Steaming hot in the casserole … this is so tasty and shows you how flavours can intensify with slow cooking. This has very few ingredients, but the three and a half hours cooking makes the flavours burst on your tongue and the beef melt (we carved it perfectly with a blunt knife). We’ll definitely be doing this again. The recipe come from the French answer to Delia: “I know how to cook” which is published by Phaidon and celebrates the tradition of cooking rather than the celebrity and glamour: tasty dish after dish using simple ingredients. Classic French cookery for the home cook rather than the chef.
Boeuf au riz (Beef with rice) – serves 6
- 30g butter
- 900g stewing beef, in one piece
- 100g onion, chopped
- 1 bouquet garni (we raided the herb garden and bundled up some rosemary, thyme, bay, parsley and oregano)
- 750ml stock
- 250g long grain rice
Heat the butter on medium-high heat in a heavy-based casserole.
Add the beef and brown all over.
Add the onion and bouquet garni and season generously with pepper and a little salt.
Pour in the stock, cover and cook on a low heat for 3 hours.
Rinse the rice well and add to the casserole and cook for another 30 minutes.
That’s it – enjoy!
Wine suggestion: A full-bodied Pinot Noir from Hawkes Bay in New Zealand (or somewhere else in the New World). Ours was from Morton Estate which you can pick up in Mitchell’s (say hi to Jono while you’re there).
