Winter food recipe: White bean colcannon with sticky braised beef

Winter may be coming (or here) but it doesn’t have to be bleak. Mash is my cold weather downfall. More specifically, mashed potato under a sticky, slow cooked beef stew, preferably consumed by an open fire.

I’ve since found a way to keep the slow cooked beef but give the mash a lighter (and easier makeover) by relying on mashed white beans. It’s quicker than peeling potatoes and lower in the GI stakes. Folding shredded kale through the white beans just before serving gives it a slight Irish accent, imitating their beloved dish of colcannon. It’s my new Saturday night staple.

Serves 4- 6 with a salad

Ingredients

For the white bean champ:

– 2 x 400 g tins of white beans, drained and rinsed
– 30 ml milk
– 100 g kale, washed and finely chopped
– 5 spring onions, trimmed and thinly sliced
– chopped flat leaf parsley to serve

For the sticky braised beef:

– 2 tbsp olive oil
– 150 g lardons or bacon cut into slim strips
– 1 kg chuck steak or beef shin with a good amount of white sinew marbled through, cut into 2 cm cubes (avoid a lean cut as it will turn to leather over long cooking)
– 3 medium carrots, peeled, halved lengthways and cut into 1 cm thick slices
– 2 onions, peeled, halved and cut into slim half moons
– 300g button mushrooms, halved
– 3 garlic cloves, peeled and finely diced
– 500ml beef stock
– 3 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

Method

White bean champ:

1. Use a stick blender or food processor to puree the rinsed and drained white beans with the milk until smooth.

2. Place a saucepan over a medium heat. Add the chopped kale and any water that’s still clinging to the leaves. Stir for 1-2 minutes until the kale has begun to soften.

3. Add the bean puree and spring onions and stir to heat through and combine- be careful not to let it catch on the bottom of the pan. If it seems a little dry or begins to catch on the bottom of the pan add a few tbsp of water or milk.

4. Taste and season with salt and pepper.

Sticky braised beef:

1. Preheat the oven to 150C/300F.

2. Add half of the olive oil to a flameproof and heatproof casserole dish over medium heat and saute the lardons or bacon until they have browned and rendered their fat. Remove from the dish.

3. Season the beef chunks with 1 teaspoon salt. Brown them in small batches in the dish, making sure you get a good brown crust on the meat, as this is the basis of much of the flavour in the braise. If you crowd the pan, the meat will limply stew rather than crisply sear- you don’t want this.

4. When the meat is brown all over, remove it from the dish and set it aside. Repeat with the remaining beef and if the dish ever seems too dry, add a little more olive oil.

5. Once all the meat is done, add the remaining olive oil, then the carrots, onions, mushrooms and the garlic (it’s fine if there is some residue from the meat clinging to the bottom). Saute for 5-10 minutes over a medium heat to soften the vegetables a little and to add a hint of colour.

6. Return the bacon and meat (and any juices that have leached out) into the dish. Stir to combine, then pour in the stock and Worcestershire sauce. There should be enough liquid to just come to the top of the meat. If it doesn’t add some more stock or water so that the majority of the stew is covered, but some bits pop out the top like floating islands.

7. Turn up the heat to high and allow the stock to come to the boil. As soon as it comes to the boil, take the pan off the heat, put the lid on and place in the preheated oven for 2 hours.

8. After 2 hours, tae the lid off and bake for another hour. This will help the sauce to reduce.

9. When done, the meat should flake apart, the carrots and onions should be pliable and soft and the sauce sticky and rich. If you’re not quite at this point, return the stew to the oven. You could also cook this on low in a slow cooker all day.

Serve the sticky braised beef spooned on top of the white bean colcannon and top with chopped parsley

Tori Haschka’s book Cut The Carbs is available now.