Wintery Beef Stew with Onion Walnut Rye Scrolls

For the most of you who are living anywhere above the equator... you must be thinking that I must be crazy eating this stew and scrolls at this time of the year. True enough and sad to say that these are actually the nice and comforting wintery food that we are eating now all because of the reason that we are living at down-under (which is also known as upside-down of the world).

I must admit that I do feel good cooking these wintery food... First of all, it was nice to keep the oven on to warm up our chilly day while doing these slow-cooking. Secondly, I can cook a large portion of this stew, so that I can kept the leftover in the freezer to supplement any of my lazy weekday cooking. Lastly, nothing beat the enjoyment of eating these warm-tasting food on a cold wintery night.... Hope that you can feel the warmth too by looking at our dinner.

Our nice and warm dinner...

Making the simple beef stew

Slow-cooking the stew

Making the scrolls

Yum!

Here are the recipes (with my modification in blue)

Simple Beef Stew from the book, Epicure Winter 

by Stephanie Alexander, Brigitte Hafner and Jill Dupleix and this recipe is written by Stephanie Alexander.

Serve 4-6

1.5kg chuck or blade steak, cut into large cubes
60g plain flour
2 tsp Spanish paprika (replaced by Hungarian sweet paprika)
400g tinned peeled tomatoes (replaced with tinned finely chopped tomatoes)
1 glass white or red wine  
(I used Shiraz which is spicy, plumy and goes very well with beef)
2 onions, diced
2 cloves garlic, sliced (replaced with minced garlic)
1 stick celery, finely sliced
3 medium potatoes, cut into large chunks
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method

Preheat oven to 180°C (or 160°C fan forced). Roll beef in flour mixed with paprika (easiest to do in a plastic or paper bag). Put into an enamelled cast iron casserole dish that will hold all the ingredients comfortably with not too much extra space.

Whiz tomatoes and their juice in a food processor, or crush roughly with a wooden spoon ( I didn't do this because I was using the finely chopped tomatoes), and add to meat. Add remaining ingredients to casserole and stir. Press a piece of baking paper over contents and cover with lid. Cook in oven undisturbed, for 2 hr.

Taste for seasoning. Check if meat is tender and cook longer if necessary (I cooked mine for 2 1/2 hrs). Offer stew with a bowl of yogurt and maybe a small bowl of sliced pickled dill cucumbers. Or serve with simply cooked carrots or another vegetable alongside. And, I served mine with these onion walnut rye scrolls...

Rye Walnut Scrolls from Epicurious

1 medium onion, chopped (1 cup) (replaced with 200g store-bought caramelised onion)
1 tbsp salt, divided (I used only 1/4 tsp for the bread dough with half of the recipe)
1/2 cup olive oil (I used the extra-virgin one)
2 cups whole milk
2 tsp active dry yeast (from a 1/4-oz package)
1/4 cup warm water (105–115°F)
1 tbsp mild honey or sugar (I used honey)
5 1/2 cups all-purpose flour plus more for kneading and dusting
(I use a combination of bread flour and Italian OO flour in the ratio of 1:4)
1 cup rye flour
1/2 tsp black pepper
3/4 cup walnuts, toasted, cooled, and coarsely chopped
1 large egg beaten with 1 tbsp water for egg wash (I used egg yolk with 1 tbsp milk instead)
1/4 cup nigella or poppy seeds (I used only a pinch of poppy seeds)

Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper. Cook onion with 1/4 tsp salt in oil in a 10-inch skillet over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until softened, 4 to 5 min. Drain onions in a sieve set over a bowl, reserving onions. Stir milk into onion oil in bowl. (I didn't do any these step and replaced these onions with store-bought caramelised onion)

Stir together yeast, warm water and honey in a large bowl and let stand until foamy, about 5 min. Mix flours, pepper, milk mixture, and remaining 2 3/4 tsp salt into yeast mixture with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula until a soft dough forms. Turn out dough onto a floured surface and knead, dusting surface and your hands with just enough flour to keep dough from sticking, until dough is elastic and smooth, about 6 min.

Pat dough into a 9-inch square and sprinkle with onions (I didn't add this) and walnuts. Fold dough over to enclose filling and pinch edges to seal. Knead to distribute onion (I didn't add this) and nuts throughout dough, dusting with just enough flour to keep dough from sticking, about 2 min.

Put dough in an oiled large bowl and turn to coat. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and a kitchen towel and let dough rise in a draft- free place at warm room temperature until doubled, 1 1/2 to 2 hrs. Note: Instead of kneading by hand, I've placed all my ingredients except the nuts and onion into my bread-maker and use "dough" setting to knead and prove the dough for 1 hr. The nuts were added to the dough after the bread-maker "beeps" after its kneading step.

Punch down dough (do not knead), then halve. Roll half of dough on a lightly floured surface with lightly floured hands into a 12-inch-long log (keep remaining half covered with plastic wrap). Cut log into 12 equal pieces and roll each into a ball by cupping your hand and pushing dough against work surface as you roll in a circular motion. Arrange rolls 2 inches apart on a baking sheet. Cover rolls with a kitchen towel. Make more rolls with remaining dough, arranging and covering them on second sheet. Note: Instead of shaping the rolls into round shapes, I've rolled my rolls into 20 cm x 20 cm square flat dough. I spread store-bought caramelised onion on the rolled dough. Then, I rolled the dough like a Swiss roll and cut each with 3 cm thickness. The scrolls were placed in a greased 20 cm round baking tin and covered with a plastic wrap for their final proving. Let dough rise in a draft-free place at warm room temperature until doubled, 1 to 1 1/2 hrs.

Preheat oven to 375°F with racks in upper and lower thirds.

Brush rolls with egg wash and sprinkle with seeds. Bake, switching position of sheets halfway through, until golden brown, 20 to 25 min. Transfer rolls to a rack and cool at least 20 min.

Note: Using half amount of this recipe, I've baked 7 scrolls at 180°C fan forced for 25 min.

Happy Baking
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