Ingredients
- 150g (5oz) free-range British unsmoked bacon lardons
- 3 onions, sliced
- 1.5kg (3lb 6oz) stewing steak, trimmed and cut into large chunks
- 6tbsp plain flour, seasoned
- oil, for browning
- 2 garlic cloves, crushed
- 3 carrots, peeled and sliced
- 3 sprigs fresh thyme
- 3 bay leaves, 2 cloves and 6 peppercorns
- 6 tomatoes, roughly chopped
- 75ml bottle red wine
- 3tbsp black olive tapenade
- 1tbsp cornflour, optional
- flat-leaf parsley, chopped
Method
Heat a large, heavy-based casserole and dry-fry the bacon until crisp. Remove the bacon, leaving the fat in the casserole, turn down the heat and gently cook the onions, covered, for 20 minutes, until softened.
Meanwhile, toss the meat through the seasoned flour. Heat 1tbsp oil in a wide frying pan and brown the meat off in batches, using a little extra oil for each new batch of meat. Set the meat aside.
When the onions have softened, add the bacon to the casserole and add the garlic for 1 minute.
Put the browned meat into the casserole along with the carrots, thyme, bay, cloves, peppercorns and tomatoes. Pour over the wine, and just enough water to cover the mixture. Cover and cook on a low heat for 2 hours or until the meat is tender.
Towards the end of cooking, stir the tapenade through the daube and season to taste. If you like a thicker sauce, mix 1tbsp cornflour with 1tbsp of the casserole liquid, add to the daube and turn the heat up to a vigorous bubble for the final 5 minutes of cooking.
Sprinkle the daube with chopped parsley and serve with warm, buttery mash. The daube will keep for up to 3 days in the fridge, when the flavours will develop, or it can be made ahead and frozen for up to a month.
