Braised Beef Recipe

Braised Shin Of Beef, Creamed Mashed Potato, Rich Red Wine Sauce

Prime cuts of meat are very interesting as obviously there is a lot more work involved.  I try and use these cuts regularly in the restaurant as generally there is more flavour in your dish as you are sometimes cooking for roughly 3 to 4 hours.

SERVES  6 - 8

COOKING TIME  4 hours

1 X Shin Of Beef                                       10 X  Maris Piper

250g Butter                                              ½ Double Cream

300g Green Beans                                     6 X Carrots

150g Shitake Mushrooms                           1 Litre Red Wine

2 Litre Of Beef Stock     

Method

Firstly reduce the red wine, put into a pot and boil until only 1/3 is left in the pot, then put to one side.

Starting with the shin, take off the excess fat and sinew then season with salt and pepper.  Using a hot tray put in the beef, colour really well getting a really dark brown colour all over.  When you have achieved that, take out the beef, add the roughly chopped onions, carrot and garlic (mirepoix) into the pot and colour off the vegetables really well, add the beef back into the pot, add back in the reduced red wine, and bring back to the boil then add the beef stock to cover the meat. Put in the thyme leaves around the beef in the pot.  Put tin foil over the beef and place in the oven at 180oc for about 3-4 hours.  Simmer slowly and turn the beef over  every 30 minutes or so.

When the meat is in the oven you can prepare the vegetables such as the shitake mushrooms.  Take off the stalks of the mushrooms, wash them and then cut them into quarters, season and then fry lightly.

Moving onto the green beans, top and tail them, cook in salted boiling water for 5 - 6 minutes, have a bowl of iced salted water and once the green beans have cooked put them into the bowl to refresh.  Once the beans are cold drain them - don’t leave in water.

Peel and cut the carrots into even batons, cooking the same way as the green beans ( with a bowl of iced salty water to refresh)

Making the mashed potato.  Peel and wash the maris piper potatoes, cut in half and boil until cooked.  Drain the water and crush the potatoes down, or alternatively pass the potatoes through a sieve.  Slowly add the double cream, season to your own taste and of course how creamy you like you spuds!!    

When the beef is cooked, lift out the shin then pass the sauce through a sieve into the pot and return to the stove and reduce the sauce until you get the consistency you want to serve with the meat.  Place the meat into an earthenware dish.

If serving up for a dinner party I would put your beef into an earthenware dish with all the garnish drizzled over it as well as the sauce and then serve from the table.