Greek Stew Recipes

BEEF STIFADO RECIPE (GREEK BEEF STEW)

Steps:

• To prepare this delicious Greek beef stifado recipe, heat the oil in a saucepan, add the meat (in batches) and sauté, until browned on all sides. Do not add all the meat in the sauce pan, rather sauté in batches, so that the temperature of the oil remains high and the meat is sealed. When done, remove with a slotted spoon, place on a platter, cover and set aside.
• Peel and carve the baby shallot onions crosswise, add in the same oil used to browned the meat, turn down to medium heat and sauté until the onions have softened, but not browned (about 10 minutes).
• Pour in the cognac, the wine and red wine vinegar, cover and let it simmer for 3 minutes.
• Pour the meat along with its juices to the saucepan, add the tomato paste and sauté. Add the chopped tomatoes, bay leaf, allspice berries, nutmeg and a bit of water until the meat is covered. Bring to a boil, turn the heat down and simmer the beef stifado with a lid on for 1 1/2 hours or until the beef is tender and the sauce has thickened. While the beef stifado is simmering, check if it needs some water; you don't want it to dry out. If it does, pour in half a cup of boiled water and stir. Towards the end of cooking time season well with salt and pepper to taste.
• Serve beef stifado with pasta and grated cheese, or boiled new potatoes. Enjoy!

GREEK STYLE BEEF STEW

Steps:

• Heat olive oil in a 5-quart pressure cooker over medium-high heat. Add half the beef; cook and stir until well browned on all sides. Remove beef with a slotted spoon and set aside. Brown the remaining meat and set aside.
• Place chopped onion in the pressure cooker; cook and stir for 1 minute. Add the garlic and stir for an additional minute. Pour in the red wine, red wine vinegar, and beef broth; stir in the tomato paste and mix well.
• Grind or crush rosemary, oregano, and peppercorns in a mortar and pestle or spice grinder. Add crushed spices to the cooker with bay leaves, cumin, cinnamon, cloves, black pepper, and brown sugar.
• Pour in tomatoes and their juice; rinse the can with 1/2 cup water and add the water to the cooker. Stir in potatoes and carrots. Return the browned meat to the pressure cooker. A 5-quart pot should be about half full and a little soupy; the potato will dissolve a bit and thicken it after cooking. Cover the pot and seal the lid.
• Bring the pot up to high pressure over high heat. Reduce the heat to low, maintaining full pressure, and cook for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and let the pressure reduce naturally. Taste the stew and add salt, if desired.

GREEK STEW

Steps:

• Prepare a Dutch oven or large pot with cooking spray. Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in Dutch oven over medium heat. Cook and stir onion and garlic in hot oil until onion soft and translucent, about 5 minutes. Remove onion mixture to a bowl.
• Heat remaining olive oil in the pot again over medium heat. Cook chicken in hot oil, turning a few times, until browned, about 5 minutes.
• Pour wine over the chicken; bring to a simmer and cook until chicken is no longer pink in the center, about 15 minutes.
• Stir onion mixture, tomato sauce, black pepper, lemon juice, hot pepper sauce, and cinnamon with the simmering chicken; bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, place a cover on the pot, and cook at a simmer until the chicken is easily pulled apart, about 1 hour.

GREEK-STYLE BEEF STEW (STIFADO)

Steps:

