbs)
1/2 litre beef stock or 1/2 beef cube dissolved in 500ml water
1 cup dry red wine
2 tbs Worcestershire sauce
1 tbs dark soy sauce
Salt and pepper to taste
Cook the bacon till golden brown and take off the heat. Put it in your casserole dish. In the same pan put your beef cubes and the cornflour. Brown the meat and season with salt and pepper.
Take the meat out of the pan and set aside. Again in the same pan, add onions, garlic and mushrooms and saute for a couple of minutes. Put the meat and bacon back in and mix well. Then add the rest of the ingredients; beef stock, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, red wine, bay leaves and bouquet garni.
You can pour all this into a casserole dish and leave it in the oven for a couple of hours or you can leave it in the pan on a low heat to simmer until the liquid has reduced by half and is thick and glossy.
Once ready, serve with your favorite side