Stifado

Stifado, the Greek take on braised beef

Sticking on a Greek theme.

Years ago not long after I met my eventual husband, we decided to take a last minute break somewhere warm and sunny. Two days before our travel dates we managed to get a weeks holiday in Agios Georgios in Corfu, how exciting. We packed quickly and travelled through the night to Manchester airport where we took an  interesting flight, lengthened to avoid flying over Kosovan airspace. It concluded with a hair raising landing at the notoriously short runway at Corfu airport, followed by a death defying coach trip, before we were dropped off at Agios Georgious, or should I say the middle of nowhere!

I think our apartments were called Athena and they were literally an en-suite room. Agios Georgios itself had one seemingly closed down nightclub, a bar and three restaurants - we sat in our favourite one night eating grilled fish and salad only to see a rat run right through.

Looking back over Agios Georgious,
how young is Tony!

Walking out of Agios Georgious

There were 4 or 5 sets of low level apartments and a hotel. The beach was half sand, half stone. It looked quite idyllic for a couple wanting to get away from it all. As the holiday progressed it soon became clear why Agios Georgious had remained a small resort destined to be filled by last minute holiday makers....the smell. Up on the hill was an olive processing plant, which made sense as everywhere you could see there were olive trees, but the effluent by-product of pressing the olives washed down the hill and into the sea daily and it really did smell bad.

The things you find on roads in Corfu!

Anyway, the point of the story is that in the little beach bar/restaurant we were served a dish called Stifado, a Greek beef stew, which we loved. So much so that on our return I bought my aforementioned Greek cookery book "A taste of the Greek Islands" by Pamela Westland, so I could create the taste of Corfu at home, without the background smell!

It became a family favourite. I once made some to take to Center Parcs at Longleat for Tony's 30th birthday. We arrived, unpacked, put the Stifado in the oven and took the car back to the car park. We sauntered back and the more we walked we were saying what's that amazing smell of garlic and beef and herbs and ...oh....that's our Stifado!...we had infected the whole village with the smell of Stifado. If will not escape your neighbours notice if you decide to cook this.










Stifado


Olive oil
1kg stewing steak, cubed
2 onions, sliced
3 cloves garlic, crushed
4 tbsp tomato purée
200ml red wine
3 tbsp red wine vinegar
2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
2 bay leaves
1 cinnamon stick, about 2"
salt and pepper
450g shallots or small onions peeled
1 tbsp lemon juice
2tbsp chopped parsley

Pre-heat the oven to GM3/170C/325F

Heat some olive oil in a heavy based frying pan and seal the meat over a medium to high heat, until it is browned all over. You will probably need to do this in 2-3 batches to ensure you fry it and it doesn't start to boil.
Set the meat aside on a warm dish.
Heat a little more oil and fry the onions gently until they are transparent, add the garlic and cook for a further 2 minutes. Stir in the tomato purée, wine, vinegar and sugar, bring to the boil and then add the meat. Tip the mixture into a casserole/oven proof dish. Get a small square of muslin and put the cloves and cumin seeds in the centre, tie the four corners, two at a time to form a little parcel and add to the dish along with the bay leaves and cinnamon. Season the stew, put a lid on the casserole dish and put in the oven to cook for 1 and a half hours. Stir occasionally.
Blanch the little onions in a pan of salted, boiling water for a couple of minutes and add them to the stew. Cook for a further hour/hour and a quarter, until the meat is tender.
Remove the bag of spices, the bay leaves and cinnamon stick. Stir in the lemon juice, adjust the seasoning if needed, sprinkle with parsley and serve.

We served ours with mash and brocolli, it would go well with carrots or courgettes or green beans, with roast potatoes or boiled new potatoes.

It's a delicious stew, rich and warm from the spices. You do not need a large portion, this will serve 4-6. A nice loaf of bread to mop up the juices would be a good addition.

P.S. meant to say I've hopefully made it easier to comment on the blog, so feel free