A richly flavoured beef stew is always a winner. You could serve it with creamy mash but in this Heritage month we’re embracing our wonderful culinary culture by serving it up with dombolo. For those of you not familiar with dombolo, it’s a yeast-based bread that’s steamed instead of baked. You could make one large dombolo for slicing, but we decided on individual mini dombolos. And we packed it with extra flavour by replacing the traditional salt with our hugely versatile Cape Herb & Spice Mediterranean Roasts Rub.
Beef shin is a wonderful cut that’s more affordable and delivers fabulously intense beefy flavour. Do try to get shin that includes the bone as the melting marrow really adds to the flavour. Start by making the stew as that will take longer than the dombolo. Simply add the 60 ml sunflower oil to a large thick-based pot. Once the oil is hot, brown the shin in batches and set aside. Add the onion, bacon (if using) and celery to the same pot and fry for five minutes, stirring constantly to lift off all those lovely flavoured-packed brown bits from the bottom of the pot. Next add the garlic and fry for a further two minutes.
Add the meat back to the pot along with any resting juices. Add the tomatoes, beef stock (and red wine if using), carrots, black pepper, salt and bay leaves. (The only ingredient not added at this stage is the 30 ml flour.) Place a lid on, turn the heat very low and simmer until the meat is soft – it takes 60-90 minutes. Towards the end of cooking, mix the 30 ml cake flour with 30 ml water and stir it into the stew to help it thicken. Now’s the time to taste and adjust salt levels – how much you add, if any, depends on the how salty your beef stock was.
Make the dombolo while the beef stew is simmering. Simply combine the flour, yeast and Cape Herb & Spice Mediterranean Roasts Rub in a large mixing bowl. Pour in the lukewarm water and use your hands to stir the flour into the water. Knead it for five minutes. Use kitchen towel to lightly paint a clean mixing bowl with oil and place the dough in this clean bowl. Cover it with a tea towel and prove for 30-60 minutes until the dough has roughly doubled in size. (Cook’s tip: How quickly the yeast goes to work depends on the weather – if it’s very cold the dough will take longer to prove. If it’s warm it will be ready much faster.)
Divide the dough into eight and use your hands to shape small balls. The dombolo needs to steam in a waterproof dish (we used a 22cm pie dish) or pot that fits inside another larger pot. Simply spray the dish or pot with non-stick cooking spray and place the dombolo balls in the dish, ensuring that they do not touch and have plenty of space to spread as they steam. (Cook’s tip: you may need to do this in two dishes and two pots to ensure that the individual dombolo balls have enough space. If you are making one large dombolo, simply form one large dough ball.)
Place the dish with dombolo inside a larger cooking pot and fill the larger pot with boiling water about halfway up the side of the dombolo dish. Cover the pot with a lid and cook over medium high heat for 25-35 minutes. Check from time-to time to see if it needs more water. The dombolo will be done if you insert a stick and it comes out clean.
Plate up the hot stew and scatter over gremolata. Serve with warm dombolo on the side.
Recipe by Lizet Hartley Lizet Hartley is a freelance stills and reel food stylist, food photographer and recipe developer. In her spare time she – rather predictably – cooks. Get more of her recipes on her blog at http://www.melkkos-merlot.co.za