My Sunday Best: Beef and Porcini Stew with Baked Polenta

It's been a while since I've made a good stew. I missed it. I still remember the last time I made a pork and lemon ragu not so long ago and how amazed I was at how delicious it was. This was a few winters ago already but the scent of lemons and rich taste of tomatoes are still in my mind. With that, I searched for my favorite Donna Hay slow cook edition and decided to make another stew.

The original recipe is a very simple one made with beef brisket and came with a potato parmesan mash. I don't eat potatoes these days (sorry to all potato lovers out there) but I do like carbs so I made polenta triangles to replace the potato mash. I'm not foreign to polenta and used it to make corn muffins time and time again. They go really well with the rich stew.

Now back to the stew. The only thing that is difficult about this recipe was to wait for it to cook until it is very tender. And I mean "just look at it and it will melt" tender. You won't regret making this and waiting for it. The porcini added the ultimate umami flavor here. The wait was tough especially when the cooking stew made the entire apartment smelled so yummy!

Beef and Porcini Stew
Adapted from Donna Hay Magazine, Brisket Ragu with Mushrooms and Parmesan Mash

Ingredients:

1 kg diced beef
1 medium brown onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
30g dried porcini mushrooms
2 bay leaves
2 cups passata (I used a small bottle of tomato and parmesan sauce)
500 ml mushroom stock or any stock
1 cup water
5-6 fresh tomatoes, chopped into chunks

Preheat your oven to 180C. In a dutch oven, pour some oil and brown the diced beef. Make sure not to crowd the pan so that they will brown properly, otherwise they will stew in their own juices - not what you want to happen. Set aside. Add some oil into the pan and add the onion. When the onions are translucent, around 5 minutes, add the minced garlic. After a couple of minutes and you can smell the garlic, add the remaining ingredients except the beef. Bring everything to a boil then add back the beef. Bring back again to a boil. Cover with the lid and place in the oven. Leave it there for 2-2.5 hours. I usually check the beef every 1 hour to make sure that I have enough liquid in there. If it becomes too thick or dry, feel free to add 1/4 cup of water. Serve on top of the baked polenta and some veggies.

Baked Polenta Triangles

This method was quite simple - bring 3 cups of water to a boil, lower the heat and whisk in 1.5 cups of polenta. Keep whisking for 3-5 minutes. Melt in 30g of cold butter. Season with pepper. With a greased pan (can be a sheet pan or a brownie pan), spread the cooked polenta and let it cool to room temperature. Place in the fridge for 2 hours until set. Once set, cut into triangles. Preheat the oven to 230C and grill for 10-15 minutes.