Greek Stifado Beef Stew
Stifado is a traditional Greek dish known for its rich flavours. Traditionally, Stifado is cooked with Rabbit, but beef has become a commonplace variant.
The two standout ingredients in this dish are the red wine and shallots. For the red wine, don’t bother using an expensive bottle! For the shallots, we could only get our hands on larger ‘echailon’ shallots, so we diced them. But if you can, use small shallots and either keep them whole or cut in half. It might be a little tricky peeling them all, but it will be worth it.
This recipe requires some upfront work in the pan, mainly to brown off the meat and reduce the wine by half, before transferring everything to the slow cooker. At the end, depending on your thickness preference, you may want to add a little cornflour (mixed with warm water first) to thicken. For full instructions, follow the recipe below.
Slow Cooker Greek Stifado Beef Stew
Equipment
- Slow Cooker
- Frying Pan
Ingredients
- 850 g Stewing beef Cut into chunks
- 150 g Shallots Diced, or halved if small
- 4 Cloves
- 1 tbsp Tomato puree
- 200 ml Red wine
- 200 ml Beef stock
- 1/4 tsp Ground all spice
- 3 Bay leaves
- Pinch Salt
- Pinch Pepper
- 1 tbsp Cornflour To thicken after cooking
Instructions
- In a hot pan, with a little oil, brown the beef on all sides. Do this in batches if needed.
- Set the beef aside, and cook the shallots and garlic in the pan for few minutes until soft. Add tomato puree, and stir well. Add the wine and reduce by half. Transfer to the slow cooker.
- Add all other ingredients to the slow cooker (apart from the cornflour).
- Cook for 3-4 hours on high, or 7-8 on low.
- Optional: Add cornflour (mixed with a little water first) to thicken the sauce. Stir well.
