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FRENCH FOOD FOCUS Latest Post Other Posts Recent Older Truffles Cassoulet Index of Recipes L inks House Sitters FiFi About me About 'My' France Comments to: yankinparisot@gmail.com Archives		Life in rural France - Food - Friends - Wine - Cheese - Comments Welcome to French Food Focus. The name describes the intent of this blog. I'll focus on food and because I live in rural France the stress will be upon French food. There are numerous posts concerning life in France and, certainly, opinions about anything that strikes my fancy. If you have some good recipes or if you want to rave about any great French restaurants this is the place to do it. I hope you enjoy my ramblings about rural France! Click Here to send me a comment
		This is our village. Our house is the white one at the top right.
	Recipe for North African Beef Stew I made this today for lunch & we all enjoyed it so I thought I'd share the recipe with you. I made it in a Tagine which is a cooking pot used in North Africa & the Middle East. Tagines are great for many types of slow cooked dishes. You don't HAVE to have a tagine though. A large casserole works just fine; preferably a cast iron one, but ceramic will do so long as it will stand the heat. Here we go: INGREDIENTS: (for 4-5 people) 2 lbs (1 kg) of beef for braising. Chuck or stewing steak is good. Here in France they sell beef chunks for making Beef Burgundy which works well. 1 teaspoon each of paprika, cayenne pepper, turmeric, cinnamon, & ginger ( or buy a middle Eastern spice mix. Locally, we have a lady who comes to the markets & sells what seems to be every herb & spice known to man. You only need ask her for a Tagine mix & she has one.) 3 cloves of garlic. Crushed 4 tablespoons olive oil 2 tablespoons tomato puree 4 shallots cut into quarters. (or a large onion cut up) 1 large potato cut into 1 cm cubes 2 large carrots cut into 1 cm slices 200 gram can of chopped tomatoes 2 tablespoons fresh chopped parsley 100 grams pitted green olives METHOD: Trim the beef & cut it into about 1 inch pieces. Mix the spices together, add the garlic then mix with 2 tablespoons of the olive oil & the tomato puree. Put all of this & the beef into a bowl or plastic bag & mix very well. Put the mixture into the fridge (covered) at least overnight. Next day. heat the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil in your tagine (casserole) & gently fry the carrots, onion & potatoes until they just begin to turn brown at the edges. Remove them from the tagine into a bowl & set aside. Next fry the marinated beef until sealed on all sides. (doing it in batches is best & easiest) Add the vegetables back in, add the parsley & a little bit of salt give everything a good stir & cook covered on low heat for at least 3 hours. It is important that the dish just simmers & doesn't cook too fast. With a tagine this is best done on the stove top. With a casserole it can done on the stove top or in the oven. The key is SLOW simmering. About 15 minutes before serving add the green olives. In North Africa this will be served over couscous. Elsewhere it can be served over rice or even pasta. Couscous is best & is very easy to make so its worth the trouble of finding some. Serve with a hearty red wine.