You stew beef in red wine with a mountain of small onions until the gravy goes mahogany and the onions turn silken. Cinnamon, allspice, clove — it tastes of winter, sweet and dark, and you will want bread for every drop of that sauce.
Stifado is the spice-scented stew of the Greek mainland and the islands, more often beef now, though rabbit still has its place. The pearl onions are not a garnish; they are half the dish.
Brown the meat and the onions properly, then give it time — a gentle simmer, not a boil. Rest it fifteen minutes. The onions should hold their shape and yield at a touch.
Method
- 01
Season the beef well with salt and pepper, then brown it in batches in the oil in a heavy casserole — a crowded pot steams, and you want a real crust. Set the meat aside. In the same pot, brown the pearl onions until they take on color, shaking the pan so they color on several sides, then set those aside too. You now have two piles and a pot full of browned, sticky flavor — don't wash it.
- 02
Pour in the wine and vinegar and deglaze, scraping the bottom of the pot with a wooden spoon so every browned bit dissolves into the liquid — that scraping is the gravy. Add the tomatoes, the smashed garlic, the cinnamon stick, the allspice berries, the cloves, and the bay leaves. Let it come to a simmer and smell it: wine, spice, tomato — the cupboard of a kitchen that once sat on Venetian trade. Season with salt and pepper.
- 03
Return the beef and any juices to the pot, nestling the pieces into the sauce. Cover and simmer very gently, or bake at 325°F, for 2 hours — you want the barest tremble of a simmer, not a boil, which will toughen the meat. Check once or twice; if the sauce is reducing too fast, add a splash of water. The beef is not done yet — the onions still have their turn.
- 04
Add the browned onions and cook 30 minutes more, uncovered if the sauce is thin, covered if it already looks like gravy. You are waiting for the beef to yield to a spoon and the onions to go silken, holding their shape but giving at a touch, in a dark, mahogany gravy. Taste for salt. The kitchen should smell of cinnamon and wine and sweet onion — that is stifado.
- 05
Rest the stew 15 minutes off the heat — the gravy thickens, the meat relaxes, and everything tastes more of itself. Serve with crusty bread for the sauce, or a pile of orzo if you want something to catch every drop. The onions should hold their shape and yield at a touch; if they've collapsed into the gravy, you've gone a little far, but it will still be wonderful. A tannic red, to cut the sweetness.
