Slow-cooked beef stew with prunes and apples

Pašticada

By: Ino Kuvacic
From: Dalmatia
Serves: 10

This is the queen of Dalmatian dishes. It takes a long time to prepare – at least one day marinating in good red wine or prošek (Dalmatian fortified wine) and vegetables, and a good 3–4 hours’ braising the next day. It’s often served with potato dumplings or handmade pasta. In Dalmatia, pašticada is usually cooked for big celebrations. It’s an essential dish for weddings, christenings or other equally important days. In Dalmatia you are considered a great cook if you can make this dish, and my grandmother Tomica was a pašticada expert. Don’t be frightened by this though – it’s not that hard; it just takes a little time. But don’t forget the most important ingredient – love.

Ingredients

Quantity	Ingredient
2.5kg	beef cheeks
1 litre	red wine
50ml	red wine vinegar
2	onions, sliced 2 mm thick
2	carrots, sliced 2 mm thick
2	celery stalks, sliced 2 mm thick
3	cloves
1/2	cinnamon stick
2	bay leaves
200ml	extra virgin olive oil
100 grams	proscuitto, chopped
3	garlic cloves, chopped
400 grams	tomatoes, cut into chunks
3 litres	beef stock
2	apples, peeled, cored and cut into wedges
200 grams	tinned pitted prunes, cut into 2-3 cm dice
1 tablespoon	dijon mustard
1 teaspoon	prune jam
	sea salt
	freshly ground black pepper

Method

Marinate the beef overnight in the red wine, vinegar, onion, carrot, celery, cloves, cinnamon and bay leaves.
The next day, take the beef out of the marinade, separating the vegetables and reserving the liquid.
Seal the cheeks in a frying pan in the olive oil over high heat for 2–3 minutes. Remove the beef from the pan and deglaze the pan with the liquid from the marinade.
In a saucepan over high heat, sauté the chopped prosciutto and, when crispy, the chopped garlic. Add all the marinated vegetables and spices and sauté for 20–25 minutes.
When the vegetables are cooked, add the tomato and sauté for a further 5 minutes.
Add the sealed beef cheeks, the liquid you used to deglaze the pan and the beef stock. Braise for 1½ hours. Add the peeled apples and pitted prunes and cook for a further hour or until the cheeks are cooked – you should be able to push your finger through the cheek but it should still have some resistance.
When the beef cheeks are cooked, remove the beef, cinnamon stick and bay leaves from the braising liquid and set aside. Skim the scum from the top of the liquid, then blend it with a hand-held blender until smooth.
Adjust the flavour by adding the mustard and prune jam – the flavour should be sweet and sour. Divide the beef cheeks among serving plates and pour the sauce over to serve.

Tags:

Slow-cooked beef stew with prunes and apples

Pašticada

Ingredients

Method

Recipes

Books

Authors

Collections

Store

The Feed