120g smoked bacon lardons or chopped streaky bacon
12 shallots, peeled
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
500ml Spanish red wine
300ml beef stock
1 large carrot, chopped
2 celery sticks, sliced
2 sprigs fresh thyme
2 bay leaves
Freshly ground black pepper
Method
Preheat the oven to 160°C.
Heat the vegetable oil in a large frying pan and lift in the beef joint, searing it over a high heat to brown on all sides – this will take about 5 minutes. Transfer to a large flameproof casserole.
Add the lardons or streaky bacon to the frying pan and cook over a medium heat for 3-4 minutes until the fat starts to run. Add the shallots and garlic and cook for a further 3-4 minutes. Transfer to the casserole.
Pour the wine into the frying pan and let it bubble up, then tip this into the casserole (it will pick up all the lovely flavours from frying the beef and bacon).
Put all the remaining Ingredients into the casserole. Season with black pepper, then cover tightly and cook for 2 hours. Serve with seasonal vegetables.
