The Greek dish of Stifado (Στιφαδο) is meat stewed with onions, spices, garlic and fragrant herbs in a sauce of red table wine, olive oil, tomato paste and natural wine vinegar. The very word "stifado" is translated from Greek as "stewed meat". This dish is very easy to prepare, but rather refined, with a good choice of meat and the correct approach to cooking is very delicious. Usually, for cooking Greek stifado, beef or veal is used. Often, stifado is prepared from a rabbit or from a hare. When preparing stifado from beef, it is better to use meat without pits. Of course, the beef will have to be extinguished longer than the rabbit.
How to cook Stifado?
Ingredients:
- 1 rabbit or hare carcass;
- 0,8-1,0 kg of very small onions (can be red);
- 4-5 cloves of garlic;
- 4 tablespoons of natural wine vinegar dark;
- 5-8 leaves of laurushka;
- 100 ml of extra virgin olive oil (better than Greek);
- 2 tablespoons of tomato paste (in the summer-autumn period it's good to use ripe, dense red tomatoes instead of tomato, you can use tomatoes, preserved in pulp, that is, in tomato juice);
- 5-8 peas of pepper;
- 5 clove buds;
- 1 whisper of cinnamon;
- greens (rosemary, coriander, basil and others - to taste);
- 1 glass of red table non-sulphated wine;
- 1 hot red pepper;
- dry spices to taste.
Preparation:
So, we prepare the stifado from the rabbit. This recipe is very remarkable for a festive menu. We divide the carcass of the rabbit into portions (it is better to cut through the joints, and large pieces - in half). We'll wash it, put it in a bowl with a laurel leaf, fill it with vinegar, lightly season with various dry spices to taste, and let it marinate for at least 2 hours, or better left at night. The meat of the hare, naturally, should be marinated much longer than the meat of a domestic rabbit. When the meat is mashed, extract the pieces from the marinade and dry with a napkin. Half of the olive oil is heated in a large thick-walled saucepan and fry pieces of rabbit from all sides until golden brown. Lightly add and pepper, add tomato paste, bay leaf from marinade, dry spices, wine and a glass of water. Bring to a boil, mix thoroughly and reduce the heat. Cover the lid and let it simmer for about 1 hour (the hare is stewed longer), if necessary pouring a little water. The meat should turn out to be soft and gentle, but it should not directly fall off the bones.
About sauce
While the rabbit is stewing, we will scrape off the remaining oil in a frying pan and lay out the peeled onion (you can not cut small bulbs). Fry, gently turning the bulbs until they are completely golden. After the rabbit has been blotted for 1 hour,
Well, a wonderful dish of rabbit - stifado - ready. We serve stifado with greenery. Decorate the dish can be chopped slices of orange. As a side dish, you can use stewed string beans, boiled or baked potatoes, rice, pasta. It is also good to serve vegetable salads. Of course, a true Greek dinner will not prevent a glass of red wine from the same sort of wine that was used in cooking.