1 kg of top quality beef

1 bottle of red wine

2 medium carrots

1 medium onion

6 bay leaves

6 Thyme sprigs

6 garlic cloves

60g of streaky bacon

2 tbsp flour

Salt & pepper

1 tsp tomato puree

10 small shallots

150g button mushrooms

Oil for frying

Butter for frying

1 square of dark chocolate

2 garlic cloves (minced)

Some fresh parsley

Tender fall apart chunks of beef.

The classic French dish which never fails to impress.

The night before

Peel the carrots, onions and garlic cloves. Cut the carrots and onions into large pieces.
In a large pan pour half of the bottle of wine, add the carrots, onions, garlic, bay leaves and thyme. Bring to a boil and let it simmer for 10min and them let it cool down.

In the meantime, cut the beef into 4 cm chunks. Once the marinade is cool, add the meat and the remaining wine and leave in the fridge overnight.

Next morning take the meat out of the marinade, pat dry and leave to reach room temperature.

Use a suitable pan which can be put into the oven later.

Heat oil in that pan and sauté the bacon over medium heat until crisp and brown. Remove from pan and set aside.

Next sear the beef in batches until browned on all sides. Remove from pan and set aside.

Now sauté the marinated carrots and onions. Right add the end add the marinated garlic (minced).

Sprinkle with flour and mix. Add salt and pepper and then add the bacon and beef back to the pan as well as the bay leaves and thyme. Add the wine marinade, tomato puree and bring to the boil. Transfer to a pre-heated oven at 180’C (make sure the mixture is slightly simmering in the oven)

In the meantime, peel the shallots (pour hot water over them before) and clean the mushrooms.

Brown the shallots in some oil and add the browned shallots to the casserole.

Brown the button mushrooms in some butter. Add minced garlic and fresh chopped parsley.

After 2 hours of cooking add the button mushrooms and chocolate, stir well and leave another 30min cooking before serving.