One of my favorite birthday gifts is my new Staub Dutch Oven! I'd been wanting one since the weather starting getting cold, and I began dreaming of filling, comforting fall and winter stews, casseroles, etc. I decided I wanted to try out making some braised beef since I really don't work with larger cuts of beef at all (and just for context, when I say "larger", the biggest I've cooked are ribeye steaks with the cast iron).
Actually, to further elaborate on that, I really don't even make steak that often. I don't know if beef intimidates me, or if I'm worried about spending a lot of money on a piece of beef and then ruining it (speaking of cost intimidation, can we talk about scallops?!). In general, I work with thinly sliced flank for stir-fry or frozen ribeye sliced for sukiyaki/hot pot use.
So, with my limited knowledge on how to cook beef, I looked online for some inspiration on braising a piece of chuck roast. Some recipes kept it simple with just the meat and onions, and some were more involved with additional root veggies and spices - but everything said wine, which I'm down with. Side-note: I LOVE wine, but I really can't drink that much so it's always nice to have some leftover wine to incorporate into cooking.
But back to the braise. Here's what I did!
1. The Beef. First, I trimmed excess fat from my cut of chuck roast, then I cut it into large chunks. I mixed them with a blend of salt, cinnamon, garlic powder, black pepper, and allspice. Then, I browned them in the dutch oven (about 4 minutes per side). I removed the chunks and set them aside.
2. The Veggies. I think next time, I would like to add turnips or something (because VEGGIES), but this time I stuck with onions, minced garlic, and carrots. I chopped the onions into quarters and cut larger carrot segments. Think about what size veggies you want to be biting into when eating the dish. Cooked the onions and garlic for a couple of minutes, then added in about a cup of red wine, a 28 oz can of San Marzano tomatoes (the best), and the carrots.
3. Combine and Cook. Once that came to a boil, I brought the heat down low, stirred, and added the beef chunks back in. Brought the heat back up to bring it to a boil again, and then placed the lid on it to put in the oven for about 2 hours at 350 degrees F. I did 1.5 hours this time, and while the beef wasn't the most tender (I'm aiming to cut it with a fork, but this definitely required a knife), it was still tasty. But I'm definitely allocating enough time next time to cook for at least 2 hours.
So there you go! I served this with some mashed potatoes and asparagus for a perfectly wintry meal. And let me tell you -- this was an absolute huge meal. With only two other mouths to feed for this meal, you can imagine that we had so many leftovers. What was great, though, is that I could use the leftovers and create something new!
Basically, I cut the remaining pieces of beef into smaller pieces, and started cooking some veggies in a cast iron (spinach, peppers, onions, mushrooms). I fortuitously had some leftover basil pesto with no plans, so I threw that in along with the braised beef and sauce over the veggies.
Cracked some eggs, threw it in the oven for 12 minutes at 375 degrees, and bam! A very delicious shaksuka-inspired breakfast. It was great, and it tasted like a whole new dish! So I hope you are now as hyped about braised beef and dutch ovens as I am. What are some of your favorite things to make in your dutch oven?
Happy Eating! Until next time.
- HungryDeb
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