Imprimer la recette

Serves : 4 people

Preparation : 45 minutes

Cooking : 3 hours 30

Ingredients

For the onions with bacon
3.5 oz of bacon Avoid using bacon bits, as they will fall apart during cooking
3 onions
3 shallots
1 ¾ oz of butter

For braised meat
2.2 lb of beef for braising chuck, shank, cheek, boneless shank… feel free to pick up an assortment—there's something for everyone!
1 liter of amber beer not too bitter, even sweet
3 tbsp of sunflower oil
1 bouquet garni thyme, bay leaf, parsley stems, and a celery stalk, which you can tie together
5 slices of gingerbread something to cover the top of the casserole dish
1 tbsp of white wine vinegar
1 tbsp of brown sugar or brown sugar
5 tbsp of Dijon mustard

Kitchen utensils
chef's knife
cast-iron casserole

Instructions

First step: gather all the ingredients and utensils… It looks so good! 😋

Preparing onions with bacon

Peel the onions, remove the green sprouts, and slice them thinly.
Do the same with the shallots.
Cut the bacon into slices about 1 cm
thick. Sauté it over low heat with the butter in your casserole dish for a few minutes.
Add the onions and shallots, and mix well.
Simmer over low heat for about 10 minutes.

Cover the pot as much as possible so the onions don’t start to brown (very bad for your health—and for the taste of the dish!).
When it's done, remove the bacon, shallots, and onions from the pot, but keep the cooking juices at the bottom—you'll need them later…

Brown the beef

Cut the beef into pieces.
Return the pot to high heat, add the oil to the rendered fat from the bacon, and add the beef pieces to brown them.
Turn them regularly so that the meat is browned on all sides. Once cooked, set
the pieces aside in a bowl.

Put everything together and let it simmer…

Add the brown sugar to the remaining meat juices in the casserole dish, and reduce the juices by about half over high heat.
Reduce the heat, then deglaze the meat juices with the vinegar using a wooden spatula to scrape up all the browned bits from the bottom of the pot.
Add the meat, followed by the onion and bacon compote. Mix well.
Pour the beer into the casserole dish until it covers the remaining ingredients.
Add the bouquet garni.
Spread the mustard on the slices of gingerbread.
Cover the contents of the casserole dish with the gingerbread slices, placing them on top of the bouquet garni.
Cover and simmer over very low heat for at least 3 hours, up to 4 hours.

After 2 hours of cooking, you can remove the bouquet garni.
When the dish is done, the gingerbread should be completely melted, and the meat should fall apart easily with a fork.
The sauce should be thick and creamy; if it’s still too runny, you can continue cooking it uncovered for a little while longer.
Serve the meat piping hot with a little sauce, along with mashed potatoes or sautéed potatoes.

WHAT TO DRINK WITH THIS FLEMISH BEEF STEW: A fruity, crisp red wine, such as a Pinot Noir from Burgundy or Alsace, or a Belgian beer, especially an abbey or Trappist beer.

Flemish Beef Stew with Beer