Beef and Green Bean Stew

These rich meat stews are quite a staple for me. Ten minutes preperation and I can disappear for a couple of hours and come back to a rich, intensely flavoured dish. This kind of thing is perfect for batch jobs as well and is cheap as free papers and sunlight. This must, must, must be paired with some turkish/middle eastern bread, to scoop up all the meaty, sweet juices.

So you’ll need…

200g beef, a stewing cut, like shin, cut into half inch cubes

100g green beans, topped and tailed

4 tomatoes, peeled and chopped

garlic clove, chopped

red onion, peeled and chopped fine

half teaspoon of ras al hanout (spice mix)

1 tsp of red wine vinegar

1 bay leaf

half a cup of water/stock

salt and pepper

a few pitted black olives

handful of parsley to garnish

Firstly, season the beef with salt and pepper, then fry until browned. Fry in batches rather than all at once if space is an issue in the pan. It just won’t brown properly if it doesn’t have enough space. Once browned, remove the meat and set aside.

Add the onion and garlic and cook until softened. Add the ras al hanout, allow it to cook out for a minute or two and then add your vinegar, bay leaf, tomatoes and stock/water. Bring to the boil and then turn the heat down to it’s lowest setting. Reintroduce the meat, cover the pan with a lid/cling film/tin foil and allow the contents to gently bubble for two hours or until the meat is melting and tender. At this point, add the green beans and olives to the saucepan and give them fifteen minutes or so.

Serve with a chunk of bread, maybe some rice, scattered with parsley.