Dorset Jugged Steak

When you think of a jugged dish you immediately think of jugged hare that is cooked in its own blood. Don't worry, jugged steak is not as adventurous as that, jugged can also mean slowly cooked to retain flavour and this dish does exactly that. Traditionally it would be cooked with port but as I had some cider I gave it a whirl with that and it worked well. I like the fact that the steak casserole is topped with balls of sausagemeat, it adds a really tasty extra dimension and is perfect for carnivores like me.

Ingredients:

900g Stewing steak, cut into bite-size pieces
2tbsp Plain flour
1x Medium onion, diced
2x Cloves
250ml Cider
350ml Beef stock
250g Sausagemeat
1x Star anise petal
1x Rosemary sprig, leaves removed and finely chopped
2tbsp Parsley, chopped to add as topping
Salt and pepper


Method:

1, Turn on the oven to gas mark 3.
2. Toss the steak in the flour then put it in an oven proof casserole dish.
3. Add the onion, cloves, star anise and rosemary with a pinch of salt and pepper then top with the cider and stock.
4. Bring to a simmer on the hob then put the lid on the dish and pop it in the oven for 2.5 hours.
5. Roll your sausagemeat into balls and drop them into the casserole dish and cook uncovered for a further 30 minutes.
6. We served ours with some simple sauteed runner beans and garlic mash all topped with those fresh parsley leaves.