Recipe(tried): How about greek for thursday??

Cinnamon Beef

I'm not too sure about the measurements in this as i usually just chuck it all in but here goes....


You need:

good stewing beef - brisket, skirt or silverside. Enough for two people.
1 large onion
2 large carrots. peeled and halved
2 large potatoes peeled and halved
roughly 5 tbs red wine vinegar
3 bay leaves
2 cloves garlic
2 tsp balsamic vinegar (optional)
5 cloves
plain flour
olive oil
salt
black pepper
ground cinnamon
2 tsp beef gravy granules (not sure what you'd do about this bit Helen)


Righty ho then,

Cube the beef into large-ish chunks about 1" square.
half fill a plastic bag with flour and then put in the beef cubes and coat well. Take out the cubes and get rid of the excess flour. I put them in a sieve and give them a good shake.

Heat the oil in a frying pan. Sprinkle the meat liberally (and I mean liberally!) with cinnamon and black pepper. Fry in batches of about 7 pieces so as not to overcrowd the frying pan. You need to get them to a good golden brown. The smell is wonderful so don't be hungry when you cook this! Remove the meat from the pan but don't throw away the residue in the pan.

Put the fried cubes of meat into a large ovenproof casserole dish.

Next bit. Don't stand too close to the frying pan when you do this or the old nasal passages will suffer!

Heat the residue in the frying pan so it sizzles. Pour on the red wine vinegar, stand back for a bit, add in the garlic, bay leaves, cloves and 2 tsp ground cinnamon, a bit of salt and some black pepper. Simmer for about 5 minutes and then pour over the beef.

Finely chop the onion and put in with the beef. You can put in whatever vegetables you like for this.

Add enough water to cover the beef and vegetables, sprinkle in about 2 teaspoons of gravy granules (not strictly a cheffie thing I know but who cares?) and then put in the oven on a low heat for at least 2 hours. The meat has to be tender and the potatoes cooked through. If the potatoes mush a bit don't worry - say it was on purpose to thicken the sauce!

When the beef is cooked, you can thicken the sauce with some cornflour. I teaspoon of cornflour diluted with about 3 teaspoons of water should be fine.

Serve with rice.

Afelia

4 pork chops
bottle good red wine
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tbs crushed coriander seeds - grind to a powder if you don't like the seeds
1 tbs vegetable oil

Marinade.
Mix together the red wine, cinnamon and coriander seeds. Bring to the boil in a small saucepan. Boil for about 2-3 minutes. Turn off the heat.

Pour the marinade over the chops and soak overnight. Next day drain the marinade but do not throw away.

Fry the chops in the oil until browned on both sides. Season with salt and pepper. Pour in the reserved marinade and then bring to the boil. Skim off any scum on the surface. Lower the heat and simmer for 1 hour. Add peeled potatoes if wished, they will soak up a lot of the sauce.

Stifatho

2 lb. Braising/stewing steak, cubed
1 lb medium onions finely chopped
5 tbs olive oil
2 cloves chopped garlic
salt and pepper
2 bay leaves
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tbs chopped parsley
1-2 tsp ground cinnamon (add more if you wish)
red wine/water

Fry all the onions except one cup in 4 tablespoons of the olive oil. Fry them until they are browned. Remove from the pan. Add the last bit of oil and fry the steak until it changes colour. Add the reserved cup of onion and the garlic. Add in the bay leaves, pepper, salt, oregano, cinnamon and parsley. Mix well and add enough water/red wine to cover the meat. Bring to the boil, cover and simmer for 11/2 hours. After that, add in the fried onions and then simmer for another half an hour.

Serve with rice or boiled potatoes.

Lots of bread to mop up the juice.




Good luck and let me know how you get on!

Lisa
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