It's all Greek to me...

I Love Winter; Back home we have wonderful winters with a lot of snow. I get to go skiing, build snow men and snow castles, and participate in fierce snowball wars ~ always on the winning team of course... Don't get me wrong, I Love Summers too - it's just that the Summers up there, towards the North pole, sometimes are a "little" unpredictable. When fall arrives and you haven't really seen temperatures above 60F, and all you can remember is the rain - you're in high risk of falling into a winter depression. The solution: a week in Greece! When all the school kids and their parents are back in school and behind their desks the travel agencies sometimes decides to treat their customer to some really really good deals - I mean - who wouldn't say Y E S! to a week in Greece for the pretty price of $ 250. That is including both the hotel and plain ticket... Oh yeah - you gotta love it! You must by now have realised that I have many a time taken advantage of these pretty offers. I love Greece!

When in Greece, whether on the main land or on one of the islands, you have to try the local cuisine. Greek food has absolutely it's uniqueness and it is very very good! Today I'm (that is Hers, if you haven't figured it out by now ;0)) making Stifado, my favorite Greek dish, which is a traditional beef stew. The great thing with this dish, apart from the fact that it is YUMMI good, is that it is super easy to make. I hope you will try it and love it as much as I do.

This is what you need:

1.3kg boneless beef, cleaned and cut into portions
800g - 1kg small pickling size onions, peeled and left whole
1 teacup olive oil
3-4 cloves garlic
1 teacup red wine
1/3 teacup red wine vinegar
640g tin tomatoes, or preferably fresh tomatoes

2 bay leaves
1 stem of rosemary
1 teaspoon cinnamon
sunflower oil

Measurement: In the Greek kitchen the cooks are notorious for measuring in terms of "pinches" and "handfuls," and even in written recipes,

measurements are often given in terms of what they have around the kitchen, such as a teacup. To me - this is Greek so I found this site to help me find the correct measurements: http://gre

ekfood.about.com/library/blmeasurements.htm

This is what you do:

Cut the beef into cubes and dry the off. Heat the oil in a sauce pan and saute the meat until lightly browned. You may have to do this in batches. Saute the garlic. Pour the red wine and vinegar over the meat. It will sizzle.

Add the tomatoes, bay leaves, rosemary, cinnamon and salt and pepper. Add about 250 - 300ml water, make sure its enough to cover everything. Cover and cook until the meat is almost tender.
In a large frying pan, fry the small onions until lightly browned all over. You may have to do this in batches.
Remove the onions when they are ready and place on top of the meat in the casserole.
Shake the casserole for the meat and onions to mix a little. Cover and cook until all is tender - at least 20-30 minutes (I let the onions cook with the stew for a little over and hour). There should be just a

small amount of thick tasty sauce left at the bottom.

I prefer serving this dish with rice and/or bread, but I have had it with fries and salad ~ that worked too. And of course ~ a glass of red wine.

I hope you like it ~ Enjoy!