Beef and Red Wine Casserole

Wanting to appeal to the variety of different taste buds at our Gourmet Garden dinner party, I decided to go for two different main meals. One was the delicious Moroccan dish Aubergine Tagine, and the other was Beef and Red Wine Casserole for the meat-cravers among us. This is a Massey family favourite which I've adapted. I made it in the slow cooker and marinated the beef overnight to make the meat nice and tender. It was really delicious! The sauce is rich and hearty, thick with flavours of tomato and red wine, mushrooms and herbs.

Course 3:

 BEEF AND RED WINE CASSEROLE (An adapted Massey family favourite)

700g beef, diced
3/4 cup red wine (I used Merlot)
2 rashers bacon, diced (rind left on)
1 medium red onion, diced
2 cups sliced mushrooms
3 tbsp. flour
30g butter
1 3/4 cup water
1 heaped tbsp. tomato paste
2 cubes of beef stock (I use OXO brand)
1 1/2 heaped tbsp. Gourmet Garden basil paste
1 1/2 tsp. Gourmet Garden Thyme paste
1 1/2 tsp. Gourmet Garden oregano paste
1 level tbsp. Gourmet Garden Garlic paste

Place the diced meat in a zip lock bag. Add the wine and seal overnight in the refrigerator.
Drain the wine from the beef and set aside for the sauce.
Brown the beef and bacon lightly. Remove from heat and place in the slow cooker bowl. Cook the onion until softened and add to the beef. Brown the mushrooms and add to the beef.
Place the butter and flour in the hot saucepan. Cook, stirring, until well combined and golden. Take off the heat and gradually add the water and the reserved wine, stirring to form a smooth paste. Return to heat and add crushed stock cubes, tomato paste and herbs. Stir until thick and then pour over meat in slow cooker.
Cook on low for 8 hours. Serve over pasta or cous cous, garnished with fresh basil, parsley or oregano if desired.

Serves 6

NOTES: You can cook this meal without a slow cooker. Place all prepared ingredients in a casserole dish instead of the slow cooker bowl. Cover and cook in the oven at 180C for 1 1/2 hours. Marinating the meat over night is also optional, but we found it made the meat more tender and infused the meat beautifully.