Hearty Beef casserole

As with most beef stews or casseroles, the best results come from long, slow cooking. The actual ‘hands-on’ time is pretty low for this classic beef casserole.

¼ cup flour
1 tsp marjoram
½ tsp salt
½ tsp pepper
750-900g chuck steak or gravy beef, trimmed and cubed
12-18 small pickling onions (about 250g), peeled
2 tbsp Lupi Pure Olive Oil
2 tbsp butter
24 button mushrooms (about 250g), wiped
1 ½ cups hot water
1 ½ cups red wine
2 bay leaves

Measure the flour, marjoram, salt and pepper into a large plastic bag and shake to combine. Trim any excess outer fat from the steak and cut into fairly even sized cubes, then add to the bag and toss to coat.

Cut the top and bottoms off the pickling onions, pour boiling water over them in a bowl, and leave them to stand for a couple of minutes. Drain, cool them under cold water, then you should be able to peel off the softened browned skins much more easily then you would otherwise.

Heat the Lupi Olive Oil and butter in a large, heavy saucepan or casserole dish (with a close fitting lid). Add the whole peeled onions and cook stirring frequently until the onions have browned slightly. Stir in the mushrooms and cook, stirring frequently, until these too have browned lightly. Remove onions and mushrooms with a slotted spoon and set aside. Add a third to half of the floured beef, and cook, stirring occasionally, over a high heat until browned on all sides. Remove the first batch from the pan then repeat this process until all the meat is browned.

Return the meat, onions and mushrooms to the pan and add the water, wine and bay leaves. Stir to mix, bring to the boil, then reduce the heat to a very gentle simmer. Either cover tightly and cook, stirring very occasionally, for 1 ½ hours until the meat is very tender OR place the casserole in an oven preheated to 150°C and cook for the same time.

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