It has become a habit that Aaron and I will meet at least once during the weekend. Every Saturday, when he has both holiday on Saturday and Sunday, we would meet up and be together for the whole day. While, when he has only Saturday off, we’d meet on Friday after his work and for that every Friday, we’d watch a movie at the cinema. This week, we watched Transformers! It was his second time watching it, he has seen it with his parents last weekend. We wanted to watch Ratatouille, however this cinema has the Cantonese version only. And how ridiculous of them to have spent Ratatouille wrong and had “Ratatouilile”!~ Anyhow, Transformers was GREAT! It was a really good movie, liked it a lot!! Other than a movie this weekend, since I’m on holiday this week, I had time to make a great dinner for this Friday night. Dinner was Jamie Oliver’s “Jools’s Favourite Beef Stew” with some amendments and his “Pesto Twister Rolls” with extra emmental! Dessert was that Gooey Chocolate Cake I’ve made before… but it was a failure again… dah~ I should stop putting the batter in the fridge, it’s just NOT working!!~
Beef Stew (Serves 4)
Ingredients:
|
Butter
|
A knob |
| Onion |
1 |
| Sage (Fresh, or Ground sage) |
A handful |
| Stewing beef (Cut into 2 inch pieces) |
800g or 1 ¾ lb |
| Salt and Pepper |
|
| Flour |
|
| Carrot (Cut into 1 ½ inch pieces) |
4 |
| Butternut Squash (Cut into 2 inch pieces |
1/2 |
| Small New Potatoes (Cut into 2 inch pieces) |
500g or 1lb |
| Tomato purée |
2 tbsp |
| Red Wine |
½ bottle |
| Beef stock (I used OXO) |
285mL or 1 ½ pint |
| Lemon Zest |
Of a lemon |
| Rosemary (Pricked and Chopped) |
A handful |
| Garlic (Finely Chopped) |
1 clove |
| Corn starch |
2 tsp |
Method:
I used a vacuum cooking.
1. In the vacuum cooker’s pot, heat the knob of butter and some olive oil. Add the onion and sage and cook for a few minutes.
2. Mix the flour with some salt and pepper, and toss the beef in the flour mixture until the pieces are coated. Add the pieces to the pot along with the vegetable, tomato purée, red wine and stock. Gently stir.
3. Gently season with salt and pepper. Note do not add too much salt as the moisture will reduce as it cooks and the stew might become too salty.
4. Bring the stew to the boil, remove from heat and put the pot into the vacuum cooker and close the lid. Let it cook for 3 hours. (I personally, like the meat a bit firm.)
5. After 3 hours, remove the pot from the vacuum cooker and transfer to the stove.
6. Turn the heat to high and bring it to the boil. (As compared to the original recipe, this method has more moisture and requires a thickener.) In a bowl, add in the corn starch and about three to four teaspoons of water. Mix well.
7. Pour the cornstarch mixture as you stir the stew. The sauce should have thickened. Same method can be used to make a thicker sauce.
8. To serve, chopped the lemon zest, rosemary and garlic together. Toss some over the stew and serve with some bread. Buon Appetito!
