Tag Archives: beef

Beef Daube Provençal

Beef Daube Provençal is basically a fancy way of saying a rustic beef stew served over noodles. The above shot is shown served with the Gorgonzola Asparagus Slice (recipe here) – please see note at the bottom of the recipe. It’s one of the more complicated recipes I’ve chosen to share, but the flavours are indescribably yummy!

2 1/2 lbs beef chuck, sliced thin, then into cube sized pieces and patted dry with paper towels
2 to 2 1/2 lbs beef short ribs
2 medium onions, thinly sliced
2 carrots, peeled and diced
6 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp dried thyme leaves
2 bay leaves
4 whole cloves
1/2 tsp cracked black peppercorns
1 750 mL bottle Shiraz, or any medium (not too sweet/not too dry) red wine
4 slices thick cut pepper bacon
Kosher salt
2 tbsp tomato paste

The day before:
In large bowl with a tight fitting lid, combine all ingredients except bacon, salt, and tomato paste. Toss to combine, then cover and refrigerate overnight or for up to 2 days.

The day of:

Drain, reserving vegetables, meat and liquid separately.

Preheat oven to 300F.

In medium skillet, cook pepper bacon over medium-high heat until crisp. Drain thoroughly, crumble and reserve. Remove all but 2 tbsp of fat in the pan.

Reduce heat to medium. Remove whole cloves from reserved vegetables, discard, and add vegetables to pan and cook, stirring until softened, about 8 minutes. Transfer to a 5 quart baking dish. Increase heat to medium-high and brown meat in batches on both sides, about 5 minutes per batch.

As each batch is completed, transfer meat to the baking dish. Sprinkle bacon crumbles and salt over each layer as completed. Once you’ve finished with the meat, add tomato paste and reserved liquid to skillet and heat, just to the boiling point, scraping to release any fond (fond is French for “base” and commonly refers to the browned bits and caramelized drippings of meat and vegetables that are stuck to the bottom of a pan after sautéing or roasting) which have adhered to the pan. Pour over the contents of the baking dish. Cover tightly with aluminum foil and bake for 2 to 2 1/2 hours, or until tender.

Remove bay leaves and discard. Serve over hot noodles.

Serves 8, quite generously.

N.B.: The photograph shows it with the Gorgonzola Asparagus Bake, which is a meal in its own right. If you choose to serve these two together, it can easily serve 12-16 individuals, with some leftovers remaining!

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Bourbon Street Chuck Roast

Marinated and slow cooked to perfection. It’ll keep them coming back for more!

1 1/2 cups water
2/3 cup reduced sodium soy sauce
1/2 cup good bourbon
1/4 cup brown sugar (packed)
3 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2 tbsp lemon juice
4-5 pound beef chuck post roast

For the marinade, stir together all ingredients except for the beef. Transfer marinade to zip type bag. Trim fat from beef, then add the beef to the marinade. Seal bag and turn bag to completely coat. Refrigerate up to 24 hours, turning bag several times to redistribute the marinade.

Place beef roast and marinade in slow cooker and cook, on high, for 4 hours.

(Option: grill 1 1/4 hours on low for rare, 1 1/4 to 1 3/4 hours on low for medium, 1 3/4 to 2 hours for well done)

Take some of the marinade and bring to a boil. Thicken with corn starch to make a gravy.

Let roast stand 15 minutes before slicing.

Serves 5-6.

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Holiday Prime Rib

Sorry for the lateness of this recipe — we celebrated the Christmas Holiday with it, along with stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans, cranberry congeal, and of course, horseradish.

(Must remember to NOT use the small plates when dishing this up, next time!!!)

5 pounds prime rib roast (see note)
1/4 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
3 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
4 large cloves of garlic, minced
2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
kosher salt

Place rib roast on a plate and allow to come to room temperature, approximately 4-4.5 hours.
Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F.
Combine butter, pepper, garlic, and Italian seasoning in a small bowl. Spread butter mixture evenly over entire roast (top, bottom, and both sides). Season roast generously with kosher salt. It shouldn’t have a salt crust, but it should have enough for flavour. (As a variation, you can slice your garlic cloves into thin slices and, using the sharp point of a knife, insert them randomly over your roast’s top side — then using the butter, pepper, and Italian seasoning (omitting the minced garlic) to coat the roast.) Place roast in a roasting pan and cover with the lid.
Place the covered roasting pan in the preheated oven for 25 minutes. Turn the oven off. Leave the roast in the pan, in the oven with the door closed, let the roast sit in the oven for 2 hours. Remove roast from the oven, slice, and serve.

To calculate the roast’s cooking time, multiply the exact weight of the roast by 5, and then round the resulting number to the nearest whole number.  Roast the prime rib at 500 degrees F for that precise amount of time (i.e., 6.5 pounds would be 6.5×5=32.5, so you’d roast for 33 minutes).  Remember to not open the oven door during the two hour cool down of the oven. In the event you have a convection oven that has a fan to automatically cool down the oven after you turn it off, you’ll either need to disable that function, or unplug your oven so that the cool down occurs naturally, unassisted by the fan.

