Sunday, January 21, 2007

Red Wine Beef Stew with Lentils and Whisky



A lot of snow today! So, what could be better than a hearty stew? Conveniently, this ties in nicely with a new blogging event, called "Waiter, There's Something In My..." and for January, the theme is "stew". Any stew. So I picked this one - a real warming concoction with loads of flavor. It was nice to try something else with lentils - I'm not a big fan of them, really, but they seem to work really well in stews. (Before, I've made a chicken stew with lentils that's also really tasty.)

Red Wine Beef Stew with Lentils and Whisky
Serves 4

100 g smoked lardons (thick cut bacon will work) in thin strips
2 yellow onions, coarsely chopped
2-3 carrots, sliced
800 g beef, in large dice
1 tsp dried thyme
600 ml red wine
400 ml beef stock
200 ml small green lentils (lentils du Puy is what I use.)
1 tbsp concentrated beef stock (optional)
2 tbsp whisky
1 tbsp honey
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
salt, pepper
1 tbsp cornstarch (optional)

to serve:
cherry tomatoes, halved
snow peas, sliced into strips

Fry the lardons in a large pot, with the onion. Add the meat, and let it all brown a little bit. Add the thyme, the wine and the stock. This should just about cover the meat. Cover with a lid, and let it simmer for about an hour and a half. After one hour though, add the carrots. Watch to make sure the stew doesn't run too dry - just add extra water in that case.

After the one and half hours have passed, add the lentils. Simmer for another half hour - two hours in total - and then flavor to taste with whisky, balsamic vinegar, concentrated stock, honey, salt and pepper.

If the stew feels a little runny, you can mix the cornstarch with cold water and stir it into the stew to thicken.

Serve with snow peas and cherry tomatoes, and decorate with fresh herbs if you've got them at hand. (I used chervil.)

Recipe in Swedish:
Rödvinsgryta med kött, linser och whisky

11 comments:

Kalyn Denny said...

Really like the sound of this! The green lentils are one of my favorites.

Anonymous said...

Åh, jag älskar grytor!! Måste testa att laga denna! Låter gott med linser i! Får sticka ut och köpa whiskey.. Har aldrig testat det i matlagning..

Lisa said...

Det där var smaker i min smak. Gillar inte att dricka wisky men det är ju underbart i mat.

Anonymous said...

Red wine AND whisky! You boozer, you! ;-)

Thanks for taking part.

Anonymous said...

Sounds nice. :-)

A nice whisky for cooking that will add that smoky whisky flavor (and that is not too expensive) is the 8-year old "Macleod's Islay".

At "Royal Mile":
http://www.royalmilewhiskies.com/product.asp?pf_id=0010000005110

At "Systembolaget":
http://www.systembolaget.se/SokDrycker/Produkt?VaruNr=476

What whisky did You use?

Anne said...

Kalyn - I really need to go and get more! :)

Lilla Blå - whisky är gott i massor av mat, testa att ha i lite i sås :)

Lisa - visst är det! Jag dricker väl inte några mängder själv, men maken är entusiast.

Andrew - oh yeah, totally :) Thought you'd like that!

Berka - thanks for the tip! We're trying to use up a few pure malts actually, since Per prefers to drink single malts. Pures seem to be just fine for cooking though, so they now live in the kitchen instead of the cabinet :)

Anonymous said...

ville bara påpeka att länken till det svenska receptet inte verkar fungera, inte för mig iaf..
tack för en bra blogg med många underbara recept !

Anne said...

Helena, tack så jättemycket! Det hade blivit lite fel i länken, ja. Nu ska det funka!

Jeanne said...

Impressive - TWO types of booze in one stew! This sounds marvellous. Any stewy dish with lentils, lardons and alcohol in just has to turn out well, doesn't it ;-) Really glad you could join us for this event!

Elizabeth said...

This looks fabulous! We adore puy lentils and it has been far too long since we had them.

I've bookmarked your recipe... many thanks for posting it.

-Elizabeth

Anonymous said...

I made this yesterday and it was delicious. Thank you!