You probably know how to cook one of the most popular dishes. The beef stew. All that you need is beef. Then you can add whatever inspires you or whatever you have in the fridge. No matter if the recipe already exists or you are experimenting something new. It is difficult to make something bad out of it.

I am not a meat lover, however, I like to eat a good meat few times in a month. Last night I put in the fridge one of the many pieces of meat that I froze. You must know that when I find some good meat, I buy it. If I do not want to consume it at the moment, I put it in the freezer for when I am in the right mood to eat meat.

Today is the day. I have two beef pieces right for the stew. If you are meat inexpert like me, you can consult this blog post here. It will help you to choose the best cuts for beef stew.

Searching in the fridge for more ingredients, I find aubergines, mushrooms, paprikas, and tomatoes. But today the lucky one is aubergine, one of my favorite vegetable. The reason why I purchase it in big quantities every weekend at the Saturday market in Rotterdam. From the fridge, I also pick some tomatoes because I like the dark color of the stew.

The ingredients

So I have now available 2 pieces of beef, 2 aubergines, and 4 cherry tomatoes. Thinking about something more to add, I start my research in the storage room. I take about 15 small red potatoes and a bottle of red wine (one of the less good ones..because I find it a pity to waste a good wine for cooking!). Well, now my ingredients are ready, I just have to think how to combine them to make the stew.

How to start

I start with the basics: olive oil in a big steel pan with 2 onions, 1 crushed garlic, and a sprig of rosemary to add some extra flavor. If you do not have it, use sage or laurel lives, they will bring your dish to a next level. Fry everything for a few minutes until the onion starts to brown. Add the beef pieces and let it cook on all sides for about 4 minutes at high heat.

Remove now the rosemary (or other herbs) and garlic. Add about 400 ml of red wine and let the alcohol evaporate for about 4 minutes with medium-high heat. Normally, I also add a teaspoon of sugar.

The cooking process

At this point, you can add the red potatoes (cut in half the big ones) and the thickly sliced aubergine. Add about 500ml of water and let it boil it for 10 minutes with the lid on the pan. Lower the heat to the minimum and leave it to cook for about 1 hours.

Complete the dish with some bits of stale bread and cream (4 spoons, depending on your taste). At this point, an only now, you can season with salt and pepper and finish the cooking for other 15 minutes.

Serve it in a big bowl with some fresh herbs such as chives. Let me know your comments and suggestions. It is great to know your experiment with the stew.