Stifatho, Traditional Greek Stew
A traditional greek stew of tender beef with lots of onions and steeped in a rich tomato sauce with cinnamon, juniper and allspice.
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Servings: people
Equipment
- Large cast-iron casserole pan
Ingredients
- 1.5 K good quality stewing beef cut into roughly 5cm chunks chuck or top rump
- 1 K kokkari, baby shallots or pearl onions
- 4 fresh tomatoes roughly chopped or a tin of good quality tinned tomatoes roughly chopped
- 2 tbsp concentrated tomato paste
- ¼ tsp nutmeg
- pinch cumin
- ½ orange studded with 6 cloves
- 100 ml red wine you may not need all of this
- 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
- 1 tbsp cognac
- 1 clove grated garlic
Marinade
- 1 cinnamon stick broken in two
- 8 allspice berries
- 5 juniper berries gently crushed
- 2 cloves garlic roughly chopped
- 120 ml red wine
- 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
- 3-4 bay leaves
- small bunch fresh oregano (1 tsp dried)
- 1 tsp black peppercorns
Instructions
- Put all the marinade ingredients together with the meat into a large non-reactive bowl. Refridgerate and marinade for atleast 6-8 hours but preferably overnight. If you are using wild boar, it will need the longer marinade.
- Cut root end off the onions and blanch for a couple of minutes in boiling water. Let them cool and they will easily slip out of their skins.
- Drain the meat, reserving the marinade, and saute in a large heavy based casserole dish - work in batches to ensure the meat is browned.
- Add nutmeg, tomato puree, garlic and chopped tomatoes, coating the meat with the sauce, and add the clove-studded orange, vinegar, red wine and marinade. Bring to the boil and simmer.
- Brown the onions in a little olive oil with a generous pinch of cumin. De-glaze with the cognac and add to the stifado.
- Simmer for 2½-3 hours, stirring occasionally. Add a little water if starts to stick and needs more cooking.
- After about 2 hours, check the sauce for seasoning adding salt and pepper if necessary. Continue simmering for another half/hour or until the sauce is thickened and the meat is tender, breaking easily with a fork.
- Serve with pasta or creamy mashed potatoes, green salad and slice of feta or grated parmesan.
Notes
It is difficult to precisely predict the cooking times because different meats and cuts behave differently, but it will need at least 2 - 3 hours.
The longer, the better with gentle heat. A rabbit stifado will probably only need a couple of hours but wild boar will need 3 hours and must be marinated overnight.