Tomato-Kimchi Red Wine Beef Stew

December 28, 2020

Alors, comment était ton Noël? Le mien était très chouette!! J'ai beaucoup dormi, trop mangé, trop trop bu (et c'était pourquoi j'ai dormi bcp mdrrr), est resté à la maison pour regarder beaucoup de films de Noël, et aussi ai passé beaucoup de temps avec mes proches, c'était super!!

C'était peut-être un Noël inhabituel (quelque peu étrange) cette année à cause du covid-19 mais j'ai encore beaucoup à être reconnaissant. J'ai ma bonne santé et mes proches sont en bonne santé; j'ai un emploi et mes proches ont tous un emploi rémunéré; j'ai des gens à aimer et mes proches sont en sécurité et heureux; surtout, j'ai assez de tout: une maison confortable et des plats suffisant à manger, et je ne manque de rien. Et vraiment, c'est tout ce dont on a besoin dans la vie, non??

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This is a spin on the fusion tomato-kimchi braised chicken I made eons ago. When modifying the chicken-based recipe, I tweaked the ingredients to cater for the heft of beef. So, instead of white wine, I used a red, and grounded that with some veal stock. Finally, I tossed the cumin in favour of dried oregano for a little Italian flair.

I know what you're thinking....kimchi and tomatoes, really??? And if I hadn't experimented with the chicken braise prior, I wouldn't have thought to marry these seemingly disparate ingredients....but I swear, the pairing works. The tang of the tomatoes augments the sour of the kimchi while the spicy notes of the fermented cabbage lend zing, so u get a stew that's full-bodied and opulent, but also refreshing all at once. And because it was Christmas, The Husband agreed to help with the browning, making this a reasonably snappy one-dish meal.

Ingredients (feeds 4):

1kg beef, diced into 1.5"cubes

1 large yellow onion, minced

4-5 large cloves garlic, minced

3 cups fresh kimchi

3 cups diced tomatoes

1-2 cups red wine

1L veal stock (beef or chicken will substitute in a pinch)

3 cups porcini mushrooms, cut into 1.5" cubes

2 cups baby carrots (I cut them to 1" lengths)

150gm Parma ham lardons, cut into 1cm cubes

1 knob of butter

1 tbsp olive oil

3-4 tbsp canola oil for browning (or any other oil with a high smoke point)

fresh arugula, hand-torn for garnish (optional)

Directions:

1) In a pre-heated pan with about 1 tbsp of canola oil (I used chicken-bacon mix fat that I'd rendered previously), brown beef on high heat, salting liberally and taking care not to overcrowd the pan (The Husband did this in several batches) A quick sear on a couple of sides will do.

2) Drain and set aside.

3) In a stew pot, fry onions in about 1 tbsp olive oil on medium-high heat until translucent, about 3 minutes, and then lower fire to medium and add minced garlic, tossing through until fragrant, about 1 minute.