Novgorod-style Beef

You won't need expensive mascara parts for this recipe. A neck, a rump, or even a trim will do just fine - they have a lot of connective tissue and during slow stewing the meat will become soft and tender.

Ingredients

• 1 kg of beef
• 6 pickles
• 2 large onions
• 2 medium carrots
• 3 tbsp. l. tomato paste
• 2 cups broth
• 2 tbsp. l. flour
• 4 bay leaves
• 8 black peppercorns
• 4 allspice peas
• olive oil
• salt, freshly ground black pepper

Directions

1. Cut the beef into 1/4-inch cubes. Put the meat in a bowl, season with salt and pepper, flour and mix well so that the flour evenly covers all the pieces of meat.
2. Preheat a large skillet with olive oil and sauté the meat in several stages until golden brown. Transfer to 4 serving pots or one large ceramic pot.
3. Peel the onions and carrots, cut the onions into cubes, carrots into half rings. Fry the onions and carrots until soft in a pan, then add the tomato paste and fry for another 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Transfer vegetables to pots.
4. If the cucumbers have hard skin, remove them. Cut the cucumbers into small cubes. Transfer to pots.
5. Distribute the black and allspice peas over the pots, place over the bay leaf. Pour in half a glass of broth and mix the contents. Cover the pots with lids, place in the oven and bake for 40 minutes. at 200 ° C. Then lower the temperature to 160 ° C and cook for 1 hour more.