Continental Com Au Slow Cooking

Basic beef and red wine casserole

25m prep
2h 20m cook
4 servings

Recipe may contain gluten, soy and wheat.

As nights get nippy, take comfort in a hearty casserole, perfect for warming up your midweek, without breaking a sweat!

13 Ingredients
10 Method Steps

13 Ingredients

2 tbsp olive oil
4 bacon rashers, trimmed, chopped
1 large brown onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 kg beef chuck steak, trimmed, cut into 3cm cubes
2 tbsp plain flour
250mls (1 cup) dry red wine
375mls (1 1/2 cups) Massel beef stock
1 x 400g can peeled whole tomatoes, undrained, mashed
3 medium (about 300g) carrots, diagonally sliced
Salt & ground black pepper
1/2 cup chopped fresh continental parsley
Boiled or mashed potato, to serve
Select all ingredients

10 Method Steps

Preheat oven to 160°C. Measure and prepare all your ingredients. There is much confusion about the difference between a casserole, a stew and a braised dish. These three terms are often used indiscriminately as they all refer to cooking food slowly in liquid in a covered container. After much research, I came to the conclusion that for a casserole, as it is most universally recognised, the food (namely meat) is browned first on the stove top and then simmered with other ingredients in the oven. For a stew, the food is not browned first before it is simmered on the stove top. To braise, the food is browned first and . then simmered on the stove top. Usually, less liquid is used when braising.
To cook the casserole, you will need a large, heavy-based ovenproof saucepan or flameproof casserole dish with a lid. An enamelled cast iron pan is ideal as it can be used on both the stove top and in the oven and distributes and holds heat well. There are also many suitable flameproof casserole dishes made of earthenware, glass or ceramic available. If you don't have a saucepan or casserole dish that can be used both on the stove top and in the oven, don't worry. Just transfer the mixture from one to the other after bringing it to the boil in step 5.
Heat 2 teaspoons of the olive oil (2 tbsp olive oil) in a large, heavy-based ovenproof saucepan or flameproof casserole dish over medium-low heat and cook the bacon (4 bacon rashers, trimmed, chopped) for 3 minutes. Add the onion (1 large brown onion, chopped) and cook for 5 minutes or until the onion is soft. Add garlic (2 garlic cloves, finely chopped) and cook for a further minute or until aromatic. Remove the bacon mixture from the pan/dish and set aside.
Add 1/2 the remaining oil to the saucepan or casserole dish over medium-high heat and cook 1/2 the beef (1 kg beef chuck steak, trimmed, cut into 3cm cubes) for 1-2 minutes, tossing occasionally, or until browned. Browning the meat will start to develop the flavour as well as add colour to the casserole. Sprinkle the meat with 1/2 the flour (2 tbsp plain flour) and cook for a further minute. The flour is used to thicken the sauce as it cooks. If you don't cook the flour at this stage before adding the other ingredients, an unpleasant raw or floury flavour will be left in the casserole.
Remove the beef from the pan/dish and set aside. Repeat with the remaining oil, beef and flour. Remove the beef from the pan/dish and set aside.
Add the wine (250mls (1 cup) dry red wine) to the pan/dish and bring to the boil over medium-high heat. Cook for 1 minute, scraping the base with a wooden spoon to dislodge any residue left on the base of the pan/dish. This is called deglazing. The tasty bits that have accumulated on the base of the pan/dish are incorporated into the sauce in which the meat and vegetables will be cooked, thus adding to the flavour of the casserole.
Return the onion mixture and the beef to the pan/dish. Add the stock (375mls (1 1/2 cups) Massel beef stock) , mashed tomatoes (1 x 400g can peeled whole tomatoes, undrained, mashed) and carrots (3 medium (about 300g) carrots, diagonally sliced) , and stir to combine. Bring to the boil over high heat.
Cover the pan/dish and cook in preheated oven for 2 hours or until the beef is very tender. An oven temperature of 160°C will ensure the casserole simmers steadily. It is important that it doesn't boil rapidly as the meat will become very tough and stringy. Long, slow cooking of the casserole ensures that the meat is tender and the sauces develop a full-bodied, rich flavour.
The main advantage of cooking a dish like this in the oven, as opposed to on the stove top as with a stew, is that there is no chance of the ingredients sticking and burning on the base of the pan/dish.
Remove the pan/dish from the oven and use a large metal spoon to skim any excess fat from the surface of the casserole. Season with salt and pepper and (Salt & ground black pepper) then stir through the parsley (1/2 cup chopped fresh continental parsley) . Serve with boiled or mashed potato (Boiled or mashed potato, to serve) .

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Recipe Notes

Casserole is also the term applied to the covered dish in which food is cooked slowly in the oven. To avoid confusion, we refer to it as a casserole dish in this article. Cuts of meat that are suitable for use in a casserole are those which benefit from long, slow, moist cooking. Beef chuck steak is a good cut to use. It is a tough, less expensive cut of meat with much connective tissue that will soften and become tender if simmered gently over a long period. Even though this connective tissue softens, it will still hold the meat fibre together so that it doesn't disintegrate. Meat cuts like fillet, rump and sirloin are unsuitable as they have little or no connective tissue and will fall apart if cooked in this way. Another advantage of using inexpensive cuts of meat is that they are usually more flavoursome.