Warm Up with a Hearty Dinner

Time for a cold weather recipe to warm you. Below is another favorite of Studs. Your family is sure to love it, too. Don’t worry about alcohol content. It cooks away, leaving behind a rich taste to enhance the meat.

Beef Braised in Stock & Red Wine
Egg Noodles
Fresh Hard Rolls or a loaf of French bread from your local bakery and you won’t need butter
Red wine – Merlot or Cabernet Sauvignon

Beef Braised in Stock & Red Wine
1 tsp. garlic pressed
¼ tsp. freshly ground pepper
1 tsp. dried oregano
¼ cup coarsely chopped carrots
8-10 half-inch pieces of bacon
¼ cup coarsely chopped celery
3 pounds English Cut Roast or Rump Roast
½ cup dry red wine
3 tbsp. butter
2 cup beef stock
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 ½ cup drained canned tomatoes, chopped
½ cup coarsely chopped onions
1 bay leaf

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Mix the garlic, oregano, pepper, and bacon together. Make deep incisions in the beef and insert the bacon.

In a heavy 10-12 inch skillet melt 1 tbsp. butter with the olive oil over moderate heat and brown the beef evenly.

Melt the remaining butter over moderate heat in a Dutch oven. Combine the onions, carrots, and celery on a cutting board and chop them together until fine. Stir this mixture into the butter in the Dutch oven, stir frequently, for 10 minutes or until it’s soft and lightly colored. Place the browned beef on top.

Discard most of the fat from the skillet, pour in the wine and boil it briskly over high heat, stirring and scraping in the browned fragments. When the wine’s reduced to about ¼ cup, add it to the Dutch oven with the beef stock, chopped tomatoes, and bay leaf. The liquid should come about a third of the way up the side of the beef. Add more stock if necessary. Bring it to a boil over high heat, cover tightly, and braise in the middle of the oven for 2 hours or until tender when pierced with the tip of a sharp knife.

Next, and this is really important, pour yourself a glass of the red wine, grab a good book, and read for the duration of the cooking time.

To serve, transfer the meat to a cutting board, tent with foil, and let rest for at least 10 minutes.
Strain the sauce through a fine sieve into a serving bowl, pressing hard on the vegetable to extract all their juice. Skim off as much fat as possible. Slice the meat and arrange so the slices are overlapping. Moisten the slices with a little of the sauce and enjoy.

Your stove and countertop will be a mess from boiling down the wine. No problem! Grab the glass cleaner. A few sprays and it wipes right up.

Don’t worry about the quantity if you and your favorite partner are the only ones at the dinner table. Slice off just the amount of roast you think you’ll eat, and freeze the rest. It’s great for those days when you’re too busy to bother with more work.

Egg Noodles
Fill a large pot with water and follow the package directions to cook. If the noodles are done before the Stroganoff, drain them in a colander and set the pot or lid on top of the noodles to keep them warm.

REMEMBER: all noodles/pasta can easily be re-warmed by running hot water over them before serving.

To serve, scoop egg noodles onto dinner plates, then lay slices of meat alongside. Top with a hearty serving of sauce.

Bon Appétit!

Sloane Taylor
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