Description
The sweet prunes and salty olives add a nice balance to the beef and savory sauce, making it perfect over egg noodles or polenta.
Ingredients
Scale
- 3 lb stewing meat, cubed
- 1/2 a large red onion, peeled and diced
- 1 carrot, peeled and diced
- 1 celery stalk, peeled and diced
- 2 tbsp olive oil, plus additional to sear the meat
- 3 sprigs of thyme
- 1 long ribbon of orange peel
- 3 oz, about 1/2 cup of pitted and halved prunes
- 1 cup of Castellano olives, pitted and halved
- 32 oz (or less) beef stock
- Salt and pepper
- Chopped parsley, to garnish
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 250 degrees.
- Heat the olive oil in a large cast iron casserole dish, then add the onion. Cook covered over low heat until the onion is soft and translucent.
- Add in the carrot and celery and cook until tender.
- Remove the cooked vegetables and set aside.
- Generously season all of the beef with salt and pepper. Add a light drizzle of olive oil then sear the meat in batches, ensuring each side of the cube is nicely browned.
- Remove the meat and deglaze the pan by adding a few cups of beef stock and scraping up the browned bits in the bottom of the pan.
- Add back in the cooked vegetables, the beef, the thyme and orange peel. Pour in the beef stock so it doesn’t quite cover the beef.
- Place the lid back on and put in the preheated oven. Cook for 3-4 hours until the meat is tender. At this point, you can finish the recipe or remove from the heat, cool, and complete the next day.
- About an hour before serving, add the prunes and olives and return to the oven and gently warm the mixture.
- Before serving, stir in chopped parsley. Serve over egg noodles or polenta.