2011 Cooking Club Week 6 - Red wine beef stew served in a loaf of ale bread

cullen5998

So its my turn:)
Easy enough recipe to make

Ingredients
Bread
4 cups flour (I used white)
3 teaspoons baking powder
Pinch of salt
Pinch of pepper
Tablespoons basil (dried)
1 can ale (i used newcastle brown)

Beef Stew
500g sirlion steak cut up
tablespoon of olive oil
2 small onions
For Two!

2 clove of garlic
8 mushrooms
tin of tomatos
1/2 tbls thyme
2 glasses of red wine
Pinch of salt and pepper

Bread
1 - Sieve flour and baking powder into large mixing bowl
2 - Add basil, salt and pepper and mix all together
3 - Add ale gradually mixing as you pour

4 - Keep mixing until you have a dough

if too dry add more ale, if too wet add more flour.
5 - Cut mixture into two loafs and place on floured baking tray

6- Bake for about an hour at 180c
Can glaze with egg/milk mixture if you like for extra colour on top
7 - Bread will be ready when you knock on the top and it sounds hollow.


Stew
1 - brown beef at a high heat

2 - when beef is brown add chopped garlic, onions and potatos
3 - Reduce heat to medium and sir all until they have a nice brown colour about 5 minutes

4 - Add the mushrooms and red wine and let the red wine reduce down for about 20 minutes

5 - Add the thyme to the tomatos and add the tomatos to the pot

6 - cook for 30 minutes at a medium heat until the mixture is thick like a stew


Combine
1 - Cut the center from the bread so its like a bowl

2 - Serve the stew in the middle

3 - Break off bread to dip in and enjoy!

Curry Addict

looks great, i bet the bread is delicious

fred funk }{

I'll defo be giving this ago. My type of food

pickarooney

Reminds me of Durban bunnies. Must give this a go.

cullen5998

pickarooney wrote: »

Reminds me of Durban bunnies. Must give this a go.

I got the idea from when i was i in Poland on holiday. Some of the soups over there were served in a loaf of bread and i had some.

The ale bread is a medieval recipe, except for the baking powder as far as i know.

Mellor

San Francisco bay area (lots of seafood places around the wharf) is famous for chowder. which is typically served in a bread bowl also.

foodaholic

I loved that in san fran lovely seafood chowder in a sourdough bowl yummy. Looking forward to making this recipe

John Mason

i think i give this ago on saturday

BaZmO*

irishbird wrote: »

i think i give this ago on saturday

Are you not a veggie?

matrim

Sounds nice. How long would you recommend leaving the bread to cool before hollowing and serving?

cullen5998

I didnt leave it very long, just a few minutes. Bread needs to be warm so the stew wont go cold. Bread will actually keep it warm.

Aidric

cullen5998 wrote: »

I got the idea from when i was i in Poland on holiday. Some of the soups over there were served in a loaf of bread and i had some.

Ya, there is a dish called gulasova served in the Czech Republic which is the same concept and it's delicious.

Nice simple recipe, will make this over the weekend.

John Mason

BaZmO* wrote: »

Are you not a veggie?

yes i am veggie, so i will make one with quorn beef pieces for me and one with real beef for des.

just cos i am veggie doesnt mean i cant substitute ingredients


anyway, the bread is in the oven now, i am not too confident about it, as recently my bread has not been working out very well

cullen5998

irishbird wrote: »

yes i am veggie, so i will make one with quorn beef pieces for me and one with real beef for des.

just cos i am veggie doesnt mean i cant substitute ingredients


anyway, the bread is in the oven now, i am not too confident about it, as recently my bread has not been working out very well

How'd it turn out for you?

John Mason

well, that was really really lovely

i think i may have reduced the wine a bit too much, as there wasnt much juice. the next time, i wont finish of the wine while cooking

photos to follow

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cullen5998 wrote: »

How'd it turn out for you?

Ta-Daaaaaa!

It was delicious!

McArdles was used in the bread, and it was very nice.

Real meat to the left, veggie option to the right.



This is our first foray into the Cooking Club this year, and about time too.

John Mason

and i used oregano instead of basil in the bread, as des is very weird and doesnt like basil :eek:

cullen5998

Glad you both liked it:D
Looks great:)

jw297

Had a go at this yesterday - very tasty and filling, perfect for a cold February evening. Definitely will be making this again, the bread was nice and easy, so will make it on its own as well. Substituted carrots and celery for mushrooms as I'm not a mushroom fan. Think I left the stew simmering for too long and it was a bit dry, but other than that it was really good. Thanks cullen!

unkel

Also my first attempt on the Cooking Club 2011

Loved this, the bread is very nice and hearty. Only ever had a stew in a bread basket once before - I think it was in a chain called Nude? Will make it again!

Added some beef stock, celery, carrots and bay leaves to the stew but followed the rest of the recipe and here's the result:

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That looks really nice unkel, but there's no way I could eat off that table cloth, it's blinding me!

unkel

Des wrote: »

That looks really nice unkel, but there's no way I could eat off that table cloth, it's blinding me!

It's the camera, I swear

And here's a little tip for people trying this lovely recipe out: don't go overboard on the glazing with egg / milk. I did and as you can see, the bread itself looks lovely and brown, but the overrun of the mixture made the bread stuck to the baking paper. Very hard to get it off!

Little Alex

Had this for lunch today and loved it! The bread bowl is a lovely idea.

It would be really great with a big mug of ale whilst dressed like Henry VIII! :pac:

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Your bread looks really pale or something, what's the difference in your cooking?

It looks nice btw

Little Alex

Meant to get back to this before now.

Des wrote: »

Your bread looks really pale or something, what's the difference in your cooking?

It looks nice btw

I know, it did turn out very pale looking. I used Smithwicks which maybe isn't as rich in colour, but I must have had the oven too cool aswell as the bread didn't bown at all.

So, I made it again.

This time I used Newky Broon - one for the bread and one for Alex - and made sure the oven was hot enough.