On Saturday evening I had the lovely Douglas over for dinner and some vintage TV. For once we didn’t go for Doctor but two other old TV shows, however both had a Doctor Who connection. The first, Mr Rose, starred William Mervyn, not only a guest star in the William Hartnell story The War Machines, but also father of the current Doctor Who designer, Michael Pickwoad. The other, Spyder’s Web co-starred future Master, Anthony Ainley. We finished off with episode 6 of the Troughton ‘mostly missing’ story The Wheel in Space.
Anyway, I flicked through my cookbooks and found this tasty recipe in Dinner by Domini Kemp. It was easy to do, although it takes a while, and full of lovely flavours. It’s also not too heavy for a hot summer day. I served it with a nice cheesy mash and some sauteéd kale.
The recipe serves 4 but I scaled it down for just the two of us.
Serves 4
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1.5kg of braising beef, diced
2 onions, peeled and chopped
3 garlic cloves, crushed
1-2 medium bay leaves
2 pinches of salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon of tomato purée
250ml of red wine
500g of passata
A bunch of sage and parsley leaves, roughly chopped
Pre-heat the oven to 160.
Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan. When hot fry the beef for 3-4 minutes until browned all over.
Add the onions and garlic and the bay leaves and season well.
Once the onions have started to soften, add the purée, red wine and passata and stir well to combine.
Transfer to a casserole dish, pop the lid on and cook in the oven for at least an hour,.
After an hour, check the stew – it shouldn’t be too dry, or indeed too wet. If it is too dry, add a little more red wine. Check to see if the meat is nicely tender. Stir in the chopped sage and parsley and cook for a further 15-20 minutes or so. (If the stew is too wet, leave the lid off for the remaining cooking time.)
Once the cooking time had elapsed, serve immediately with mash and kale. Delicious!
cookingwithneil 