Peter Brettell’s (Wild Rocket @ Misty’s in Montville Head Chef and passionate local beef supporter) shared his braised beef recipe with me some time ago. It is delicious! With the cold weather it is a true ‘nose to tail’ winter warmer. If you are not familiar with the ‘nose to tail’ concept – it is the art of using the lesser known cuts meats – no waste! With many Sunshine Coast beef producers selling direct to the public, this is a great recipe for using some of those less premium cuts – this one uses beef shin, but you could use some of the other less prime cuts as well. Visit Local Harvest – The Sunshine Coast + Surrounds Food Directory for beef producers on the Sunshine Coast.
Ingredients:
1kg Beef shin
2 onions quartered
½ bulb garlic halved
2 carrots, cut into large chunks
2 celery stalks, cut roughly
½ leek, cut into large chunks
4 sprigs of thyme
2 bay leaves
2 litres of good beef or chicken stock
500ml red wine
For the dish:
12 whole small bite size shallots/pickling onions
1 table spoon baby Lilliput capers
300 gr pearly barley
500 ml chicken stock
¼ bunch flat parsley, finely shredded
Steamed greens
First Braise the beef, this must be done the day before or first thing in the morning as you need to let the meat cool after cooking to process
Season the thick pieces of shin with salt and pepper (no need to cut into pieces just yet).
In a hot thick based frying pan add some vegetable oil and sear the pieces of beef until deep golden brown. When all the meat has been seared off, ad a splash of wine to clean the pan and get all the juicy bits from the pan. Empty the juice into a bowl and set aside.
Using a thick based pan, fry off, on a high heat all the remaining vegetables until golden brown and soft then add the rest of the wine, the stock and the juices from the pan. Bring to a boil and remove from the heat.
Place all seared meat into a casserole dish and cover with the hot vegetable liquid, cover and cook in a pre-heated oven at 130°C. Cook for approximately 4-5 hours. Keep checking until the meat is tender. When cooked, remove meat from the dish and allow to cool.
Once cool you can pick through the meat by hand to remove and excess fat and sinue, leaving only the succulent meat.
Pass the rest of the braising liquid through a fine sieve into a deep pan and bring to the boil, reduce the liquid to ¼. If it isn’t a nice sauce consistency, you can thicken it with a little cornflour or arrowroot. But if you have a good beef stock this is not necessary.
Whilst your meat is cooling:
For the Pearly Barley place the dry barley in a pan and cover with the chicken stock, bring to the boil and simmer for 15-20 mins or until tender (it will still have a slight bite to it). Remove from the heat strain off any excess liquid and set aside for later.
Peel the shallots keeping them whole. Place into a pan with boiling water and boil for 10 mins, remove from the water and place into a hot frying pan with a knob of butter, brown the shallots and then cook in a moderate oven for 15 mins until soft. Remove and set aside until later
When you are ready to serve the dish, place the meat into the sauce with the shallots and the pearl barley, simmer for 10 mins. Finish by stirring a knob of butter, the parsley and the capers into the sauce, being careful not to break the soft meat. Season with salt and pepper and serve in a deep bowl with your favourite steamed greens.
Serves 4
Recipe by Peter Brettell’s – Wild Rocket @ Misty’s
To find our more about Sunshine Coast based beef producers that sell direct to the public, visit:
http://www.sunshinecoastregionalfood.com.au/directory/meat-poultry/
