Serves 6-8
Ingredients
2 pounds of beef: shoulder roast, chuck roast or “stew meat”
Olive oil, or vegetable oil.
4 slices raw bacon cut into bits
1 tablespoon of flour
5 or 6 shallots
5 to 6 large mushrooms or 10 to 12 little mushrooms
1 large clove of garlic
1 carrot
1 bay leaf
1 tablespoon of tomato paste
1 bottle of red wine (taste it, make sure that it’s good)
1 or 2 beef bouillon cubes
Coarsely milled black pepper to taste
Method
Cut the beef into large, but bite-sized pieces (they will shrink to smaller bite-sized pieces during the cooking)
Trim some but not all of the fat from the beef.
Take 1 shallot and chop it up. Chop up the garlic clove. Peel the carrot and slice it up. Measure out the flour. Open the can of tomato paste. Uncork the wine and take a small glass to taste
Take out a frying pan and a larger pot that has a lid for the stew.
Put the larger stew pot over a medium-low flame, add 1 tablespoon of oil, wait a moment for it to warm up and then add the chopped shallot and the bacon bits so that they can start to sizzle and cook. Don’t let them burn.
At the same time, place the frying pan over a higher flame, add enough oil to cover the bottom to about one eighth of an inch. Wait for the oil to heat up and then start browning the beef pieces.
Once they have browned a bit, transfer them to the stew pot and stir with the shallots. Continue until all of the beef is browned and transferred to the stew pot. Sprinkle the flour over the beef in the pot, then stir all together for one minute to blend and cook the flour.
Toss in the sliced carrot, then empty the bottle of wine into the pot. Stir to blend everything together
Add the bay leaf, one bouillon cube, the garlic and the tomato paste. Stir to blend.
Turn the heat under the stew pot to low, place the cover on the pot and then let it cook for one hour
Stir it occasionally.
While that’s cooking, separate the shallots (they grow in cloves, something like a head of garlic) and trim the base of the mushrooms. If you have large mushrooms, cut them into halves or quarters.
After the stew has cooked for one hour, remove the lid and mix in the shallots. Don’t replace the lid. Leave the heat low.
After the stew has cooked for another 30 minutes, mix in the mushrooms.
Cook the stew for another 30 minutes then taste and add more salt (if necessary) and the pepper (also if necessary).
To serve
Serve in little brown bread loaf’s or with boiled potatoes, pasta or rice.
