BEEF STEW

When I’m making a stew, I like to add a lot of root vegetables, like celeriac and swede. That’s what makes it taste so homey: the vegetables add an intensity and sweetness, bringing another level of flavour to the stew. This is spoon food, though, for Spanish people; one spoon is their spoon and the other is their piece of bread.

FOR 4–6

1 onion

½ a celeriac

1 swede

1 carrot

1 leek

4 sticks of celery

1kg good-quality braising beef (ask your butcher what’s best)

100ml extra virgin olive oil

6 cloves of garlic, 4 thinly sliced and 2 finely chopped

2 bay leaves

½ a bunch of fresh thyme

1 bottle of red wine

2.5 litres chicken stock

½ a Hispi cabbage

1 small dried Cayenne pepper

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Chop the onion and set aside, then chop all the other vegetables (except the cabbage) into big cubes around 2½cm.

Cut the beef into cubes a little bit bigger, around 4 x 4cm.

Put 50ml of olive oil into a large pan on a medium heat. Add the beef and let it caramelize – you may need to do this in batches – until it’s golden brown on all sides, then remove from the pan.

Add another 30ml of olive oil to the pan and cook the onions and the sliced garlic until they are translucent, then add the rest of the chopped vegetables (not the cabbage) along with the bay leaves and thyme. Cook gently for a little bit, until the vegetables are starting to take colour, then put the meat back into the pan and add the wine. Cook until the wine has reduced by about half, to evaporate the alcohol. Add the stock, cover the pan tightly with foil and cook on a low-medium heat for 2–2½ hours. (Check on it, and if the liquid has reduced down too much, add more water – you don’t need to add more stock.)

Cut the cabbage into 50p-size pieces. Heat the remaining 20ml of olive oil in a separate pan, and fry the cabbage gently with the chopped garlic, Cayenne, salt and pepper.

Spoon the juicy stew into bowls, and serve the cabbage on top.