Beef stew with apricots

Directions

Peel a piece of fresh young beef from the membranes (if any) and cut into fairly large pieces no larger than a matchbox.

The best spices for this dish would be salt, pepper, and sweet paprika.

I have a bag at home with a mixture of five peppers: black, white, green, red, and allspice. I grind them in a mortar, which makes them even more fragrant, but to the taste it has a spicy, subtle yet fresh flavor and a pungent taste with hints of nutmeg, cloves and cinnamon. This blend goes perfectly with the meat. But I personally lacked sweetness in this flavor, so I put in a pinch of sweet paprika as well.

In vegetable oil (1 tbsp) lightly fry the beef pieces. The meat will give juice and at this stage, sprinkle them with spices, but do not salt them (we will add salt during the stewing).

Coarsely slice the carrots, too. There are 2 options here: dice or thick circles.

In a thick-walled pan (preferably double-bottomed) put little fried pieces of meat, carrots, pour water, salt and put on the lowest heat on the stove for 30-40 minutes or in the oven for the same time at 170'.

Cooking time of meat depends on its quality and "age". I have young beef, so it took 40 minutes to stew the dish.

It is better to take ripe apricots, sour-sweet to taste, juicy, with good separation of the bone. You can add halves of apricots to the meat or, if the fruit is large, cut each half in half.

7-10 minutes before cooking, put a small sprig of rosemary (I have dried) and halves of apricots into the pot with the stew. Gently stir the meat so as not to damage the apricots and finish the dish no more than 10 minutes, otherwise the fruit will turn into mush.

Peel the small onions from the husks. Heat 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil in a frying pan and place the onions in a single row. Fry them for about 5 minutes on low heat until slightly brown on all sides. Then sprinkle a tablespoon of sugar, stir it, wait until the sugar begins to caramelize and pour the water, salt it a little.

You need to wait until all the liquid evaporates (5-7 minutes) and turn off the fire.