Chef Isabel
Cachopo Asturiano
Cachopo is Asturian comfort food with no mystery: two thin veal fillets, jamon, melting cheese, a firm seal, and enough oil to fry it golden without leaking.
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Estofado de Ternera a la Navarra
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Estofado de Ternera a la Navarra is beef from the Pyrenean edge of Navarra, braised with panceta, red wine, dark onion, and a tiny breath of nutmeg and clove.
Main Dishes
Spanish
Comfort Food
One Pot
Make Ahead
25 min
Active Time
2 hr 35 min cook•3 hr total
Yield4 to 6 servings
Estofado de Ternera a la Navarra belongs to Navarra, where the beef, the cured pork, the wine, and that small old-fashioned touch of spice all sit in the same pot. This isn't just any beef stew with wine thrown at it. The panceta gives it body, the onion gives it sweetness, and the nutmeg and clove should be felt only at the back of the spoon. Too much and you've lost the dish.
The method that decides it is the onion. Cook it low with the panceta fat until it goes dark gold and jammy before the wine goes in. That slow cook is where the warm sweetness comes from. Rush it and the sauce tastes sharp and thin, no matter how good the beef was. Pésalo, no lo adivines, weigh it, don't guess, especially with the spice.
If you can't find ternera de Navarra where you are, use beef chuck, shin, or shoulder, cut thick, the kind that needs time. For panceta, use unsmoked slab bacon or Italian pancetta; if all you have is smoked bacon, use less, because it talks louder than it should. A young Garnacha or Tempranillo stands in well for Navarra red wine. No hace falta haber pisado España. Con buenos ingredientes y paciencia, siempre sale, si lo sigues.
Navarra's cooking sits between the Pyrenean valleys and the Ebro plain, so its home stews draw from both: cattle and preserved pork from the mountain side, vegetables and wine from the river lands. Estofados like this belong to cocina de cuchara, spoon food, the practical household cooking that made tougher cuts of meat tender over a slow fire. The light use of clove and nutmeg reflects an older habit in northern meat stews, where warm spice was used sparingly to round wine and onion, never to make the dish sweet.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
beef chuck, shin, or shoulder
Quantity
1.2kg
cut into 4cm pieces
fine sea salt
Quantity
8g, plus more to taste
freshly ground black pepper
Quantity
1/2 teaspoon
plain flour
Quantity
30g
olive oil
Quantity
45ml
panceta or unsmoked slab bacon
Quantity
150g
cut into 1cm lardons
onions
Quantity
350g
finely chopped
carrots
Quantity
180g
cut into thick coins
garlic cloves
Quantity
3
minced
bay leaf
Quantity
1
whole clove
Quantity
1
freshly grated nutmeg
Quantity
1/8 teaspoon
young red Navarra wine, or young Garnacha or Tempranillo
Quantity
250ml
hot beef stock or water
Quantity
500ml
waxy potatoes
Quantity
500g
peeled and cracked into 4cm chunks
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| beef chuck, shin, or shouldercut into 4cm pieces | 1.2kg |
| fine sea salt | 8g, plus more to taste |
| freshly ground black pepper | 1/2 teaspoon |
| plain flour | 30g |
| olive oil | 45ml |
| panceta or unsmoked slab baconcut into 1cm lardons | 150g |
| onionsfinely chopped | 350g |
| carrotscut into thick coins | 180g |
| garlic clovesminced | 3 |
| bay leaf | 1 |
| whole clove | 1 |
| freshly grated nutmeg | 1/8 teaspoon |
| young red Navarra wine, or young Garnacha or Tempranillo | 250ml |
| hot beef stock or water | 500ml |
| waxy potatoespeeled and cracked into 4cm chunks | 500g |
Equipment Needed
- •Heavy 28cm casserole or Dutch oven with lid
- •Kitchen scale
- •Wooden spoon
- •Sharp knife
Instructions
- 1
Season the beef
Pat the beef dry. Toss it with the salt and pepper, then dust it with the flour and shake off the excess. You want the lightest coat, just enough to help the sauce cling later. Too much flour gives you a dull, pasty stew, and nobody asked for that.
