Bart's Recipes
Cut the beef into four-centimeter cubes and pat them bone-dry. Season them with salt and pepper. Heat the olive oil in a cast-iron pot until almost smoking and sear the meat in two batches until deeply browned all over. Two batches, because overcrowding the pan drops the temperature below one hundred and forty degrees, halting the browning reaction; without that crust, the entire stew loses its depth.
Remove the meat and sauté the finely chopped onion with the half-ring sliced leek and diced carrot for eight minutes over medium heat. Add the garlic and tomato paste and cook for another two minutes until the paste turns a deep red and loses its raw edge.
Deglaze with the red wine, scraping up the browned bits from the bottom of the pot. Let the wine reduce for three minutes, return the meat to the pot, and pour in the stock along with the bay leaves and thyme. Place the lid slightly ajar on the pot and let everything simmer on very low heat for two to two and a half hours until the meat is melt-in-your-mouth tender.
Peel the celeriac, cut it into chunks, and boil in salted water for twenty minutes until completely soft. Drain, let them steam dry thoroughly, and mash with the butter and mustard into a coarse puree.
Serve the stew over the puree, garnished with plenty of parsley.
