The temperature gauge read 0.5C as I left on the school run this week. To me, this is officially cold, so i’m breaking out the big guns and have been thinking about #WinterWarmer Recipes this week.
So I have used mustard in this Carbonnade of Beef -essentially a stew with a posh French name- as well as in the Damper-Style dumplings that accompany it. Mustard is a great ingredient for adding warmth and flavour to a meat dish, especially meat. And especially Dijon Mustard which reminds me of my years in Burgundy.
- 400g of diced beef
- 2 onions, diced
- 2 carrots, peeled and sliced
- 2 red peppers, deseeded and cut into 2cm chunks
- 2 tbsp flour
- 1 can (440ml) of beer- I used John Smiths
- 1 tablespoon demerara sugar
- 1 teaspoon Colman's English Mustard*
- 1 teaspoon Maille Grainy Mustard*
- 1 teaspoon Bacon Salt
- 1 Knorr Rich Beef Stock Pot*
- 1 good handful- about 12 springs- fresh thyme
- Put beef in a large freezer bag with flour and plenty of seasoning. Shake until covered.
- Meanwhile heat up a frying pan with a little oil.
- Add the floured beef to the pan on a high heat and fry until browned.
- Remove beef and keep to one side.
- Reheat the pan with more oil and add the onion and carrot, cooking until browned.
- Add 1 tbsp flour to the pan and stir for one minute.
- Pour over the beer and mix well- bring to the boil and stir until thickened slightly.
- Add in sugar, stock pot, thyme and mustards, and mix well. Bring to the boil for 5 minutes.
- If you are using an oven-proof lidded pan, add the beef back into the pan and stir well.
- Alternately put the beef into a large lidded casserole and pour over the beer mix, stirring well.
- If using an AGA: put the grid shelf on the bottom of the Roasting Oven, slide on your lidded casserole and cook for 2.5 hours. Then take it out and stir in the red pepper. Stir and return to the AGA for an hour.
- If using a conventional oven, place on a low heat (140C) in the middle of the oven- in a lidded ovenproof dish- for about 2 hours. Remove, add pepper, stir through and return for a further half hour.
The Mustard Damper-Bread style ‘dumplings’ are really just savoury scones that I cooked and added into the casserole with about 30 minutes to go. I used 2 cups Self Raising Flour, 2 tsp Maille Dijon Mustard*, 2 tsp butter,1 tsp olive oil and about 1 cup of milk.
You need to mix the butter into the flour as you would with a crumble, then season well. Loosen the mustard with the oil, to make it easier to pour, then add to a well in the centre of the flour mix. Pour on the milk and mix well. Knead gently for a minute or two until the dougn is smooth then roll out to 1cm depth and cut out rounds of dough.
Place rounds onto a lined baking tray, brush with milk and bake in a hot oven (200C) for approximately 15-20 minutes (they will sound hollow when cooked. If using the AGA, I placed on a grid shelf above the cooking Carbonnade in the roasting oven for about 12 minutes. Serve warm with carbonnade, or press gently into the surface of your stew for the last 20 minutes of the cooking process.
*Disclosure: I was provided with a variety of Unilever kitchen storecupboard ingredients which I used in the making of this recipe. Those ingredients provided have been marked with a *. The recipe is my own.
That looks amazing, like you I reach for those sorts of meals this weather abs that looks perfect