Italian beef stew with vegetables

1 btl red
400g large diced feather blade steak (or another stewing cut that you like)
4 small onions, peeled whole and quatered leaving the root intact (or just very small onions peeled and left whole)
2 sticks celery, cut into 1.5 inch lengths, then each lenth cut into 3 or 4 batons
2 medium carrots, peeled, qartered lengthwise and again cut into 1.5 inch lengths
4 tomatoes, halved, seasoned, oiled and roasted at 150C for approx 1 hr.
1 tbsp herbes de provence
1 cup frozen peas
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tbsp tomato puree/concentrate
Salt
Pepper
Vegetable oil
Butter

To cook this in a minimum of time you need to be using two pans from the off: A wide frying pan and a stew pot.  Heat a film of oil with a small amount of butter in both.

I feel a preliminary marinating phase is pretty optional here, particularly if it will sit in the fridge for a day or two between having been made and serving.

Sweat the onions in the stew pot over a moderate/high heat.  When they are softened and a little coloured, add the celery, saute again for around 5 minutes then add the carrots.

Meanwhile fry the beef in batches in the pan over a high heat, aiming to well colour each surface of each cube, spacing them out as you fry, and not burn too many fragments.  Remove to a dish when done.  If the meat has large sinew threads going through it, then when dicing it you can try to dice it along these lines then cut out some of the sinew once it is on the surface of a cube.  This is one advantage of buying the meat in a whole peice.

Add the herbes de provence to the veg pot, along with the chopped garlic.  Stir for 3 seconds.  Add the tomato puree.  Cook until it has lost its red raw colour.  Add the reserved and browned meat.

Empty excess fat from the frying pan and pour the bottle of wine into this (assuming it fits) over the heat.  Scrape the base of the pan well and let the wine bubble, then empty into the pot.  Add boiling water to cover if needed.

Season only lightly and bring to a simmer. Skim off any scum that arises to the surface.  Adjust the heat (or lid's adjarness) to a very low simmer and leave to cook for around 1.5 hours.  At this point add the roasted tomatoes then cook for another 1.5 hours.  Don't be afraid to cook it for longer if it looks like it needs it, particularly if the meat is well interlaced with fat.

Just before serving add the frozen peas and simmer for a while to cook them.  Taste, season generously with both salt and pepper, spoon off any excess fat from the surface (if needed; some is fine) and you can always leave the lid off to let it reduce for a while also.

Serve with creamy mashed potatoes.  It sounds like a bit of an effort when you describe it like this but it really isn't, particularly as it needs no other vegetable accompaniment.  If you make it carefully with nice meat, and I do recommend trying to find feather blade steak, then nothing could be nicer.

Coleslaw

To my mind, no dish better demonstrates how to cook really well than coleslaw.  If you start off with good fresh ingredients, handle them with care, make things from scratch (here, mayonnaise), taste carefully and season boldly, you will end up with something just exceptionally delicious.

This is lovely with a homemade beef burger (see steak haché blog post) and chips, or the roast belly of pork from another post with some new potatoes.  No further sauce would be necessary in either case.

Coleslaw

2 large, fresh carrots, peeled and coarsely grated
1/4 white or spring cabbage, cored, sliced finely, washed and left to perk up in cold water for 10mins (if possible) then dried in a tea towel
1 egg yolk
100ml vegetable oil
lemon juice
salt and freshly ground (preferably white) pepper
excellent quality wholegrain mustard from a jar that is less than 2 months old

Place the egg yolk in a mixing bowl, steadied on your work surface by a damp cloth.  Add 1/2 tbsp lemon juice, a pinch of salt and some ground pepper.  Whisk briefly until well combined and very slightly lightened (this is an easy recipe).  If the egg yolk is straight from the fridge, as it most likely will be, then place the base of the bowl, with the yolk in it, into a saucepan of water hot from the tap, and whisk gently for a minute or two.  This will get it up to room temperature and lets the emulsion form more easily.  Straight from the bottle, add a drop of oil while whisking, then another, then in a thin stream progressing to large glugs as the mayonnaise thickens.  The more oil you add the thicker it will get.

You can now add the carrots and cabbage straight into the bowl along with a tablespoon of wholegrain mustard and combine with a metal spoon.

Now to taste.  The way you make this dish, as well as a great many sauces, taste exceptional is by seasoning accurately, and strongly, with both salt and acidity (which comes from the mustard and lemon juice).  The three flavours, fattiness, acid and salt will balance each other and create a heightened and lengthened, very pleasant, flavour.  So when you are tasting, take time to assess the flavours.  If it is too salty add more acid.  If it is too sharp add more salt.  If it is flabby and fatty tasting, you may need to add more of both.