Serves: 4

Prep time: 40 minutes
Cooking time: 20 - 30 minutes

You will need:

2 litres of good chicken stock
1 bottle of red wine
1 tsp tomato puree
1 carrot
4 cloves of garlic
1 sprig of thyme
100g smoked streaky bacon
75g butter
400g whole peeled shallots
100g baby button mushrooms
4 rump steaks 125g each (from your local butcher cut into generous sized cubes)
Olive oil
2 slices of white bread
50g parsley chopped

What to do:

For this quick recipe it is probably best to make the sauce in advance so that on the day you can quickly cook the steaks and keep them rare if you like then finish the dish with the sauce.

To make the sauce simply combine the stock, wine, tomato puree, carrot, garlic and thyme and any shallot trimmings you have into one large pan. Reduce the whole amount by ¾ until you have the sauce consistency you require.

Cut the bacon into lardons and place into a bowl.

In a large pan add the butter and allow to get foaming hot, add all of the peeled shallots and bacon lardons and cook for 10 minutes on a medium heat setting, then add the mushrooms and cook for a further 2-3 minutes.

Season with salt and pepper and pour in the finished red wine sauce, then put to one side.

In a hot pan cook the diced steaks to your liking. Also at this point cook the croutons in hot olive oil until golden brown on both sides season with salt and drain on kitchen paper.

Once the steaks are cooked add them to the hot sauce and check the dish for seasoning adjusting if necessary. Add the chopped parsley at the last minute
Finish with the cooked croutons that have been dipped into the hot sauce then into some of the chopped parsley.

Submitted by www.UKshallot.com