Estofado De Carne De Toro

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the running of the bulls in pamplona, spain occurred last month, and i figured that would be an auspicious time to introduce our members to a traditional meal that is a product of that event: estofado de carne de toro; literally translated, it means "stew of bull meat" or "beef stew."
this recipe comes from the book, culinaria spain, which has this to say about the yearly event:

 The festival, which lasts for nine-and-a-half days, commemorates Ferminus, a devout Pamplona citizen who died a martyr's death during the conversion of France to Christianity.

wiki provided some in-depth information on the fiesta:

 The festival of San Fermín (or Sanfermines) in the city of Pamplona (Navarre, Spain), is a deeply rooted celebration held annually from 12:00, 6 July, when the opening of the fiesta is marked by setting off the pyrotechnic chupinazo,^[1] to midnight 14 July, with the singing of the Pobre de Mí. While its most famous event is the encierro, or the running of the bulls, the biggest day is 7 July, when thousands of people accompany a replica of the statue of Saint Fermin along the streets in the old part of Pamplona. San Fermín is accompanied by dancers and street entertainers, such as the Gigantes (giant-sized figures who represent the King and Queen of Europe, Asia, Africa, and America) and the Cabezudos (the Bigheads). The week-long celebration involves many other traditional and folkloric events. It is known locally as Sanfermines and is held in honor of Saint Fermin, the co-patron of Navarre. Its events were central to the plot of The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway, which brought it to the general attention of English-speaking people. It has become probably the most internationally renowned fiesta in Spain. Over 1,000,000 people come to watch this festival. 

Fermin is said to have been the son of a Roman of senatorial rank in Pamplona in the 3rd century, who was converted to Christianity by Saint Honestus, a disciple of Saint Saturninus. According to tradition, he was baptised by Saturninus (in Navarre also known as Saint Cernin) at the spot now known as the "Small Well of Saint Cernin" ^[2]^[3] Fermin was ordained a priest in Toulouse and returned to Pamplona as its first bishop. On a later preaching voyage, Fermin was beheaded in Amiens, France; and is now considered a martyr in the Catholic Church.^[3] It is believed he died on September 25, AD 303. There is no written record of veneration in Pamplona of the Saint until the 12th century. Saint Fermin, as well as Saint Francis Xavier, are now the two patrons of Navarre.^[3] At Pamplona, Saint Fermin; is now sometimes said to have met his end by being dragged through the streets of Pamplona by bulls, a fate more commonly attributed to his mentor, Saturnin.

The worldwide fame of the modern festival, and the great number of foreign visitors it receives every year, are closely related to the description by Ernest Hemingway's book The Sun Also Rises^[6] and his job as a journalist.^[7] He was greatly impressed in his first visit in 1923 coming back many times until 1959.^[7] Hemingway was also deeply fond of bullrunnings and bullfights. Different city locations are famous in part due to the fact that the writer used to visit them, such as the La perla hotel,^[7] or the Iruña café.

The opening of the fiesta is marked by setting off the pyrotechnic chupinazo. The rocket thrown at 12:00 noon the 6th of July from a city hall balcony with thousands of people celebrating the act in the city hall square and other locations of Pamplona.^[8]

After nine days of partying, the people of Pamplona meet in the Plaza Consistorial at midnight on 14 July, singing the traditional mournful notes of the Pobre de Mí ('Poor Me'), in a candlelit ending.

it seems that they run the bulls each day through this event, and the meat from the bulls is distributed to local restaurants etc. estofado de carne de toro is a traditional use of this meat. reading the recipe, i noticed many similarities to Bœuf Bourguignon, especially in the braising technique; however, it is the differences that make this a traditional dish of spain! 

here's the recipe, from culinaria spain:  

 Estofado De Carne De Toro 
(Braised Bull)

2 1/2 lbs meat or alternately neck of beef
3/4 cup olive oil
3 onions, chopped
5 cloves garlic, chopped
2 TBSP flour
3 carrots, diced
1 cup dry red wine
3 TBSP wine vinegar
2 bay leaves
2 cloves
2 hot red peppers seeded and chopped
4 cups beef stock/bouillion
1/8 TSP cinnamon
2 TBSP chopped parsley 

Wash meat and pat dry. Cut into bite sized peices. Heat olive oil in a large pan and fry meat briskly on all sides.

Add onions and garlic and fry with the meat for a minute or two. Season with salt and pepper and sprinkle in the flour.

Stir in carrots, add red wine and the vinegar. Add bay leaves, cloves, peppers then pour on the meat stock.

