Greek-style Beef Stew

Recipe serves 10
Preparation Time 40 min
Cooking Time 170 min

Tags: Beef Winter Main Warm & Hearty Marco's Recipes Difficult Over an Hour

Ingredients

Method

Dilute the Knorr Herb Infusion Pots with 1.2 litres of hot water, stirring until thoroughly dissolved, and adding a touch of gravy browning for extra colour if desired.
Pre-heat the oven to 150˚C (140˚C fan oven).
Take a large casserole dish, heat 2tbsps of olive oil, add in the chopped onion and garlic and gently fry the onion mixture for 10–15 minutes over a low heat to bring out the natural sweetness of the onion, working it with a spoon to cook the onion evenly.
Meanwhile, add remaining olive oil to two large heavy frying pans and set them to pre-heat. You want the oil to be smoking hot.
Once the oil is thoroughly pre-heated, add the chunks of beef to the frying pans. Fry the beef without turning it for 10 minutes until the meat touching the pan has taken on a rich brown colour. Turn the meat and continue browning well on all sides. Don’t rush; mother your meat. Browning it properly makes a real difference to the dish.
Add the white wine to the onion mixture in the casserole dish, bring to the boil and cook uncovered to reduce the white wine and so intensify its flavour.
Add the browned beef chunks to the casserole dish.
Pour the fat and caramelised sediment from the two frying pans into a large bowl and set aside for a few minutes to allow the sediment to settle naturally to the bottom. Spoon off and discard the layer of fat from the surface, then pass the sediment through a sieve into the casserole. There’s a lot of flavour in the sediment, so by doing this you’re adding more flavour to the stew.
Add the whole lemon, sugar, bay leaves and thyme to the stew and continue cooking down the wine uncovered until the wine has reduced by about two-thirds, which takes around 15–20 minutes.
Meanwhile, gently heat the diluted Knorr Herb Infusion in a separate pan and simmer gently.
Once the wine has reduced, add the Knorr Herb Infusion to the meat and gently shake the casserole to mix it in. Bring to the boil, then carefully place a large piece of silver foil on top of the open casserole dish, top it with the casserole lid and carefully fold the foil back over the rim of the lid to create a really good seal.
Place the covered casserole in the pre-heated oven to cook for 1 hour 50 minutes to 2 hours, until the meat is tender.
Transfer the chunks of beef to a serving dish. Spoon over some of the gravy and garnish it with the bay leaves, the lemon and the coriander sprig. Serve at once. Creamed potatoes or boiled potatoes will go very well with it.