Maidmarion Cottage Recipes No. 1
Lazy Farmgirl’s Beef Brasato
I like to get started with this slow-cooker recipe sometime before noon. (However, the closer you get to lunch the better you’ll feel about having a glass of the wine while you’re cooking.)
But if your mornings are busy, just prepare the pot the night before, refrigerate, and then pop in the cooker in the morning. Brasato means “braised” in Italian, and basically involves food cooked for long low-temp periods in some sort of liquid. Our liquid for this recipe will be a lovely robust red wine and tomato broth enriched with winter storage vegetables. Day two, should there be any left, is wonderful over noodles. If you don’t use a slow cooker, a Dutch Oven will work. Just cut the cooking time by about half.
4 medium yellow onions, cut in eighths
4 large parsnips, peeled and cut in 1 ½ in pieces
Medium rutabaga, peeled and cut in 1 ½ in pieces
6 carrots, peeled and cut in 1 ½ in pieces
1 8 oz can diced tomatoes
1 oz can tomato sauce
1 cup sturdy red wine, like Desolation Flats Rustler’s Red (I tried it for the name and loved it!)
3 to 4 lb beef chuck pot roast
Worcestersire sauce
Thyme
Parsley
Coarse Salt and Pepper
Really, a pot roast should be browned in a skillet before braising, but the dish tastes almost as good without. I often skip it, but it’s up to you. Assemble all veggies in the crock, sprinkle salt and pepper overall. Shake about 1 tablespoon of Worcestershire over veggies, add tomatoes and sauce and enough water to rinse cans out, about 1 ½ cups. Sprinkle a teaspoon or so of thyme and of parsley on the veggies, and lay your roast on top. Pour the red wine and a little more Worcestershire over the beef, and then sprinkle liberally with salt and freshly ground pepper.
Cook for four or so hours, then check to see if the meat is as tender as you like. When it is, gently pull the roast out onto a plate and cut lengthwise into neat ½ in strips, discarding bone and any large sections of fat. Arrange slices on a serving plate with lots of room around the borders. Lift veggies from the pot and lay around the outside of the meat. If the sauce seems thin, turn the crockpot on high and reduce the leftover liquid to a glaze. If you don’t have a high setting, just transfer the juices to a skillet on the stove and simmer gently until slightly thickened. Taste and add seasonings, if desired, then pour glaze over meat and vegetables. Serves six.
Yum! I like to serve this with crusty rolls or bread, rice-stuffed hard squash and more red wine. A few chocolate-dipped hazelnut biscotti for dessert?
Julie Drigot said,
April 18, 2007 @ 6:00 am
Kriss,
A cannot wait to try this recipe! As soon as I unpack my boxes that I’m living in a sea of. I am just tickled by the great resources you have on your website. I really, really, really want to have a bottle fed lamb. In three years after I graduate my class I want to turn my little farm into a place where the Tamarack children can come to pick pumpkins, tend chickens, sheep and garden. You are such an inspiration to me. Can’t wait to see you again! Dale just woke up and he came in and wanted to know why I was sitting here giggling.
Julie
Kriss said,
April 18, 2007 @ 12:12 pm
So will you finish out your class? How far will you be from the school?
Most farmers with any amount of sheep will have a few bottle babies every year. This is actually our first year with a bottled sheep that was born here, although the first animals we bought were bottle goats and sheep from a neighbor. You sometimes end up with a weaker animal, but a much friendlier one. More on that later!
Julie Drigot said,
April 20, 2007 @ 7:02 am
Kriss,
I am planning to finish my class. They are passing me up quickly in almost every endeavor, which is what I’ve worked for with them. As long as they want me to be their teacher we’ll be together from now until 8th grade. (6 semesters) Yes I am planning to drive sometimes the hour distance. I have the thought that I will possibly stay in town from Monday night until I drive home on Friday afternoon. I am looking for a nice room or even a little cell to live in on the four nights I’m there. I’m checking with the local churches to see if there isn’t an elderly soul who could use my company in the evenings. I also have the vision of having my class of 12 children out to my house for one week out of every month. We have plenty of room and the class could have school until about noon then we could have lunch, do a few farm chores then explore the Kettle moraine. I’m hopeful that we can have some real interesting experiences. We need to tear down some buildings and put up some new one. I have a building out there that is three sided and I can see that straw and hay was in there. It might be a nice place for my sheep and maremma dog can gather. I have so much to learn!!!!!
Kriss said,
April 20, 2007 @ 8:03 am
Fabulous! Way to make life work!