Bring to boil, cover and simmer for about 2 hours stirring occasionally. Before serving, season to taste with cinnamon, salt, pepper and stir in parsley. Serve immediately.

i prepared this dish on july 8th, near the end of the festival, and it was truly delicious. fasten your seatbelts and join me as we make a wonderful estofado that will truly bring forth the best of the flavours of spain! 

as always, we start with a picture of the goods -

take note of just how easy this is ~ the ingredients are neither exotic (hard to find), nor are they expensive. for the record, i doubled the recipe, so the amounts of ingredients shown reflect this multiplication.

as always, mise en plase is the key! to help with preparation, i pre-chopped all of the vegetables and pre-measured the spices, herbs and liquids. this makes preparation so much easier and also allows a person to know in advance if there is anything missing.

a note about the beef: this wasn't simply local beef, it was OUR local beef. my family raises a small herd of angus/hereford crosses and the steer that provided the rump roast for this meal grew up a stone's throw from where i grew up ~ there is nothing quite as satisfying as preparing a meal using beef that your family raised! i trimmed some of the fat and cut the roast into large, stew-sized cubes.

when the time came to get going with this, i heated some olive oil in a large cast iron pan and tossed the beef into it, adding a little bit of spanish sea salt in order to release the juices that provide so much beef flavour. 

the idea is to sear the meat for flavour and and begin the cooking process, which will be finished in the low, slow simmering of a dutch oven, crock pot or other soup-friendly vessel. the goal is to brown the meat, stirring often, until the liquids reduce down to some very concentrated and wonderful drippings that will be added to the meal.

when the beef reached this point, i transferred it to our cast-iron dutch oven, that was staying warm in our oven, and added some flour in order to help thicken the final product.

then, i carmelized some onions in a combination of butter and olive oil. when they were just starting to take on that beautiful, brownish-translucent quality, i added some finely-chopped garlic aong with a little more salt and some freshly-cracked black pepper.

continued cooking for a couple of minutes longer, then introduced this aromatic ambrosia to the meat in the dutch oven. along with the carrots and wine, which i had used to deglaze the pan:

i then added the remaining seasonings and spices, shown here. some folks like to add the bay (laurel) leaves whole, then remove them when the preparation is complete, but i prefer to crumble them up a bit and leave them in the final dish.

rather than hot chile peppers, i chose to add a pinch or two of red pepper flakes to this dish. my intention was to keep the heat down for my poor wife, whilst providing a little spice in the tradition of the estofado.

then came the beef stock (double-concentrated broth in this case), which brought a little too much liquid to the party, in my opinion.

having said that, i personally prefer thick, rich stews over soups, and a combination of reducing down the broth along with thickening (in the form of flour or conrnstarch) can achieve the results i prefer. if you prefer a thinner stew, then by all means this is a great one to do as written!

after two or three hours of slow simmering in the oven (i believe the temperature was 300 or 325 degrees), the estofado had reduced down to a nice, rich stew close to the way i like it. 

the salt and pepper seemed just fine, so i added the final touches in the form of a hint of cinnamon and some parsley and served on mashed potatoes with warm, buttered ciabatta buns that we happened to have on hand. i had wanted to serve it with rice, but at the last minute switched to the mashed potatoes and this posed no problems.

my dad managed to drop by again just in time for supper (funny how that keeps happening!), so he joined us for this meal. results were nearly all positive, with my dad and three of my boys agreeing with me that this was truly a wonderful dish. 1/8 of a teaspoon just didn't seem like enough, so i used just a touch more cinnamon than called for in the recipe, closer to a quarter-teaspoon, and truly enjoyed the essence that it provided. as with the french and belgian carbonade-type stews, this was simple to prepare and made a very rich stew with extremely tender chunks of beef. i was impressed with the mix of flavours that went into this estofado and the way they provided a good balance of savory with a hint of sweet, a breath of spicy and a touch of sour. a very good stew! 

the beautiful mrs. tas wasn't so impressed with the cinnamon or the red pepper flakes as i was, and said it was rather spicy for her taste. one of my boys (the angsty 15-year-old) was downright horrified by the idea of using cinnamon in a stew, modest as it was. i can't wait to unleash some indian food on him!

conclusions - i was very impressed with this stew and would love to make this again. i can't think of anything that i would change except to go ahead and use the chiles and also thicken or reduce it a bit more. this made a very good "brunch" dish the next day, served on basmati rice that i prepared with a little butter and nothing else. i strongly recommend it to anyone who wants a warm, satisfying meal that will take the diner to the mountains near pamplona.