- 2
Brown in batches
Heat the olive oil in a wide heavy pot over medium-high heat. Brown the beef in two or three batches, turning only when the pieces have taken on a deep brown crust in patches, about 6 to 8 minutes per batch. Lift the beef to a plate. Leave the browned bits in the pot; they belong to the sauce.
Do not crowd the pot. Crowded beef leaks water and steams in its own juices, so you get grey meat and a thinner sauce. - 3
Darken the onion
Lower the heat to medium-low. Add the panceta and cook until its fat runs clear and the edges turn golden, 6 to 8 minutes. Add the onions and carrots with a pinch of salt, then cook slowly for 25 to 30 minutes, stirring often, until the onion is dark gold, soft, and jammy. Add the garlic for the last minute. This is the step that decides the stew.
- 4
Wine and spice
Add the bay leaf, the single whole clove, and the nutmeg. Pour in the wine and scrape the bottom of the pot with a wooden spoon until the browned bits loosen. Let the wine bubble down for 4 to 5 minutes, until the sharp alcohol smell passes and the liquid looks glossy around the onion.
- 5
Braise slowly
Return the beef and any juices to the pot. Add enough hot stock or water to barely cover the meat, about 500ml, and bring it to the gentlest bubble. Cover with the lid slightly ajar and cook over low heat for 1 hour 35 minutes, stirring now and then. The sauce should move lazily, not boil hard. Hard boiling tightens the meat before it has time to soften.
- 6
Add the potatoes
Add the cracked potatoes and tuck them into the sauce. Cook uncovered or partly covered for 35 to 45 minutes more, until the potatoes are tender and the beef breaks with a spoon. If the sauce gets too thick before the potatoes are done, add a small splash of hot water. If it is thin at the end, simmer uncovered for a few minutes until it coats the spoon.
- 7
Rest and serve
Remove the bay leaf and the clove if you can find it. Taste for salt, then let the stew rest off the heat for 15 minutes before serving. The fat settles, the sauce gathers itself, and the spice quiets into the beef. Serve in deep bowls, with bread for the sauce.
Chef Tips
- •Use a working cut of beef: chuck, shin, shoulder, or cheek. Lean steak goes dry before the sauce is ready. Ternera de Navarra is right if you can get it; if not, choose beef with seams of connective tissue and cut it large.
- •The panceta should be unsmoked if possible. Italian pancetta works well. If smoked bacon is all you have, use 100g instead of 150g and know the stew will taste more smoky than it would in a Navarrese kitchen.
- •Use one clove, not two. The nutmeg and clove are there to warm the wine and onion, not to announce themselves. If someone can name the spice at the table, you used too much.
- •A young red from Navarra is the natural choice, but a simple Garnacha or Tempranillo does the job. Avoid heavy oak; the stew wants fruit and acidity, not vanilla.
- •For make-ahead cooking, braise the beef the day before and add the potatoes when you reheat it. Potatoes left overnight in the stew soften, which is not a disaster, only less tidy.
Advance Preparation
- •The beef can be cut and salted up to 12 hours ahead, then kept covered in the refrigerator. Pat it dry before flouring and browning.
- •The stew is excellent made a day ahead if you stop before adding the potatoes. Chill it, lift off any firm fat if you like, then reheat gently and cook the potatoes in the sauce.
- •Leftovers keep for 3 days covered in the refrigerator. Reheat slowly with a splash of water, never at a hard boil.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 540g)
Calories
810 calories
Total Fat
49 g
Saturated Fat
17 g
Trans Fat
1 g
Unsaturated Fat
31 g
Cholesterol
190 mg
Sodium
1600 mg
Total Carbohydrates
35 g
Dietary Fiber
5 g
Sugars
6 g
Protein
57 g
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