A Cook's Library

I have been using a new cut of meat; cheap, succulent and perfect for braising. Although it is summer (in theory, it’s poured with rain today and is cold enough for coats) I never tire of a bowl of fresh, seasonal vegetables, topped with a morsel of meltingly soft meat all in a pool of rich, lip-smacking stock or if you prefer, gravy!

At the local farmers’ market we have just welcomed Roundhurst Farm who supply exquisite organic beef, mutton and lamb.  I have bought a 400g pack of beef shin for about £2.75, a bargain. The shin is a neglected cut; it needs slow braising to bring out its full potential, but with enough fat to keep it tender and moist and incredible flavour this is a dish that once put in the oven looks after itself.

The beauty of slow-cooking cuts of meat is that you can do them over a long, or short period of time as it suits you. If you are energy-conscious apparently you can even cook this sort of thing in an insulated hay box cooker or traditional slow cooker – put it on before you leave for work, come home to delicious smells and supper. I don’t use either of these, but do often switch the oven off after a couple of hours and leave the stew to sit there continuing to cook in the diminishing heat. I also TRY to cook several things simultaneously, for example roasting vegetables at the same time, on the same long, low heat as a stew.

Aside from saving oven energy I like to save my energy too so I made this at the same time as making a Bolognese sauce and a tomato sauce. The tough parts and ends of the chopped onions went into the beef shin, the de-frosted chicken stock was split between stew and sauces, the tomato puree shared between Bolognese and tomato sauce. I only had huge onions so one was chopped and halved between sauces. And everything cooked together (in theory I could have done the Bolognese in the oven, maybe?) Then I have tomato sauce for pizza and any number of other things and plenty of Bolognese for the fridge and freezer so that my daughter, who eats little else by choice, is happy.

Although you might think of stew as a winter dish there is no reason not to eat this kind of thing in summer with seasonal vegetables. I’ve used new carrots, peas and cavolo nero, which now seems to make an appearance most of the year round at the market, slightly weirdly as I think of it as a winter veg but as I love it so much who cares! For the eagle-eyed the small finely-chopped white bits are more garlic – I like it so much I sometimes chop half a clove super fine and sprinkle it over a dish like this. Don’t stand too close the next day.

Braised Beef shin (serves 2)

400g beef shin

1 large carrot

1 large onion (any scrag ends will do)

2 bay leaves

olive oil

salt and pepper

600ml chicken stock

splash of wine if you have it

In a heavy-based pan warm a little oil. Sear the meat over a high heat then deglaze with the wine. Add the stock, salt and pepper and tuck the vegetables and bay leaves around.

Bring to the boil then place in a preheated oven at about 160ºc for around 2-3 hours. Turn the oven off after 2 hours and leave to cool in the oven and its juices. Alternatively cook in a slow cooker all day.

Once the meat is done, remove from the stock and put through a sieve, squashing down the vegetables.

Cook seasonal vegetables like carrots or baby onions in the stock. Peas and greens should be cooked separately and added before serving.

Adjust seasoning and serve with a glug of olive oil and some good bread.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 10th, 2010 at 7:24 pm and is filed under Meat. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.