English - Burgundy Beef
(With apologies to Simon Bryant)
I first came across this wonderful recipe among the pages of Mapie, the Countess du Toulouse Lautrec's wonderful La Cuisine De France. But it is Simon Bryant's version that has made this a regular at our table, and it is his version I would like to share today.
If you have no Madeira in your kitchen, you may use brandy infused with orange rind, or orange juice instead. Tom and I also use a lot more zest than Simon's quantity, but we're mad for citrus, so I've put down the original quantity rather than the orange or so worth of zest that Tom and I get. Although I have written Simon's ingredients, I must admit that I have rarely had all the ingredients on hand when I have made this recipe. I used big Dutch Creams tonight rather than tiny new potatoes, we put carrots in it, I had no pickled onions so we omitted them, and we used porcini mushroom stock instead of beef stock, and we had no muslin, so we used a paper towel to strain it instead, but you know... it's a recipe, not a tax return.
You've got to make the best of what's on hand and fudge the bits in the middle. Although I have written the ingredients faithfully to Simon’s original, I have elaborated in the method, as the version on The Cook and The Chef website is quite open to mis-interpretation if you’re not au fey with the whole concept. Might I also add that I have never been bothered with straining the marinade properly prior to this evening, but Tom did it properly and the result was a massive change in the quality of the colour. It’s worth doing, but if you don’t do it, it will still be edible.The beef we have been using is topside roast. If you buy the roast, you can trim the fat, and cut it yourself, reading the grain of the beef to guide your slicing. I have found that this is a far better way to purchase your beef than buying it already diced. Speck is double smoked bacon. The best way to buy it for this recipe is to buy it in one half inch slice. That way you end up with juicy cubes of crispy bacon. Enjoy with a good glass of your favourite red wine and some buttered bread to mop up the gravy.
Ingredients
The Braise
1kg of Topside beef, cubed
120g streaky bacon
2 onions
4 sprigs of thyme
1 bunch of parsley
2 Bay Leaves
100ml of Madeira
250ml of red wine
500ml of beef stock
6 cloves of garlic
1/4 cup plain flour
80ml of olive oil
100g of butter
2cm square orange zest
Salt and pepper to taste
The Garnish
200g speck
2 cups baby button mushrooms
12 pickled onions
12 baby new potatoes
Method
1. Firstly, put aside at least 2 hours (but preferably an overnight) to marinate the beef. First, cut the beef into cubes and place it in a shallow wide bowl. Add the onions (cut into moon shaped segments), roughly cut herbs, and orange zest.
2. Once the beef has marinated, turn on the oven to 180ºC to pre-heat. Drain the wine from the marinating bowl into a pan and boil it. By boiling the marinade, the proteins and blood contained within it will congeal. You may then remove these by running the marinade through muslin. Discard the lumps and set aside the liquid. This will stop your braise from taking on a grey colour or lumpy texture.
3. Add oil and butter to a crock-pot (or heavy based saucepan with lid) and add the bacon, onion, before adding the garlic and herbs. Dust the beef in the flour and add to the pan to seal. Stir occasionally for 5 minutes until the beef is browned off. Deglaze the pan with Madeira.
4. Once you have browned the meat, add the red wine and boil down by half. Then add the stock to cover the meat. Put the lid on your crock-pot and pop it in your pre-heated oven for two of your Earth hours. Pull it out and stir every hour.
5. Whilst your braise is braising, boil your spuds in some salted water and set them aside once they are cooked through and soft.
6. Whilst your braise is braising and your spuds are boiling, cut your speck into 2cm cubes and fry it over a low heat in a little butter. Once the speck is lightly browned on all sides, add mushrooms and fry until they are also browned. Set these mushrooms, speck and spuds aside. Roughly cut a bit more parsley for garnish.
7. Once the two hours are up, stand the braise for 10 minutes or so to make sure that you don’t burn your mouth on the hot deliciousness. Slice and butter your bread, place the potatoes in the bottom of the bowl, place the braise over the potatoes, and then scatter the mushrooms, speck and parsley over the top. Serve with salt and pepper. Small children (and myself sometimes…) enjoy ketchup with this dinner.
Serves 4
