One of my favourite French dishes has got to be Boeuf Bourguignon (Beef Burgundy), which is basically a slow cooked beef in red wine sort of stew/casserole. It was Quatorze Juillet (Bastille Day) yesterday, so I decided to make beef burgundy, however, my favourite butcher had lamb legs on special… So as you can imagine it turned out to be a lamb burgundy instead!

Serves 8-10

Time – overnight in the slow cooker

Ingredients:

• ~1.5kg leg of lamb (bone trimmed) (or 1.5kg chuck steak in 2cm cubes, or brisket)
• 500-750mL red wine
• 3-4 carrots, chopped into 2cm lengths
• 1/2 a bunch of celery stalks, chopped into 2-3cm lengths.
• 1 brown onion
• 6 cloves garlic
• 5 sprigs thyme
• 500-750mL beef/veggie stock
• 1/2 cup passata (tomato puree)

Removing the Lamb Leg from the slow cooker to take out the bone and shred up the meat before returning to the reduced sauce and vegetables.

Method:

1. Season the lamb with salt and pepper, and insert the cloves of garlic around the whole leg. Marinade lamb or beef (for the beef, just add the garlic to the rest of the vegetables and red wine) in red wine, carrots, celery, onion, thyme for 3 hours. I just did this in the slow cooker bowl – obviously not turned on.
2. Take the meat out and sear in a pan to brown the sides. If using a leg of lamb then you only have to sear the 4 ‘sides’ of the leg. If using chuck steak, you’ll need to sauté all the chunks to brown their sides.
3. Return meat to slow cooker, add tomato puree and enough stock to cover the meat and cook on low for 12 hours (for whole leg of lamb) or 6-8 hours if meat is in chunks.
4. For Leg of lamb – after the 10-12 hours, remove the leg of lamb, remove the bones and shred up the meat in a baking tray, set aside. Strain the liquid from the slow cooker in a colander that’s over a big bowl as you want to retain the liquid (and the vegetables in the colander).
5. For Beef/lamb chunks – Strain the liquid in a colander that’s over a big bowl as you want to retain the liquid (and the meat and vegetables in the colander).
6. Place the liquid in a pot and simmer to reduce and thicken for about 20-30 mins (optional – add some corn flour/arrowroot or gelatine to help thicken)
7. Return everything back to the slow cooker (sauce, meat, vegetables) and put on low for 30-45 mins just to heat back up.
8. Serve with your favourite mash (potato/parsnip/cauliflower/celeriac or a mixture) and steamed greens.