French beef stew

Cut the meat and underbelly into pieces 4-5 cm. Cut off a small piece of fat (≈ 50 g) from the underbelly for frying and set aside.

Peel onions, carrots and chop into large strips.

Peel the garlic and crush the cloves with a knife blade. Crush the peppers in a mortar.

Put prepared meat, vegetables, salt, a set of crushed peppers, spices in a saucepan or bowl, pour wine, cognac, vinegar, mix, cover and marinate in the refrigerator overnight.

Remove the meat and underbelly from the marinade, remove moisture with a napkin.

Put onions and carrots in a colander and let drain into a bowl with marinade.

Cut the lard into cubes and lightly heat it in a wide frying pan with 2 tbsp. tablespoons of oil over low heat until transparent, remove it from the pan and set aside on a plate.

Fry the meat on all sides over high heat until golden brown and put in a saucepan for stewing.

Turn on the oven to preheat to 250°C.

Put the fried lard back into the pan and lightly fry the underbelly over high heat until golden brown.

Put the fried underbelly and lard to the meat.

Fry the vegetables over high heat for 10 minutes and put on top of the meat.

Boil the marinade and pour over the meat and vegetables.

Add herbs, sliced ​​orange peels, cover and place in preheated oven.

Reduce heat to 150°C and simmer for 4 hours.

Halfway through the quenching, you can add boiling water if the moisture has evaporated greatly.

Remove the pan from the oven, remove the meat and underbelly from it, strain the broth, remove the fat from the broth.

Mushrooms cut into strips and fry in a saucepan with 1-2 tablespoons of oil.

Add meat, underbelly, pitted green olives, peeled and cut tomatoes to the mushrooms, pour in the broth.

Bring to a boil and simmer over low heat for 15 minutes. Adjust sauce for salt.

Serve the dish hot. Gravy goes well with any side dish, especially Italian pasta.