Ingredients:
3 lbs chuck steaks, cut into 3/4-inch pieces
1 ounce butter
1 tablespoon sunflower oil
18 white pearl onions or 18 shallots
1 ounce plain flour
salt
cayenne pepper
1 bunch mixed fresh herbs, tied together ( thyme, parsley, and bayleaf)
1 lb carrots
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
Directions:
Fry the meat in a heavy flameproof casserole dish with the butter and oil until lightly browned.
Skin the onions by first dipping them for 1 minute in boiling water and then boiling them in 10 oz.
salted water until they are almost tender.
Strain, keeping the liquid, and put the onions on one side.
Sprinkle the flour into the casserole with the meat and let it brown.
Add the cooking liquid from the onions.
Season with salt and cayenne pepper, bury a tied bunch of herbs in the center of the meat and bring to the boil again.
Cover the pan and simmer for 1 1/2 hours, periodically adding a dash of stock if more liquid is needed.
Prepare the carrots, either, if they are large, by cutting them in half lengthways and then cutting them in small pieces, or, if they are small, simply by scrubbing them.
Put them in the stew, add the onions and the Worcestershire sauce, stir it in and simmer for a further 30 minutes, until the meat and carrots are both tender.
Serve if you like with a sprinkling of parsley, chopped shallot and the chopped yolk of a hard-boiled egg, all sprinkled very lightly with a dash of vinegar.
This stew needs good mashed potatoes or baked potatoes to mop up the gravy.
Servings: 6
Time preparation: 25 min.
Time total: 160 min.