Slavonian Beef
Serves 4
Cut beef steaks into assorted sizes about six to eight pieces. Make a marinade with 2 tablespoons of sunflower oil, a good pinch of salt and pepper, a teaspoon of Hungarian paprika, a teaspoon of Vegeta, and four cloves of bashed garlic.
Marinate beef for at least one hour.
Put the lettuce in the fridge.
Pre-heat oven to 180c.
Bring half a pint of beef stock to the boil and sprinkle with a teaspoon of Vegeta. Remove from heat. Grease a good size casserole pot with a tablespoon of sunflower oil. Chop the onion into quarters, halve quarters, and make a bed with the onions in the bottom of the pot. Chop parsnips and carrots into chips and scatter over onion bed. Take the bashed garlic from the marinade and decorate carrots and parsnips. Finely chop half the parsley and sprinkle over carrots and parsnips.
Place beef steaks on the vegetable bed. De-seed two red bell peppers, quarter then halve each quarter and cover beef steaks with peppers. Finally, roughly chop two large tomatoes and distribute of peppers. Pour beef stock over tomatoes.
Put a lid on the pot and place in your pre-heated oven. Cook for two hours. I say two hours but after two hours when you pull out the pot try cutting one of the steaks with a knife, the beef should show very little resistance to the blade. If it’s not quite ready just pop it back in the oven for about 15 minutes to half an hour but no more—add half a cup of boiling water if liquor in the pot is threatening to dry out.
About ninety minutes into cooking peel, quarter and boil your potatoes. When the beef is ready, switch off the oven, add boiled potatoes to the pot. Keep pot warm in the oven until ready to serve.
Prepare the salad by tearing leaves into a bowl. Toss leaf with a vinaigrette of three parts olive oil to one part cider vinegar, season to taste.
Garnish with remaining parsley and serve with salad and rocks of fresh bread for liquor dipping.
Ingredients
1 kg braised beef
1 large onion
2 large tomatoes
400 ml beef stock
2 teaspoons of Vegeta* (or other vegetable stock)
2 parsnips
4 small carrots
2 red bell peppers
3 tablespoon sunflower oil
1 teaspoon of Hungarian paprika (or Spanish Pimenton) **
4 cloves of garlic
2 large potatoes
20 g flat leaf parsley
Salt and pepper
*Vegeta originates for Croatia and is the Balkan vegetable stock that everyone in the Balkans uses. It’s stocked in all good delicatessens, Polish corner shops and Asda.
** I recommend a mild sweet Hungarian paprika, but you might prefer a hotter one, either way ‘The Spice Shop’ is the place to go for the best selection of Hungarian paprika in London. http://www.thespiceshop.