• Place beef in a bowl and season generously with pepper and kosher salt. Cover and transfer to the refrigerator until ready to use; up to 1 day is fine.
• Leaving the root ends in place, cut off the shallot tops. Remove and discard skins.
• Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a heavy skillet over high heat. Add ½ of the beef and cook until nicely seared, 4 to 6 minutes per side. Remove to a plate and repeat to sear remaining beef.
• Turn off the heat and add 1 tablespoon oil to the empty skillet. Add shallots and let the skillet cool for 2 to 3 minutes. Turn the heat back on to medium and toss shallots until browned, 2 to 4 minutes. Remove shallots to a plate.
• Add the remaining 1 tablespoon oil to the skillet with onion, garlic, and a pinch of salt; cook and stir for about 1 minute. Stir in tomato paste and cook until toasted, about 2 minutes. Add red wine vinegar and white wine and bring to a boil while scraping the browned bits of food off the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon. Increase heat to medium-high and add sugar, cinnamon, allspice, cloves, oregano, bay leaves, and rosemary sprigs. Stir to combine and cook until reduced by about half, 2 to 3 minutes.
• Add browned beef and shallots to the skillet and toss carefully until coated. Pour in 2 cups beef broth and bring to a simmer.
• Reduce heat to low or medium-low. Cover and cook at a gentle simmer for 1 hour, then uncover and cook for at least 1 more hour, stirring occasionally to move the beef and shallots around. Add more broth if needed during the cooking time and skim off some fat if preferred. The meat is done when a fork slides in easily, but the meat isn't falling apart on its own; it may take longer than 2 hours.
• Taste and adjust seasonings before serving.

GREEK LAMB STEW

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
• Into the largest saucepan or casserole you have that will go into the oven, pour 3 tablespoons of the oil. Brown the meat in batches over high heat and remove with a slotted spoon to a plate nearby. You may need more oil as you do this. The onions will certainly need it, so pour the remaining oil or add more, add the onions, sprinkling a little salt over them and cook then until soft and translucent. Add the garlic, celery, thyme, and oregano. After a couple of minutes or so, when the smell of garlic wafts up, remove half the mixture. Add the meat to the mixture in the pan, cover with the remaining half, add the bay leaves, carrots, tomatoes, stock and wine. I use a big but flattish casserole and this amount of liquid covers the meat, but if you find you need more liquid, add water- you want a lot of liquid, because you will, eventually, be cooking some pasta in it. Bring to a boil, remove scum, and let bubble for about 3 minutes. Then cover, transfer to the oven, and bake for about 2 to 2 1/2 hours, or cook on a very low heat. The meat should be tender and yielding. Remove the carrots (and eat, cook's treat) and bay leaves, too, if you want, and season, to taste, with the salt and pepper.
• Of course you can proceed to the final stage now, but I am presuming you're not going to. In which case, let the stew cool and keep it in the refrigerator until you want it. Skim the fat off the top, and do remember to take it out of the refrigerator a good 1 to 2 hours before you cook it again. You can reheat this in the oven, but because the pasta will be put in on the stove, I tend to heat it there. Make sure the stew is piping hot. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a boil. When it boils, add the salt and then pasta. Cook this until it's nearly but not quite cooked; it should have a couple of minutes still to go.
• Then drain the pasta and add it quickly to the bubbling juices in the casserole, making sure first that there are enough bubbling juices. You don't want the meat to be drowned, but you want enough for the pasta to be covered. The pasta will absorb some of the liquid as it finishes cooking, of course.
• In a couple of minutes, the pasta should be cooked. Crumble some feta and put in a bowl with the chopped parsley, oregano, or basil. Stir to combine and then leave the spoon with it, so that people can sprinkle the herb-spiked cheese over the stew as they wish. Ladle the stew into shallow soup bowls.

GREEK VEGETABLE STEW

Steps:

• Lightly brown onions in a hot dry skillet in 2 Tablespoons oil. Add oregano & garlic. Cook 1 minute. Add 4 cups water and tomatoes. Cook 10 minutes. Add remaining ingredients. Cook covered for 40 minutes, stirring occasionally. Serve with a lemon slice in each bowl.

