Braised Beef Stew in Red Wine - Potato Gnocchi

This dish is another firm favourite from my house. It’s one of those meals that can be put on and forgot about for a few hours whilst you’re going about your day! A great meal for all the family to tuck in too!

Serves 6

Ingredients:

600g Braising Beef

400g Gnocchi

2 carrots – roughly chopped

2 onions – roughly chopped

2 x Sprigs Rosemary

2 x Sprigs Thyme

3 x Cloves Garlic – Sliced

1 x Bay leaf

350ml Red wine

Beef Stock (to cover)

Plain Flour

2 x 400g tin of chopped Tomatoes

1 x Tbsp. Tomato paste

Vegetable oil

1 x knob of butter

Salt

Method:

Pre heat oven to 160c / Gas mark 3

First heat a small amount of oil in a medium sized saucepan. Season the beef well with salt and sear off the meat. Once coloured drain off the beef and set aside. In the same pan add your knob of butter and start to cook the vegetables, garlic, herbs and bay leaf. Cook these for around 5-10 minutes on a medium heat. Now add the beef back to the pan along with a small amount of flour until all the ingredients pull together. Cook this for a further 2 minutes whilst stirring to cook out the flour. Add the red wine to the pan and cook on a medium heat until half of the wine has reduced. Follow this by adding the tomato paste, and chopped tomatoes then finally cover the rest of the mix with a beef stock.

Place this in an ovenproof dish if the one you’re using to start with isn’t and cook in the oven for around 2 hours.

Just before you serve the dish you will need to cook off your gnocchi. Bring the gnocchi to the boil in a pan salted boiling water. Once the gnocchi rises back to the surface drain off and add this to the stew mix. Finish in the oven for a further 5 minutes.

This is a real heart-warming dish for these cold, dreich winter nights!