Stifado

Joan Bishop's New Zealand Crockpot and Slow Cooker Cookbook
Published by Random House (Longacre)

A great favourite, this aromatic Greek stew is an amalgam of sweet and sour tastes which give the dish its unique flavour. Goat or sheep's milk feta holds its shape well when added to the stew, whereas cows' milk feta disintegrates slightly.

Crockpot
- low for 8-9 hours
- high for 4-4½ hours

Slow cooker
- low for 7-8 hours
- high for 3½-4 hours

(Serves 6-7)

Ingredients

• 1.2 kg blade or chuck steak, diced into 2 cm pieces
• 4 Tbsp flour
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 Tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• ¼ cup tomato paste
• ¼ cup red wine vinegar
• ½ cup beef stock
• 1 cup red wine
• 1 small onion, peeled and studded with 10 whole cloves
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 3 bay leaves
• ½ cup currants
• 150 g feta, cut into small cubes

Method

Toss cubed steak with flour in the slow cooker.

Add cumin, garlic, brown sugar, salt, tomato paste, red wine vinegar, beef stock and red wine, and stir to combine.

Add clove-studded onion, cinnamon sticks and bay leaves, pushing them down so they are covered by the liquid.

Cover with lid and cook according to the times and settings specified above.

Thirty minutes before the cooking time is complete, stir in the currants.

Cover with lid and continue to cook for the final half hour.

Remove bay leaves, cinnamon sticks and clove studded onion.

Very gently stir in the feta and serve.

Serve with a salad and garlic mashed potatoes, couscous or crusty bread to mop up the juices.

Stephen Morris’s wine recommendation

Cypress Terrace Syrah  Hawkes Bay 2007
Torres Coronas 2006 (A tempranillo, cabernet sauvignon blend)