My husband rarely follows a recipe for soups and stews, he cooks from memory what his mum taught him while he still lived at home. He measures nothing and rarely does he make the same thing twice, because he never writes down his recipes. This one I made him tell me how he made it, so I could make it myself.
My husband would be great on a cooking competition show, because you can give him a box of ingredients and he'll throw something together. I on the other hand like cooking what I feel like cooking, For example I used to get fruit and vegetables delivered from a company that sold imperfect produce, perfectly good produce, just might not look shop perfect. After a few months I had to stop buying it, because it dictated what I had to cook for the week, where I don't cook that way. For me to enjoy cooking I need to be free to cook what I want.
Now for this dish, this was delicious, it really was. The meat was so soft and full of flavour. The stew from all the vegetables was absolutely delicious. He asked if I could make the njoklice, which are dumplings, as he doesn't make those, and they were the perfect addition to it, they help thicken up the stew while they cook.
I only had one onion in the house, and an eschallot, so he used those, you could just add two brown onions. He also had two fat shallots growing in the garden so he added that, I wrote leek in the recipe as it would give the same result, and unless you are growing big fat shallots, you can't buy them.
When adding the noklice, I use a hot spoon, then you cut off with the spoon a strip of the dough, the strip will puff up. I you make them too big they will take longer to cook and will be tougher.
This is a family recipe we will be making again and again, and hopefully one day my kids will be making this to.
Recipe
3 tablespoons olive oil
1kg beef spare ribs, cubed, bones removed
1/4 cup plain flour
1 brown onion, diced
1 eshallot, diced
1 leek, sliced
1 long red chilli, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
3 carrots, peeled, sliced
1 stick celery, diced
1 eggplaint, cubed
1 tablespoon tomato paste
250ml red wine
water, as needed
1 bay leaf
1 tablespoon vegeta
salt and pepper, to taste
2 zucchini, halved, sliced
600g yellow beans
Njoklice:
200g plain flour
2 eggs
1 tablespoon sunflower oil
salt, to taste
water, as needed
Heat a large pot, add olive oil.
Dust beef in flour, shake off excess flour, add the beef to the pan and brown on all sides, do it in two batches, if needed. Remove and set aside.
Add to the pot the onion, leek and eshallot, sauté for 2-3 minutes.
Add the carrot, celery, garlic and chilli, sauté for 2 minutes. Add the wine, simmer until the wine has reduced by half.
Now return the meat to the pan, add tomato paste, stir, add the eggplant, vegeta, bay leaf, salt and pepper. Now add water to cover the meat and vegetables, bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce the heat and simmer, covered for 2 hours.
Meanwhile make your noklice: In a bowl add the flour, eggs, oil and salt. Give it a mix. Now add in 2 tablespoons of water, mix. Keeping adding water a tablespoon at a time until you get a smooth thick pancake batter consistency, (I added an additional 4 tablespoons of water). Set aside, until needed.
After 2 hours of cooking, add the zucchini and beans, simmer for 30 minutes.
Heat the spoon in the stew for 30 seconds, now drop the dough into the stew by putting the dough and spoon into the simmering stew, the dough will slide off and this way the spoon stays hot, repeat until all the dough is used up, simmer for about 10 minutes or until the noklice are cooked through.
Serve hot.
Enjoy!
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