Sweet and Sour Winter Stew

A community recipe by mep_style

Not tested or verified by Nigella.com

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Introduction

A really delicious wintery stew. A speciality from Maastricht, one of the most beautiful cities in the Netherlands.

Ingredients

Serves: 4

Metric Cups

500 grams stewing steak
cream
3 onions
3 cloves garlic
3 cloves
2 bay leaves (dried)
3 juniper berries (dried)
red wine (2 glasses)
red wine vinegar (1 glass)
1 large carrot
1 stick celery
flour
apples
treacle
salt
pepper

18 ounces beef stew meat
cream
3 onions
3 cloves garlic
3 cloves
2 bay leaves (dried)
3 juniper berries (dried)
red wine (2 glasses)
red wine vinegar (1 glass)
1 large carrot
1 stick celery
flour
apples
molasses
salt
pepper

Method

Sweet and Sour Winter Stew is a community recipe submitted by mep_style and has not been tested by Nigella.com so we are not able to answer questions regarding this recipe.

First you have to marinate the meat. Dice it into large cubes and put them in a bowl/dish.

Chop the onions roughly into rings. Add them to the meat. Also add the garlic cloves, that just have to be pealed and crushed with your knife.

Then add the bay leaves, juniper berries, cloves. Pour over the red wine and vinegar. Make sure the meat is almost completely covered. Then let it marinate for at least four hours, but preferably about 8 hours. Put a large stewing casserole on the stove and melt a large knob of butter in it. Chop up the carrot and celery stick.

Let them softly fry. In the mean time take out the marinated meat, preserving the marinating liquid/onions/garlic/spices. Dry the meat with some kitchen paper and dust a little bit of flour over it to make sure it will fry when it hits the pan.

Turn up the heat an fry the meat until golden brown on the outside.

Then add 2 wine glasses of the marinating liquid and 1 glass of water until the meat is covered. Let it softly bubble for about an hour and a half until the meat becomes really tender.

Then to finish the sauce add a typically Dutch ingredient: apple treacle (appelstroop). About two to three tablespoons full. Add salt and pepper to taste and perhaps to take away a bit of the sourness o bit of cream or a tablespoon of honey. Let it bubble until the sauce has thickened.

Serve with large potato chips and homemade mayonnaise.

Optional: Soak a calf's liver in milk overnight. When you are about to fry the meat, drain the milk and pat the liver dry. Slice in large cubs and fry together with the meat. It gives a lovely taste and texture in this stew.