Chuck Steak .....

This was the most simple recipe out......

Chuck steak (in it's full piece and not easy to find unfortunately).  Outside of France it seems to be pre chopped into small pieces and labeled stewing steak.  Cooking chuck in small pieces results often in a dry beef stew.  If this were my only option I'd go for a whole piece of beef chin or something like that.

Pre caramelised onion ( I hate the taste of boiled onion, IMO onions need to be pre cooked to be OK in a long cooking stock).  Browning off the meat gives a caramelised taste  - do it or don't but by doing so the result will be a little richer in taste.  Skip this step and you'll still have a bloody good beef stew.   Include this step? It's fun and adds a heap of flavour.

Dried spice.  In this case dried smoked paprika, coriander seed, chilli, dried (and fresh) garlic, dried tarragon.  Salt.  Black pepper.  

So the recipe is:

One piece of chuck steak (mine was 500gms good for 2 people).

1/2 to 1 tsp smoked paprika

2 tsp of good quality beef seasoning spice.   Mine was a mix of smoked paprika, coriander seed, dried rosemary and thyme, black pepper and salt.

Salt

Oil

Small knob of butter

One onion

4 cloves of garlic

A little fresh rosemary to finish. 

Method:

Chop the onion and sweat in butter, in a small pot with the lid on until soft and caramelised.

Trim the fat layer off the meat.  Unless you're making this the day or 2 before when you can sit it in the fridge and skim the fat from the sauce.  But if you're making it for same day eating I'd always trim the fat off.  A fatty meat sauce isn't particularly appealing.  I love fat but not swimming on top of sauce. 

Brown it well in a super good quality pan with lid or a dutch oven. 

Take the pan off the heat and top the meat with the caramelised onion.  Tip about 500mls of boiling water into the pan around the meat.  Try not to disturb the onions.  Sprinkle the spices and crushed garlic around the meat in the water.  Add a little salt.  Seal well with tin foil.  Top with a lid.  Put back on the heat (in my case it was put on the fire) and cook undisturbed until tender but not dried out.  It's easy to dry out beef when it's slow cooking.  

Seriously.  This was GOOD.  It took all of 10 minutes to prepare because it used dried spice other than a little onion and garlic.  It was a gift.  From the powers of heat.  Mine today cooked with the lid on for 31/2 hours.  The times vary of course depending on the meat, the heat so just keep an eye on it.  The juices will be perfect in consistency to serve with the beef.  Don't thicken them.  They are best left as is.  Served simply with cabbage.  Yes cabbage.  Sliced finely on the mandolin, sautéed simply in a little butter and salt.  Sweet delicious cabbage, with the sauce from the beef.  Khalas.  Yum.