This incredible bacon, beef and red wine stew is proper soul food! Slow cooked, juicy chunks of beef, pieces of our best Geordie’s bacon and an unctuous red wine gravy make this a definite weekend family favourite. The addition of smoked bacon gives the stew a deliciously subtle smokey flavour, almost as if cooked over an open fire.
Perfect with roasted garlic mash and buttered green beans.
This stew is also great for batch cooking and freezing!
Ingredients (4 generous portions):
- 200 g smoked Geordie’s Great British Bacon, chopped
- 400 g beef goulash, or 800 g beef leg slices with bone
- 300 ml red wine
- 4 carrots, finely chopped
- 4 celery sticks, finely chopped
- 3 onions, finely chopped
- 3 tbsp tomato puree
- 2 tbsp powdered beef stock
- 400 g tin chopped tomatoes
- 1 bay leave (optional)
- 2 juniper berries (optional)
- Salt
- Pepper
- Sugar/Sweetener
- Oil
Method:
- In a very large saucepan, heat up some oil and gently fry carrots, celery sticks and onions on a medium heat for about 10 minutes. The onions should turn see through and the mixture should become a little bit sticky.
- Push the vegetables to one side of the saucepan, fry the bacon pieces in the other half until lightly browned then stir together.
- Season with salt and pepper, then stir through tomato puree and cook out slightly until it starts sticking to the bottom of the pan.
- Add in the red wine and deglaze the pan by scraping along the bottom with a spatula. This will make sure that all the browned goodness brings its delicious flavour into the stew.
- Add in beef (if using leg slices, season both sides with salt and pepper before adding them), the bay leave and juniper berries (if using), powdered beef stock, a pinch of sugar or sweetener and the chopped tomatoes.
- Bring to the boil, then put a lid on and let it bubble away on a slow heat for at least two hours (the longer the better really). This will make the beef so tender that you can ‘cut’ it with a spoon, and create the most satisfying gravy.
- Once cooked, add salt and pepper to taste, and ENJOY!
Top tip: if you like a thicker gravy, carefully add a little bit of cornstarch slurry, or some flour that has been rubbed into butter, until it reaches the desired viscosity.
