Friday Food: Ragout

Recently, a friend asked me for the recipe for my beef ragout. I sent it to her via text. When she made it she shouted my praise on Facebook and said all her children and guests raved about it. Nice!


This is my very own variation of Ragout. This will make heaps, {as all my slow cooker recipes do} we get three meals out of this recipe {2 adults, 2.5 kids}

B's Beef Ragout

Prep Time: 20 mins

Cooking Time: 8+ hours

Serves: 10ish

Ingredients


1.5 kg piece of beef - get a piece of rump or blade or chuck - something that can handle being in a slowcooker without costing you an arm and a leg. A rolled pot roast works a treat, but be prepared to cook it for 10 hours+ to get tender meat
2 tablespoons of olive oil
2 brown onions, sliced
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
3 tins of peeled tomatoes {I prefer diced}
2 tablespoons of tomato paste
1/3 cup dry sherry
2 beef stock cubes
2 sprigs/stalks of fresh rosemary
2 pieces of orange peel, without too much pith
6 carrots, peeled and cut into 3cm chunks
salt and pepper


Method

1. Start heating your slowcooker. Add the peeled tomatoes, tomato paste, sherry, stock cubes, rosemary and orange peel. Give it a good stir and allow them to begin heating while you do the next steps.
2. Heat a frying pan and add 1 tbsp of olive oil. Fry the onions until they are golden and soft. Add the garlic and cook for one minute. Pop these into the slow cooker.
3. Heat the remaining oil and place your meat in the frying pan. Take about 5-10 minutes to brown all sides of the meat. Some colour is good - just don't burn it or you will get a bitter ragout - yuck! Carefully place beef into slow cooker.
4. Allow to cook for 8 hours+. At 4-6 hours before you want to eat, add your carrots.
5. Before serving, fish out the orange peel and rosemary stalks. Then gently remove the meat and shred it into chunks.
6. Serve with soft polenta {recipe at bottom of this post}  or pasta or mashed potatoes.

Variations

Oh, the possibilities are endless! 

• You could use a lamb leg and thyme with red wine
• You could use lamb shanks and orange and red wine
• You could use other herbs as well, parsley stalks, oregano any boisterous herb would work well
• If you like celery {I abhor it} you could add it with the onions and garlic
• You could add other vegetables too if you like
• You could add lentils or chickpeas too for added bulk

B's Soft Polenta

This is a family favourite... 

Heat 3 1/2 cups of milk and 1 cup of chicken stock {or water and 1 stock cube} until just about to boil. Add 175grams of polenta. Stir continuously until you get a really smooth consistency. Add 50g of butter and 50g of grated cheese. Season with salt and pepper. Serve while hot {or it will set}.


For some rules for slow cooking, scroll down to the bottom of this post Click here...