A real winter warmer
Some of our tastiest dishes come from hard times in the distant past, when our mums had to buy meat as tough as old boots and turn it into a feast. This is one of those. You can substitute the veggies to suit yourself, but the core of the dish is a bunch of beef bones. The bone marrow adds depth of flavour and silky texture to the stew, and it’s full of nutrients.
If you’re worried about the fat, you can trim the meat or read The Cholesterol Myth – They can silence ABC’s Catalyst but they can’t make the facts go away.
Total cooking time: 2 hours 15 minutes (mostly in the oven)
Feeds 4 to 6, keeps for days in the fridge
Here’s what you need:
- 1.5 kgs for marrow bones, brisket bones, short ribs, chuck ribs (pictured), beef Osso Buco and oxtail. Go easy on the oxtail since the flavour can overpower the other meats.
- 300g or thereabouts of speck or thick bacon
- 4-5 spring or small onions
- Garlic to your taste
- 3-4 carrots, chopped into chunks
- 2 fennel bulbs, discard the hard outer shell and the stalks, and chop into halves or quarters
- Red or green capsicum or both
- A breakfast bowl of Swiss brown mushrooms, cut into chunks or left whole if they’re small
- Can of crushed or chopped tomatoes
- 500 ml Beef stock
- 2-3 glasses red wine
- Water to suit
- 2 x tablespoons of flour
- Seasoning
- Bay leaves, oregano, rosemary and thyme (dried is fine), and a dash of balsamic vinegar
- Spring Onion Tails or shallots, parsley
Options: you can substitute fennel bulbs with parsnips or turnips or potatoes or all of these. You can even substitute the red wine with white wine or beer or cider. You can add some paprika and a few chili flakes if you want some extra heat. Stews are forgiving.
Here’s the sequence:
- Cut the meat into big chunks and brown it in a fry pan, sprinkling flour over each side. Add garlic, carrots and red wine, put the lot in a casserole dish and put it in the oven at 150⁰ for 45 minutes.
- Add the onions, speck, crushed tomatoes, capsicum and fennel plus some beef stock to cover everything, and put it back in the oven at 170⁰ for an hour and a half. Add seasoning to taste.
- With half an hour to go, brown the mushrooms in a fry pan with some butter and add them to the casserole, adjust the seasoning and add the herbs and shallots, and top the liquid up with water if need be.
When the time is up, the meat should fall off the bones, which you can take out or leave in for decoration. Just make sure you warn your guests. Serve with pasta, rice or potatoes, and remember: stews are always better on the second day sol cook it the night before you need it if you can.
Good luck
Kim