Slow cooked Italian beef pot roast ... on a bed of mashed potatoes in the Thermomix

Well dang! I thought I had posted the recipe for this dish since it's an old favorite but I hadn't. Of course, I only found out because a friend asked for the recipe and I said I had it post. My bad!

Last night was my early birthday dinner with a few friends from the neighbourhood. I had a gorgeous birthday cake made by a friend of mine who is also a professional pastry chef and cake maker. I'll write a post of the cakes she's done for us soon but if you need an excellent cake maker, you can find her here. Say Deanna sent you.

But I digress ... I wanted something slow cooked for the dinner since I had a guest who was 80 and well, tough food is not his friend.

I went through my repertoire of slow cooked meals and decided on this dish. I can't remember where I found the original recipe but I've been cooking it for ages.

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

• 1.8kg / 4lb brisket of beef
• 225g / 8oz small onions
• 3 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
• 2 celery sticks, trimmed and chopped
• 2 carrots peeled and sliced
• 1 can of diced tomatoes
• 1 small can of tomato paste
• 300ml red wine
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 300ml beef stock
• 2 tablespoons Italian herbs
• salt and pepper to taste
• 25g / 1oz butter
• 25g / 1oz plain flour
• freshly cooked vegetables to serve

Instructions:

• Place the beef in a bowl. Add onions, garlic, celery and carrots. Open and add tomatoes into bowl, along with red wine. Cover tightly and marinate in the refrigerator overnight.
• Lift the marinated beef from the bowl and pat dry with absorbent kitchen paper. Heat the olive oil in a large frying pay and cook the beef until browned all over, then remove and place in the cooking dish. Drain the vegetables, reserving marinade. Add the vegetables to the frying pan and fry gently for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until all the vegetables are browned. Place in the cooking dish.
• Blend the marinade, beef stock, tomato paste, herbs and seasoning together. Bring to the boil and then pour over the beef and cover the lid. 
• Switch the cooker to auto and cook for 3 hours, then switch to low and cook for 8 - 10 hours.
• Using a slotted spoon, transfer the beef and any large vegetables to a plate and leave in a warm place. Blend the butter and flour to form a paste. Pour the meat juices into a small saucepan and bring to the boil. Gradually stir in small spoonfuls of the butter and flour paste. Cook until thickened. Serve the beef with the sauce and a selection of freshly cooked vegetables.

For the oven:

• Using 4 pieces of casserole chuck steak instead.
• Turn the oven on to 120°C and cook for 5 hours. Check occasionally to make sure that the juices have not dried up.

For this dish, here's what I do differently:

• I used 4 large pieces of porterhouse steak instead of brisket. Sometimes I use casserole chuck steak. It doesn't matter as much the quality of the meat you use since the beef will be slow cooked for so long and will become very tender anyway.
• The first time I cooked this dish, I didn't read the instructions the day before and ended up not marinating the beef. That didn't seem to have made any difference and the dish was still full of flavor when done, so I have never marinated the beef. 
• I keep the vegetables all quite chunky since I like to have the vegetables still fairly intact and edible at the end of the cooking session.
• Sometimes I add tomatoes to the mix if I happen to have some tomatoes that need using up.
• Oh and in case I haven't mentioned it, I always slow cook in the oven.

I served the pot roast on a bed of mashed potatoes. For the mashed potatoes, I used my Thermomix mashed potato recipe. That always turns out perfectly.

This was a huge hit last night. I hope you enjoy it too if you make it.

If you do make this, be sure to post pictures for me to see either on Instagram - be sure to tag me with @langshipley or on my Daz In The Kitchen Facebook page.

© This work is copyrighted to Invest-Ex and Destiny's Fortunes Pty Ltd


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