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Braised Beef Stew

This is the kind of dish you crave when winter really settles in — a proper braised beef stew that fills the house with the most wonderful smells. Ingredients For 6 people 1.5 kg stewing beef, cut into cubes. 150 g salt pork, cut into 2 thick slices. 1 large onion or 2 medium ones. 4 garlic cloves. 250 ml good quality red wine. 250 ml beef stock. 1 tablespoon tomato sofregit. 3 tablespoons flour. 18 small pearl onions. 50 ml red wine for cooking the onions. 500 g mushrooms. 50 g butter. Olive oil. Salt. 50 g sugar. Boiled rice to serve alongside.     Method Trim any rind from the salt pork and cut it into 2 or 3 pieces. Put it in your casserole with just a few drops of oil over medium heat, and let it render its fat. Remove the salt pork and set aside. In the fat it's left behind, brown the beef — but don't crowd the pot. Do it in two or three batches so you don't drop the temperature too much, which would make the meat release its ju...

Spinach and Shrimp Cannelloni





Let's make the most of what's in season — right now, spinach is at its best, and here's another lovely way to use it.

Ingredients

for 30 to 40 cannelloni
  • 1kg fresh spinach.
  • 1/2 kg shrimp.
  • 2 boxes of cannelloni pasta.
  • 4 shallots.
  • 60g pine nuts.
  • 30cc cognac (a bit more than a tablespoon).
  • 100g grated cheese.
  • Salt.
  • extra virgin olive oil.

béchamel for the filling:

  • 1/4 liter milk.
  • The reduction from the shrimp heads.
  • 2 tablespoons flour.
  • 40g butter.
  • 1 tablespoon oil.
  • salt.

béchamel for the topping:

  • 80g butter.
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil.
  • 110g flour.
  • 3/4 liter milk.
  • 3/4 liter fish stock.
  • 1 shallot.
  • 1 small carrot.

Preparing the filling

Lightly fry the shrimp for about a minute on each side, season with salt, and peel them. Set the tails aside away from the heat and cut them into pieces.
In a small pot with a drizzle of oil, fry the heads and shells. Pour in the cognac and let it flame, then add a glass of water and reduce over the heat. Strain it, squeezing all the juice from the heads. Set aside.
Rinse and blanch the spinach in salted water. Let it cool, then chop it finely.
In a pan with a good splash of oil, fry the shallots cut into small pieces. Add the squeezed spinach and cook through. Off the heat, mix in the pine nuts and the chopped shrimp.
For this recipe, I don't use just milk in the béchamel — I combine it with fish stock to bring out more flavor. The process is the same. As you can see in the photo with the spinach in the bowl, this béchamel has a pinkish tint from the shrimp head reduction.

Make the béchamel to mix into the spinach, following the recipe here. Fold it into the spinach and let it cool before filling the cannelloni.
Boil the cannelloni following the package instructions. Put a spoonful of filling into each one, roll them up, and arrange them in the baking dish.


Now make the topping béchamel. With the oil and butter, fry the shallot and carrot, both diced very small. Add the flour and cook it for a few minutes, stirring constantly as you mix in the milk and fish stock. Taste for salt. Pour the béchamel over the cannelloni, let it cool for a few minutes, then sprinkle with the grated cheese.

Bake at 180°C until golden on top.



Time: 1 hour + baking time

Notes

You can prepare everything ahead and have it ready to go into the oven.
This freezes well.
For celiacs, substitute the flour and cannelloni pasta with gluten-free products. You also have the option of making crepes instead of cannelloni pasta. The recipe is here.
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