One further note: Because of the fat content of the roast, and the additional fat provided by the butter coating, it is very important to have proper ventilation in your kitchen. Otherwise, your smoke detectors WILL go off, and you may be visited by your local Fire Department.

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False Alarm Chili

Late work day? This “False Alarm Chili” is just the thing to set the night in motion…and take the stress off of you! (N.B. For an alternate chili that uses the traditional kidney beans, see the post for Chili Con Carne.) I call it “False Alarm Chili” because you get all the flavour, and none of the heat!

2 large cans crushed tomatoes
1 small can tomato paste
1 large can tomato puree
3 tbsp minced garlic
3 cans of black beans (drained and rinsed)
2 large onions, minced (separated)
1 tbsp oil
2 lbs 93% lean ground beef
5 tbsp chili powder
1 tbsp ground cumin

In a large pot, mix all the canned tomato products, garlic, black beans, and 1 1/2 of the minced onions. Bring to a boil, then back the heat off and reduce to a simmer. Cover, and stir occasionally.

In a large skillet, heat oil until it shimmers. Add the reserved 1/2 minced onion and sauté until translucent but not browned. Add the ground beef and break up any large pieces. Sprinkle over chili powder and cumin, and cook until no longer pink.  (Using beef this lean means you will not have to drain it, and therefore not waste your spices as they would normally drain off in the fat!)

Add the spiced meat and onion mixture to the larger pot. Stirring occasionally, allow to simmer for 15-20 minutes.

This recipe can also be made the night before, stashed in the fridge, and reheated the next day to allow the flavours to commune.

(The honesty in me comes out when I have to share that I actually took the last harvest of the season in fresh tomatoes and used it in place of the 2 cans of crushed tomatoes. Cored and peeled, I cooked them down and made my own red sauce which can be used for pizzas, pastas, or in this case, chili!)

I can’t give a serving, because whenever I serve this, people always want seconds (and thirds!) Serve with grated cheese, sour cream, chopped scallions, and black olives as toppers. Oh, and regular saltines (or even oyster crackers) are a welcome accompaniment as well.

(And there’s nothing wrong if you want to have your favourite frosty malt beverage along with, just please remember to enjoy such things responsibly.)

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Red Wine Beef Stew

Red Wine Beef Stew

2 lbs of beef roast (such as London Broil) cut into 1″ cubes
1 lb carrots, cut into coins
1 lb fingerlings (new potatoes), or potatoes cut into a 1″ to 1.5″ cube
2 medium (or 1 large) onion, finely diced
2 large garlic cloves (or more), minced
1 750ml bottle of good red wine*
1 tsp each of rubbed sage, oregano, and thyme
2 bay leaves
1 quart of fresh water**
cornstarch

In a large pan, brown the cubes of beef (they’re not to be cooked through). If you have too many for the pan, do them in stages as you’ll want them to brown, not steam. After all have been browned, return to the pan, and add onions, garlic, sage, oregano, thyme, water, bay leaves and wine. Bring to a simmer, covered, and cook for 1.5 to 2 hours, making the beef tender. After 1 hour, add your potatoes. 30 minutes later, add  your carrot coins.

Combine cornstarch with cold water and stir to combine. How much you’ll need to use depends on (1) the volume of liquid you have in your stew and (2) the thickness you wish for it to be. Remove the bay leaves, then add the cornstarch/water mixture to the pot and stir to combine. Increase the heat to high and bring to a boil. Boil for 2 minutes to cook the starch thoroughly.

Ladle into bowls, season with salt and pepper to taste and serve alongside fresh Rustic Herb Bread.

* It can be jug wine, but be sure it’s the kind you would drink. As it cooks down, the flavour intensifies, and if it’s bad tasting wine, that too will intensify.

** Yes, “Fresh” Water. Water that has been placed through a filter and let sit on the counter is not “fresh.” Bottled water is not fresh. If you do not wish to use tap water, run it back through your filtration system again. Water loses oxygen as it sits, and there is a difference in the way it cooks.

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Building The “Perfect” Burger

24 ounces ground sirlon or turkey or chicken, divided
4 seeded rolls
shredded lettuce
sliced tomatoes
8 strips of turkey bacon, cooked, drained
4 slices of cheese (American or Cheddar)
pickle relish (dill or sweet)
mustard, ketchup, mayonnaise

Divide ground meat into four 6-ounce patties. Grill over medium heat until cooked to your preference. Spritz each cut side of the bun with olive oil and place, oil side down, on the grill until toasted. Build your burger: Bun, burger, cheese, lettuce, tomato, pickle relish, lettuce, condiments.

Serve with oven roasted frites.

Makes 4 burgers.

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