The Scouse is a slow cooked stew from Liverpool, consisting primarily beef but sometimes lamb, with potatoes, carrots, and onion, served with pickled red cabbage or beetroot.
Toss the short ribs in a light dusting of flour, salt, and pepper. Sear off all sides of the short ribs in a large pot, then set aside.Â
Add the onion and leek into the pot, and scrape up everything from the bottom. Add a splash of stock to deglaze if needed. Once everything’s starting to soften, add tomato puree and flour, and cook for another two minutes.Â
Add the browned short ribs back in. Top up with stock, season with sugar, worcestershire sauce, a bay leaf, salt, and pepper. Bring to a boil, cover, then into the oven at 150 C for an hour.Â
After an hour, add the diced carrot and remaining potatoes. Return to the oven for another 1-2 hours or until the short rib meat is super soft.Â
Remove the short ribs from the sauce, place in a bowl and shred. Remove any whole potatoes and carrots too - you should be left with a rich brown, fairly smooth, sauce.Â
If the sauce is looking kind of thin, reduce it over the hob until it’s fairly thick.
Stretch out the pizza dough, then spread a light amount of the rich beef scouse sauce, and a sprinkle of cheese. Dot around a few softened carrots and potatoes, and followed by the pulled short rib. Into the oven for a few minutes until the dough has puffed and cooked through.Â
Finish with some pickled red cabbage and some chives, and slice up!