GREEK CHICKEN STEW

Steps:

• Heat the oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the onion and bell pepper and cook, stirring frequently, until they begin to soften, about 4 minutes. Add the garlic and seasoning and cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add the tomatoes, garbanzo beans, broth, bay leaves, and pepper. Stir well. Bring to a boil and boil for 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Add the chicken, lower the heat to medium, and simmer, uncovered, for 15 minutes. Stir frequently to prevent sticking. The mixture will thicken. Remove the bay leaves and discard. Stir in the olives and lemon juice, and serve immediately over the couscous.
• While the stew is simmering, bring the broth, oil and salt to a boil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Stir in the couscous and raisins, cover, and remove the pan from the heat. When the moisture has been absorbed, about 5 minutes, sprinkle the cinnamon and orange juice over the couscous. Fluff with a fork to combine the flavors and loosen the couscous. Do not stir.

GREEK FISHERMAN'S STEW

Steps:

• Warm oil in a 4-quart saucepan or casserole over medium heat. Stir in onion and garlic and cook until soft but not brown. Add fennel and cook a few minutes, until softened. Stir in chile flakes. Add tomatoes and salt, cover and cook on medium about 10 minutes.
• Stir in wine and 2 1/2 cups water, bring to a simmer, add potatoes and cook another 6 minutes or so, until potatoes are tender. Check seasonings, adding salt and pepper to taste. Add lemon juice.
• Season fish pieces with salt and pepper, place them in the stew and simmer on low, covered, until fish is just cooked through, about 5 minutes. Meanwhile, warm 6 generous soup plates.
• When fish is done, remove it to the warm soup plates. Remove pot from heat, stir in basil, just to wilt it, and divide soup among the 6 plates. Serve spiced mayonnaise alongside if desired.

GREEK LAMB STEW

Steps:

• Heat the olive oil in a large, heavy bottomed pot over medium-high heat. Season the lamb with salt and pepper, add to the pot, and cook until deeply browned, about 5 minutes on each side. Stir in the onions and garlic, and cook until lightly browned, about 2 minutes.
• Pour the wine into the pot, and bring to a boil while scraping the browned bits of food off of the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon. Stir in the tomatoes, tomato sauce, lamb stock, lemon zest and juice, oregano, cinnamon, and bay leaf. Bring back to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until the lamb is very tender, about 1 1/2 hours. Stir in the green beans and cook until they are tender, about 20 additional minutes.
• Remove the bay leaf and any bones from the stew. Garnish stew with chopped fresh parsley.

GREEK LAMB STEW

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 150°C, gas mark 2. Cut the meat into 6cm pieces.
• Heat a large lidded flameproof casserole dish and add a tablespoon of oil. Brown the meat all over in batches, then remove and set aside.
• Add the remaining oil to the dish, stir in the onions and cook for 2-3 minutes until beginning to soften. Leaving the top intact, split the chilli along its length, this adds flavour to the stew without too much heat. Stir in the chilli, sliced garlic and rosemary, and increase the heat. Pour in the wine and simmer for 3-4 minutes. Stir in the chopped tomatoes and reduce the heat.
• Return the lamb and juices to the dish, stir through the black olives and bring to a simmer. Season, then cover and cook in the oven for 1 hour 30 minutes, or until the lamb is really tender.
• Remove the chilli and rosemary, and discard. Set the stew aside to cool.
• To Serve, bring the stew to a simmer on the hob. Add the pasta (make sure its broken into small pieces otherwise it will stick together in lumps) and cook for 3-5 minutes until tender, and the lamb is thoroughly heated. Ladle the stew onto plates and serve scattered with the feta and mint sprigs.
• Delicious with a fennel and orange salad

GREEK BEEF STEW

Steps:

• In a heavy kettle, brown meat in butter.
• Season lightly with salt and pepper.
• Add chopped onion and saute until clear.
• Mix in tomato paste, vinegar, garlic and half of the water.
• Add bay leaf.
• Cover and simmer 1 hour, adding additional water as needed.
• Add white onions and mushrooms.
• Cover and simmer 1 more hour or until meat and onions are tender.
• Add cheese, cover and cook 5 minutes, or until cheese melts.