From my kitchen: Beef and lemon stew

This is a very simple recipe I unvented. It was probably inspired by food I have eaten in Crete (or maybe some recipes from Morocco and Algeria that use preserved lemons instead of fresh ones).

Below is the basic recipe, that you can use as is or, better still, use as the basis for your stew by adding to it ingredients of your choice.


Ingredients (for 2):

500g of braising beef
2 unwaxed lemons
2 (or 1 big) onions
5 (or 3 big) garlic cloves
1 bay leave
olive oil, salt, pepper

• Heat the oil in a pot and sauté the beef.
• Peel the onions, cut them in half, slice them and then add them to the pot.
• Peel the garlic cloves, slice them (or press them or just use them whole) and then add them to the pot.
• Add salt, pepper, bay leave and other favourite seasonings, like herbs or chilli.
• Now there are two options to add the lemons:

  The lazy and bitter

  Cut the lemons in quarters, squeeze a bit of their juice over the meat and then add the rest to the pot. The white part of the peel will add a bitter flavour to the meat, to avoid this do the following:

  The perfect

  Carefully peel the zest of the lemons, then squeeze the juice. Add both the zest and juice to the stew.

• Cook in medium-low heat until the meat is tender.

I have used the lazy-bitter method with very good results, but the lemons I have used were well ripened and therefore had little white on their peel.

For the simplest of one-pot dishes, add potatoes and carrots to the pot when the meat is half done.