Last week, the weather was rainy and cold. So, it was a good reason to cook a beef stew. It's the kind of dish that makes you loving winter. The other advantage is that you cook only one time and you have several meals available for the days after. And as the proverb says, it's better when it's reheated.
The secret is the slowness. The beef meat needs a long cooking time to be as tender as possible.
Ingredients
Meat : about 600 gr of beefchuck or beef rib and 500 gr of knuckle
Vegetables :
3 or 4 leeks
2 or 3 turnips
5 or 6 carrots
an onion
2 sticks of celery
4 potatoes
rosemary and thyme branches
2 bay leaves
4 cloves
salt and pepper
The first thing to do is to cook the meat in a broth.
Put the pieces of meat in a pot and add cold water. Cover completely the meat and add more in order to add vegetables later. Add a teaspoon of cooking salt, one stick of celery, rosemary, bay and thyme.
Peel an onion and stick the cloves into.
Cover and bring to the boil. Then, reduce the heat and let cook about one hour and a half. Now and then skim the fat.
Meanwhile, clean, peel and cut the vegetables.
First, add turnips and celery and let cook. 20 minutes later put leeks and carrots. Season with pepper.
During this time, boil potatoes separately.
After 20 minutes, it's ready. The last thing you have to do is to fish out cloves and sprinkle the « bouquet garni » over.
Put the meat in a middle of a serving plate and add the vegetables.
Serve with mustard and a slice of bread.
The following days, you can cook the broth with vermicelli or make a salad with the meat, slices carrots, red onion and parsley.