It's my strong recommendation that you use frozen pearl onions to make this dish. However if you decide to use fresh pearl onions and you don't want to spend a lot of time peeling them, there is a shortcut. The easiest and fastest way to peel pearl onions it to par boil them, put them in an ice bath and then the outer skin will peel off easily. Here are the steps to do that:
Find the end of the onion where the root is. Cut off the end of the onion where the root is. Don't cut off too much. Just enough to remove the end of the root.
Add the pearl onions to boiling water for 60-90 seconds. Remove the peal onions with a slotted spoon or mesh strainer and drop them into an ice bath so that they stop cooking. Once they are cooled off (2-3 mins), remove the pearl onions from the ice bath, drain well and peel off the outer layer of the onion by simply pulling on it. It should come off easily.
Prepare and measure all other ingredients.
Heat butter in a large stock pot over medium heat. Add finely chopped yellow onion and meat. Sauté until the meat is brown on all sides.
Sauté until the meat is brown on all sides. Add 1/4 cup of the red wine and simmer for 5 minutes. While meat is simmering, add 1 cup of hot water to the 10 ounces of crushed tomatoes and stir together well. Add the tomato mixture to the meat, onion, wine mixture and stir to incorporate. Cover and continue to simmer for 7-10 minutes.
Add the caramelized pearl onions, chopped garlic, chopped fresh parsley, brown sugar, ground cloves, bay leaves and cinnamon stick to the meat mixture. Add the remaining 3/4 cup of red wine and stir to incorporate all ingredients. Cover and simmer slowly for 2 hours, stirring occasionally so that the meat does not stick to the bottom of the pot.
Once the Stifatho is done, remove the bay leaves and cinnamon stick before serving. Serve with our Cretan Pilafi.