Wholly Cow! Deborah Krasner's Wine-Braised Beef Pot Roast

I bought a whole grass-fed steer.  As usual, it was from my friend Mary Pettis-Sarley (barngoddess@dishmail.net).  It was so big that when I checked the load specs for my Prius, I realized that I couldn't bring it home by myself unless I could teach the steer to drive.  Naturally, I was sharing the cow with Ondine and several other people.  Ondine has a big station wagon, so she drove and I navigated, and we both watched in amazement as the guy at Ibleto's cut and wrap facility in Cotati loaded over seven hundred pounds of beef into the back.  Phew.

Mary's beef is unusual in that she raises if for several years before it gets harvested; most animals don't stick around that long.  Then the flavor is really fully developed; really, really beefy.  Oh, and by the way, really, really BIG.  So, even with several friends sharing the wealth (and boy, were they happy when they picked up their shares!) there are a lot of white-paper wrapped packages in my freezer.  So far, everyone who has cooked some of their share has said the same thing - this is the best beef we've ever had in our lives.  That being the case, one really wants to use recipes that do it justice.

I swear by my Bruce Aidell's cookbook, The Complete Meat Cookbook, (which I lovingly refer to as the "big book of meat.")  It gives you a ton of information about beef, lamb, and pork, how to cook the different cuts, maps of the animals, cutting charts, all the different cut names you might run across.  I really think everyone who eats meat should have a copy.  But when I wound up with the pork belly, trotters and pig's head I've mentioned in my earlier post on scrapple, I wanted something on pastured animals and more recipes for the funky cuts, so I wound up buying Deborah Krasner's Good Meat.  I highly recommend that you buy her cookbook as well; it's full of good, creative recipes (bacon popcorn! e.g.)  Meanwhile, here is a taste of her wares: her recipe for wine-braised pot roast is one for the ages. 


Red Wine-Braised Pot Beef Roast with Porcini, Rosemary and Cloves

This is the essence of good home cooking, the food your children will remember you for, and any friend lucky enough to eat at your table will reminisce about this meal for years!  Have a coffee filter ready to strain the mushroom water, and plan to make polenta while the stew cooks.  Use a good red wine here; it doesn't need to be great - the flavors do come through.

Can't you just smell that?

Serves 6-8

1/2 oz dried porcini mushrooms
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 1/2 cups minced onions
2 TB pancetta or bacon
salt and freshly ground pepper
1 cup shredded carrots
6 bay leaves
6 whole cloves
2 sprigs rosemary
3-4 pounds grass-fed beef round or other pot roast cut
1 TB tomato paste
1 bottle (750 ml) good red wine
1 cup coarsely chopped drained canned plum tomatoes
6 cups beef or chicken stock

1.  Heat about 1 cup of water and soak the porcini in it until soft, about 1/2 hour.  Strain the soaking liquid through a paper coffee filter and reserve the liquid for later.  Dice the mushrooms and set them aside.

2.  In a large Dutch oven, heat the oil over low heat and sweat the onions and pancetta or bacon until golden, about 7 minutes.  Season lightly with salt and pepper, add the carrots, bay leaves, cloves and rosemary and stir.  When the carrots are wilted, remove the contents of the pot with a slotted spoon and set aside.

3.  Blot the meat, season with salt and pepper, and add it to the fat in the pot.  Over medium-high heat, brown the meat on all sides, about 15 minutes in all.  Reduce the heat, return the onion mixture to the pot, add the tomato paste, and stir well.  Add the wine and simmer over medium-low heat for 30 minutes, turning the meat occasionally.

4.  Add the tomatoes, porcini and their liquid, and about 5 cups of the stock, or just enough to reach close to the top of the meat.  Bring to a simmer and cook, covered (setting a piece of parchment paper just above the level of the food), until the meat is tender, about 2 1/2 hours.  Alternatively, you can start the meat on the stove top and and then place it in the oven at 350 degrees for 2 hours.) The meat should be pretty tender when done.

5.  Remove the meat from the pot and set it aside for the moment.  Pour the sauce through a sieve, pressing on the solids to extract all the goodness.

6.  Return the meat and strained sauce to the pot, and simmer slowly, uncovered, until the liquid is reduced by about a third and the meat is extremely tender, another 30-60 minutes.

7.  Rest the meat on a cutting board fro 15 minutes, then cut it crosswise and on an angle into 1/4 inch slices.  (An electric knife is great for this.)

8.  Arrange the meat on a serving platter on top of the polenta, and pour the sauce over it.

Notes from Christine:  I did not have a coffee filter to strain the mushrooms.  Oh well.  It was fine.  I followed her instructions to cook the vegetables first, rather than brown the beef first (which is how most recipes would have done it) and didn't see a compelling reason to do it that way.  Next time I will brown the meat first.

She also has you discard the stems of the porcini and only use the caps; I used the whole thing.

I followed her instruction to strain out the solids, which I hated to do.  After having dumped most of them into my none-too clean sink, I took a few bites of the remaining solids.  They were delicious, and I regretted throwing the rest away.  Next time, I will set them aside for a special treat for the cook.

And finally, while this sauce is unbelievably flavorful, I found it thin, even after all of the reductions.  I dissolved a few teaspoons of tapioca starch in some cold water and added the slurry to the pot to thicken the gravy.  Yum.