Nick’s Beef with red wine and carrots recipe

Ingredients needed (for 8 portions):

vegetable or sunflower oil , for frying
1½ kg shin of beef or stewing beef, cut into cubes
3 tbsp flour
2 large onions , sliced
600g carrots , cut into batons
4 garlic cloves , crushed
glass red wine (about 175ml/6fl oz)
850ml beef stock
3 bay leaves
few thyme sprigs
jacket potatoes or mash, to serve

Cooking:

·         Heat 1 tbsp oil in a large frying pan. Put the beef in a bowl, sprinkle with the flour and seasoning, then mix until well coated. Fry in batches, adding more oil if necessary, until everything is well browned. Transfer to a casserole dish.

·         Add another tbsp oil to the pan and stir in the onion and carrots. Cover and gently cook for 10-12 mins until softened, then remove the lid and cook until just beginning to brown. Stir in the garlic and cook for 1 min more. Pour in the wine and stir well, letting it boil up for 1 min, then pour the whole mixture over the meat. Add the stock, bay leaves and thyme, bring to a simmer, then cover and gently simmer for 2½ hrs until the meat is very tender. If the sauce looks a bit thin, remove the lid and continue to cook until it thickens.

Polish Golabki by Karolina

Last friday Karolina made a polish speciality for us: GOLABKI; basically mince wrapped in cabbage. It was delicious as always and apparently also very easy to make.

Here is the recipe:



·  Remove core from cabbage. Place whole head in a large pot filled with boiling, salted water. Cover and cook 3 minutes, or until softened enough to pull off individual leaves.

·  When leaves are cool enough to handle, use a knife to cut away the thick center stem from each leaf, without cutting all the way through.

·  Chop the remaining cabbage and place it in the bottom of a large pot.

·  Saute the chopped onion in butter in a large frying pan until tender, and let it cool.

·  Mix cooled onions with beef, rice, garlic, salt and black pepper until well combined. Don't overmix or the meat will become tough.

·  Place about 1/2 cup of meat on each cabbage leaf. Roll away from you to encase the meat. Flip the right side of the leaf to the middle, then flip the left side. You will have something that looks like an envelope. Once again, roll away from you to create a neat little roll.

·  Place the cabbage rolls on top of the chopped cabbage in the pan, seasoning each layer with salt and pepper. Pour beef stock over rolls, cover and simmer for 1 hour or until cabbage is tender and meat is cooked.

·  To make the sauce, remove the rolls and thicken the remaining stock with sauce flour, crème fraiche, tomato concentrate and spices.