09 Nov 2024
Etherington’s Low and Slow Beef Shin Stew Recipe
The warmth of a homemade hearty stew wafting around your kitchen is enough to banish any winter blues. As far as general stewing rules go, however, there can be some confusion: Which cut to use? Do you brown the meat first? Which vegetables work best and what to serve it with? Take a look at our beef shin stew recipe below.
For a classic beef stew, we recommend skipping the lean, pricier cuts of meat and choosing the less expensive, tougher cuts, such as chuck and neck. If you’ve got the time, opt for beef shin, which is generally a very cheap cut because of the long cooking time required to break down the connective tissues, which make meat very tough. However, when cooked low and slow the fibres break down, turning it into gelatinous meat, thickening the sauce in the process and the results are well worth the wait – all you need is some liquid and a little patience.
Serves 4
Ingredients
- 500g beef shin, diced into rough chunks
- 75g pearl barley
- 2 red onions , peeled and roughly chopped
- 3 carrots , peeled and roughly chopped
- 2 parsnips, peeled and roughly chopped
- 250ml good red wine
- 100ml beef stock
- 500ml passata
- 4 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
- Springs of fresh rosemary
- 2 bay leaves
- Fresh thyme
- Salt and Pepper to taste
Method
- Begin by cooking onions until golden, this makes for a sweet caramelised flavour, then coat your meat in seasoned flour before searing in the pan, this helps to thicken the sauce later on.
- Once all the meat is browned, add some more fat to the pan. Pour in a little stock and scrape the bottom of the pan to deglaze it. Add the rest of the stock, wine and passata. Season, and add the herbs then, bring to the boil and partially cover, turn down the heat, and simmer gently for two hours.
- Add the carrots,parsnips and pearl barley. Simmer for about another hour, until the meat is tender enough to cut with a spoon. Serve with crusty bread or dumplings and a large glass of red wine.
