carbonnades a la flamande

This is utterly delicious. I don't know where it came from, but I'm sure to have messed about with it anyhow.

1 kilo stewing beef, trimmed of any nasty bits and cut into 1cm cubes

3 tablespoons flour

75g butter

2 tbsps oil

500g onions, chopped

2 fat cloves garlic, crushed

2 teaspoons brown sugar

1 sprig thyme (or a big pinch of dried thyme – just as good)

3 bay leaves

jolly good pinch of grated nutmeg

300ml Newcastle Brown

300ml beef stock (you can use a beef stock cube)

1 heaped tablespoonful redcurrant jelly

1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

salt and freshly-ground pepper

Pre-heat oven to 150˚C (fan oven) or 170˚C (ordinary oven).

In a large plastic bag (or in a bowl) put the cubed beef with the 3 tablespoons full of flour. Shake or stir to make sure all the beef is well coated on all sides.

In a frying pan, heat the oil and butter. Fry the beef in batches, removing each batch when brown and putting it into a heavy, oven-proof casserole.

When all the beef is done, put the onions into the remaining fat/butter in the frying pan, and fry fairly gently until the onions begin to go brown – but cook carefully, keeping an eye on the onions and stirring frequently so that they do NOT burn. Add the crushed garlic and the 2 teaspoons of brown sugar, and cook for another minute or so until nicely brown.

Now, add the browned onions and garlic to the beef cubes in the casserole. Deglaze the frying pan with some of the stock, making sure that all the nice sticky bits are dissolved in the liquid. Pour into the casserole with the beef and onions. Now, add the Newcastle Brown, bayleaves, thyme, redcurrant jelly, vinegar, nutmeg and salt and pepper. Stir well to amalgamate.

Over medium heat (so as not to burn the meat), bring the contents of the casserole to a gentle boil, then put on the lid and transfer the casserole to the oven.

Cook for 3 hours, until most of the liquid has been absorbed and the meat is meltingly tender.