Main Ingredients:

• 1,5 kg meat
  • ~1 kg stew beef (sukadelappen)
  • 500g minced meat (mixed pork/beef)
• 4 onions (reasonably large)
• 3 bell peppers
• 10 cloves / ~1 entire bulb
• 1 leek
• 2 medium carrots
• 2-3 cans of diced tomatoes
• 2 large cans of tomatopuree (280g total)
• 1 can of corn
• 2 cans of Capuchin beans (or kidneybeans/brown beans, or a mixture of those)
• ~0.5 liter of water (make sure everything is just about covered)
• (optional) Chickpeas (for if you want even more beans)
• 2 slices of bread

Spices:

• 1 - 3 tbsp Chili powder (depending on how spicy you want it to be)
• 1 tbsp Cayenne pepper
• 0.5 tbsp black pepper
• 1 tbsp oregano (dried)
• 0.5 tbsp thyme (dried)
• 2 tbsp cuminseed (ground) (aka Djinten)
• 1 tbsp corianderseed (ground) (aka Ketoembar)

Seasoning:

• 4 bayleaves
• 1 bouillon tablet (10g)
• ~1 tbsp mustard (alternative: splash of vinegar)
• Splash of Japanese Soyasaus (alternative: Ketjap Asin)
• Leffe Brown / "Oud bruin" (either with or without alcohol)

Preparation:

• Season the minced meat with the spices. Makes sure its properly mixed so they do not burn when frying the meat.
• Dice the stew beef in cubes of approximately equal size (~2x2cm, but you can deviate depending on how chunky you want it to be)
• Dice the bell peppers in cubes.
• Dice the onions.
• Halve the leek and rinse the sand from it, and then cut it in slices.
• Halve the carrots and then chop them in 1cm wide halve moons.
• Mince or finely chop the garlic.

Main sauce:

• Put a large cooking pot (6L or bigger) on the stove, without turning on the heat. This will contain the finished sauce.
• Put a large frying pan on medium heat. Add a generous amount of (flavourless) oil.
• Wait until the oil starts to smoke slightly.
• Start adding the stew beef in small amounts, such that the pan does not cool too much between batches.
• Let it lie on one side for about 1 minute, without touching or moving them, such that they can properly brown on one side.
• Flip them over and let them lie for another minute.
• When finished, add the batch to the cooking pan, try to preserve as much oil as possible in the frying pan.
• Repeat this process untill all the stew beef is browned, adding oil whenever needed.
• The frying pan will now be coated with brown meat residu, we do not want to waste this, because it contains a lot of flavour.
• So add some more oil, and half of the onions, and fry them until they start to glaze over. This will let the residue stick to the onions.
• We then make room in the center of the pan and add the spiced minced meat, and flatten it like a huge hamburger.
• Wait 1 minute and using a spatula first "cut" the hamburger in slices, and then in cubes.
• Stir the onions and cubed minced meat and let fry for another minute, before adding it to the cooking pan.
• Add a bit more oil to the frying pan and add the remainder of the onions.
• Again fry until they start to glaze and add the garlic, stirring it through.
• Boil the 0.5L water in the meanwhile.
• Wait for another minute, and then add the tomato puree letting that simmer for 2 minutes, stirring regularly.
• Add the mixture to the cooking pan.
• Add the dark beer to the pan to deglaze it so that we get all of the flavour out of it.
• Let this simmer for a bit and add it to the cooking pan.
• Now add 2 of the cans of tomato-cubes, look at the consistency, it should become a sauce. If its too chunky, also add the third.
• Add the bay-leaves.
• Add the tablet of bouillon and enough of the boiling water such that all the ingredients are slightly under water.
• Smear the two slices of bread with mustard and add them on top, mustard side down.
• Put the pan on a low heat, such that it simmers slightly. Use a flame-spreader/simmer plate if nescessary.
• Let this sit until the stew meat is thoroughly cooked. For 2cm x 2cm cubes it usually takes about 2 hours.
• Make sure to stir regularly (about every 20 minutes) to prevent the sauce from sticking to the bottom of the pan.

Finishing touch:

• Drain the corn and beans and add them to the sauce.
• Let this simmer for another 30 minutes. This will release the starch from the beans and corn and thicken the sauce.
• When nearing the 30 minute mark, fire up the frying pan on medium heat and add some oil.
• When hot, add the carrots, fry them for about 2 minutes.
• Add the leek and fry for another minute.
• Add the bell peppers and fry for another minute.
• Add this mixture to the sauce, stir it through, and let it simmer for another 10 minutes.
• The sauce is now ready to serve.

Serve with:

The nice thing about this sauce is that it tastes great with just about anything:

• It is usually served with rice.
• Because it's somewhat similar to a bolognese sauce, it tastes great with pasta too.
• However, potatoes are also a good choice, either cooked, mashed or fried.
• Fries, if you like a "frietje stoof" with a twist.
• If you're in a hurry a few slices of bread or a baguette / some pistolets do just fine too.
• For a real comfortfood-feeling you could also just pick a bowl and enjoy it just as is.

• Large cooking pan (minimum 6L)
• Large frying pan
• (optional) foodprocessor to mince the garlic
• (preferably) simmer plate / flame-spreader

• I use a food processor to chop the garlic, because it's quite a bit to do by hand. You could use a garlic press, but I personally never use this, because it wastes quite a lot of garlic.
• I use barbeque tongs (with heat resistant plastic tips) to flip the stew beef, as well as to move it from the cooking to the frying pan.
• Regarding the spicyness / chili powder. I usually add 2 tablespoons to the minced meat, and then add more to taste after the sauce has simmered for a while. This way you can prevent it being over the top spicy.
• Using a flame-spreader/simmer plate not only helps regulating the temperature, but also helps against the sauce sticking to the bottom.