Beef Bourguignon

There’s nothing like the aroma of a slow cooked casserole to greet you on a cold evening. This takes about three hours to cook, so get yourself organised in the morning or even the night before. There’s only about 30 minutes prep. Pop it in the oven and set the oven controls to start cooking later in the day. Most ovens have this facility, but most of us don’t use it. I don’t have a slow cooker so I do use my oven this way. Find the instruction book - you have kept it of course, (you can go on-line and retrieve one for most major brands) and get slow cooking.

Ingredients

• 1.5kg beef shin or stewing beef, cut into 8 large chunks
• 150g lardons or cubes of smoked bacon
• 10 button onions or shallots, peeled
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed flat
• 1 bay leaf
• bunch parsley, stalks only
• 2 sprigs of thyme
• 2 sprigs of rosemary
• 3 cloves
• 10 peppercorns, crushed
• 1 bottle red wine
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 20 small Swiss Brown mushrooms
• parsley leaves, chopped, to garnish
• plain flour to dust the meat
• vegetable oil to sear the meat

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 140C fan-forced
2. Dust each piece of meat with flour. Heat the oil in a large casserole over high heat and fry the meat in batches until browned. Remove each batch as it is done.
3. In the same pan, and using a little extra oil if necessary, fry the lardons, onions and garlic, until browned.
4. Add the herbs and spices, tomato paste, sugar and salt. Add 400ml water and the wine. Make sure to scrape up any caramelised bits on the bottom of the pan as they will add flavour.
5. Bring to a simmer, and add the meat, and any juices that have collected under it.
6. Place a piece of baking paper over the braise, cover with a tight fitting lid and cook for 3 hours in the oven or until the meat is almost falling apart.
7. About 20 minutes before you are ready to serve, add the mushrooms to the braise, and season with salt and pepper.

To Serve

8. Sprinkle with chopped parsley