Greek · Main · Medium
Stifado
Beef slow cooked with a mountain of sweet pearl onions in red wine. Rich, dark, and deeply comforting.
The whole recipe in 60 seconds
Stifado, in 5 ideas
- The pearl onions should stay whole, they become sweet and jammy.
- Red wine vinegar at the start gives the signature tang.
- Peel the onions by blanching, it is much faster.
- Low and slow is the whole recipe, do not boil it.
- Crusty bread is mandatory for the sauce.
What you need
Ingredients
- 800g beef chuck, in chunks
- 1kg pearl onions, peeled
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 400g crushed tomatoes
- 250ml dry red wine
- 60ml red wine vinegar
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 4 allspice berries
- 2 bay leaves
- 80ml olive oil
How to make it
Directions
- Blanch the pearl onions 2 minutes, then slip off the skins.
- Brown the beef in batches in hot olive oil and set aside.
- Soften the onions and garlic in the same pot, then add the vinegar and let it sizzle.
- Add the wine, tomatoes, spices and beef with water to cover.
- Simmer gently 1 hour 45 minutes until the beef is tender and the onions are melting.
- Remove spices and serve with bread or rice.
Money saver. Frozen pearl onions are already peeled and cost a fraction of fresh, and nobody can tell the difference in a stew.