When you think of a meal to cook during the colder weather, beef stew is a common one that springs to mind. There’s nothing better than putting beef and some stock in a pot to simmer until it reduces into the most comforting dish. However, for the most delicious pot of beef stew, anchovies are your secret weapon, according to TV cook Nigella Lawson.
Taking to her recipe blog, Nigella said, “The anchovies really just provide flavourfulness, certainly not fishiness. There is no need to mention their presence if you are feeding people who might take against the idea.”
For the most delicious pot of beef stew, anchovies are your secret weapon (Image: Getty)
Why add anchovies to beef stew?
It might sound unusual to add seafood to beef stew, and incorporating one of the fishiest options might seem like it could spoil the whole dish, but it actually enhances it.
Anchovies are celebrated for their delicious, umami-rich flavour, and it’s that salty quality that enhances beef stew beautifully without making it taste fishy.
Oil-packed anchovies are readily available and blend effortlessly into your stew. Simply add them to the stew before leaving to simmer and let them dissolve to create a wonderful, flavourful foundation for your stew.
Nigella recommends adding six anchovies to achieve a wonderfully rich flavour that spreads throughout the dish. Alternatively, you can use anchovy paste, which packs a concentrated punch.
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How to make beef stew tastier with anchovies
Ingredients (six to eight servings)
- Three tablespoons of olive oil
- 1.5kg of stewing steak, cut into chunky strips
- One large onion, halved then finely sliced
- Three garlic cloves, minced or finely chopped
- Three medium carrots, cut into batons
- Four sticks of celery, finely sliced
- Two teaspoons of dried thyme, or 1.5 tablespoons of fresh thyme
- Six anchovies, well drained, chopped or minced finely
- Three tablespoons of marsala
- 500ml of robust red wine
- 300ml of beef stock
- One tablespoon of tomato puree
- Half a teaspoon of mace
Method
Start by preheating the oven to 150°C/130°C Fan/Gas Mark 2. Place your casserole dish in which you will cook the stew on the hob with your olive oil to heat up.
Add the sliced and chopped onion, garlic, carrots, and celery, and cook, stirring, until they begin to soften but not colour.
Next, add the beef and turn well with the vegetables in the pan until it loses its raw redness a little.
Add the thyme, chopped anchovies, marsala, red wine, stock, tomato puree, and mace and stir well.
Bring the pan to the boil and check for salt and pepper, and season to taste. Then put on a lid and then cook in the preheated oven for three hours.
For those who don’t want to use their oven or wait three hours for the stew to be ready, one person commented on Nigella’s recipe with a way they cook this dish.
They said, “Delicious! If you don’t have an ovenproof casserole or three hours to spare, this can be made perfectly well on the stovetop. I made half the quantity, added four medium potatoes, peeled and quartered them, and at the lowest possible simmer, it was ready after 90 minutes. A great one-dish meal for four.”