plain jane cooking - recipes for the novice:

beef casserole with beer

What is the difference between a stew, a ragout, a carbonnade and a casserole?

Essentially nothing, they are all variants of the same thing, the casserole however normally means it has been cooked and served in the same container, a casserole dish.

Casseroles are a terrific way of buying cheaper cuts of meats and turning it into a melt in your mouth dish for dinner. All casseroles need to use the cheaper, tougher cuts of meats, as they cook slowly in a liquid (if you used a tender meat they would dry out).

The tougher cuts of meat, contain a high amount of connective tissue, that requires a slow moist method of cooking to render it down and make it palatable.

In this recipe all vegetables are optional and can be replaced with two cups of mixed frozen vegetables.

ingredients

topside or thick flank dripping, lard or oil onion carrots celery stick parsnip turnip garlic clove flour tomato paste beef stock beer - dark or stout

600 40 1 2 2 1 1/2 1 3 1 400 200

gm gm pc pc pc pc pc pc tbs tbs ml ml

production

1. Peel and cut all vegetables into bite sized pieces
2. Cut beef into 3cm dice
3. Heat dripping in a large casserole or stewing pan and brown meat, add vegetables and cook for 5 minutes
4. Add flour and cook for 2 minutes, add tomato paste and stir until combined
5. Add the beer and allow to simmer until it reduces by half the amount
6. Mix in the warmed stock, bring to the boil
7. Add garlic, season, cover with a lid and simmer on stove until cooked: approximately 1½ hours or in the oven for approximately 3 hours

chef notes:

Serve with puff pastry fingers or suet dumplings <click for recipe>.

email chef@tallyrand.info