The children were both in nursery again this morning so I had a very relaxing couple of hours. I took the time to make them their favorite lunch. It is a brilliant recipie for cold days when you need a hearty meal.
BEEF WITH QUINOA - Serves 8
Ingredients
2 Medium onions, 1Kg Stewing Steak, 2 Cloves of garlic, 440mil Guinness, 1ltr Stock (made with Vegtable Boulillon Powder), 1 x 400g Tin chopped tomatoes, 2 Teaspoons full of sugar, 2 Tablespoons of tomato puree, 3 x Sprigs of dried thyme, 500g Diced Carrots, 300g Quinoa, Black Pepper
- Place a heavy bottomed pan on a medium heat
- Add in the sliced onions with a little olive oil, cook till soft, if it is getting to hot and they are burning turn down heat and if needed add a little water to pan
- Add in the beef and brown
- Once the beef has colour on all sides add the grated garlic and cook for a minute then add the stock, Guinness, chopped tomatoes, sugar, tomato puree and thyme. If you don;t have dried sprigs of thyme add fresh or a good teaspoon of dried bits
- Bring to the boil then turn down so the stew is very gently simmering.
- Put the lid on and simmer for 2.5 hours stirring every 15 minutes.
- After 2.5 hours remove the lid and add in the carrots and a good pinch of ground black pepper, allow to cook for another 15 minutes
- Taste the meat to check it is tender. If it is then you can add the quinoa. If it is not then carry on cooking slowly till the meat is very tender and falling apart easily
- Pour the Quinoa into the stew and mix. The quinoa will expand slowly absorbing the liquid
- The quinoa will take 25 mins to cook, stir every five minutes when cooking. When cooked it will have swollen in size and gone slightly transparent
- Serve
Cooking notes
The thing that makes this recipie so good is having the beef very tender. To get beef tender you just need to keep cooking it. All meat is slightly different so if it is not tender in the time shown then keep cooking it till it is.
I like the carrots diced into quite small squares, they should be no large than 1cm squared.
Lastly if the quinoa is to thick or tastes to strong, it will be because the heat was on to high and to much water evaporated. Add a little water to dilute the taste and make the whole thing a little wetter.
This recipe will make enough for 8 portions. I normally eat some on the day that I make it, whether for the children’s tea or our supper. I freeze the left overs.
You have two options when heating up the food:
1. Remove from freezer and let is defrost completely, put the portion in a sauce pan with 20 mil of water and cook till piping hot.
2. Freeze in a metal disposable tray (like you get an Indian takeaway in). Take out of the freezer, remove the lid, pour 20mil of water on to the top of the quinoa and cook at 200 for 20-30 mins until cooked through and piping hot.
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