Greek Style Beef Stew скачать в хорошем качестве

Greek Style Beef Stew

A one-pot comforting stew made with seared beef chuck, whole shallots, and onions, slow-cooked to tender perfection. The secret lies in browning the meat and sweating the onions to enhance deep, meaty flavours. Anchovy puree and star anise add an extra layer of umami and warmth, while a finishing touch of lemon zest provides a bright, fresh contrast. This hearty Greek-style stew is perfect for family-style serving and makes a richly flavoured meal in just three hours. I used beef chuck in this recipe, but of course, you can use any braising joints, but due to the clean flavours, I like to use relatively leaner joints, like chuck or ox cheek. I think short ribs or oxtail would need more flavours to balance their meatiness. The searing of the meat at the beginning of cooking is an essential part of building the depth of flavours. Browning, which is the layman's term for the Maillard reaction, is a chemical reaction between amino acids and reducing sugars that gives food its distinctive meaty flavour. Without browning, we might as well just boil all the ingredients from the beginning. It is for that reason that I like to keep the meat chunky in the beginning, to maximise browning. If you use diced meat, they will release so much moisture into the pot that it would be hard to achieve good browning. The whole shallots are essential to this dish. As they cook, they slowly fall apart and impart so much flavour to the whole dish. They are also extremely tasty at the end of cooking. Since this is my variation of the dish, I took the liberty and added two ingredients - star anise for some extra complexity, as they work incredibly well with onion and meat, and salted anchovy puree for some extra umami. Anchovy puree has become a go-to for my braising dishes, as they add so much umami and complexity to the dish without imparting any fishiness. If you are sceptical, most Japanese beef stews are cooked with dashi, which is most likely made from dried, shaved tuna, but you would never even detect a hint of tuna from those dishes. As usual, my take on herbs with stew is you add what you have. There is no point wasting money buying 5 different herbs and using a spring from each, unless you are growing them anyway. The only one I always use is bay leaf because they stay for months in the fridge. Ingredients Beef chuck - about 1 kg, in very chunky pieces, like steaks Shallots - whole, peeled, about 5 Onion - 1, diced Garlic - about 3 cloves, minced Lemon - 1 Star anise - about 3 Bay leaves - about 3 Salted anchovy puree - about 70 mg Vegetable oil (or any high smoke point neutral oil) Soy sauce Chicken stock (homemade or store bought) Salt Black pepper Directions 1. Add vegetable oil to a cast-iron pot at medium-high heat (induction 7.5). Once the oil is shimmering, season the beef chuck with salt and black pepper and add them in one layer. Sear in multiple batches if needed. 2. Once the beef is seared, remove them from the pan to rest on the side and add the shallots to brown. 3. Once the shallots are browned, add the diced onion and season with salt and pepper. Cook until translucent, then add the garlic and cook for another minute. 4. Add salted anchovy puree and mix, then add star anise and bay leaves. 5. Slice the beef into chunky pieces and add them back into the pot. 6. Add a dash of lemon juice. You can also use white wine at this stage to introduce a bit of freshness and acidity. 7. Add just enough chicken stock to cover most of the ingredients. 8. Add a dash of soy sauce to the pot and mix. 9. Reduce the heat to medium-low (induction 3.5), cover the pot with the lid and cook for about 3 hours. 10. After 3 hours, skim off most of the fat and add lemon zest. Serve hot in the middle of the dining table. ____ Follow us on Instagram:   / w2kitchn   #W2Kitchen #beefstew #greekrecipes