Recipes to Die For

Ok, these are not that wonderful, but I promised a few recipes and to start a blog so thought I would combine the two. I don't know about the 'morality' of publishing recipes but there are mittigating circumstances I think:

• only about two people will read this (one of them probably my Mother);
• I often tamper with perfection and change a recipie; and
• I will aknowledge where they came from.

They should have pictures and bells and whistles to make it all look interesting and professional but the only going option at the moment was blog? or no blog?

Beef with Olives and 100 cloves of Garlic
Skordostoumbi

The instructions are a little kurz but I don't want to type forever. Do put in all that garlic it's fantastic! This is one of the tastiest beef stews I have ever eaten. The book is "The Olive and the Caper" by Susanna Hoffman.

1/4 cup olive oil
1.5 kilos beef in 2 inch chunks
100 cloves of garlic
48 Kalamata olives
4 cups dry red wine
1 tbsp tomatoe paste
2 bay leaves
1/2 tsp freshly ground black peper
1/2 cup shredded basil leaves

1. Preheat oven to 220 celsius
2. Heat oil and brown meat batch by batch. Place in a clay pot (or casserole dish).
3. add garlic, olives wine, tomatoe paste, bay leaves and pepper to the juices left in the pan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Add this to the clay pot (or casserole dish).
4. cook stirring once or twice until tender for about 1 3/4 - 2 hours until beef is tender and sauce thickens.
5. take out of oven and let rest for 20 minutes. remove bay leaves and sprinkle basil.