When it’s pouring with rain and freezing cold, what is better than a slow roasted meat in the oven? Absolutely nothing piglets, apart from maybe takeaway Indian bought to your bedside whilst your animals snooze quietly next to you. This dish is one of those, rub it with delicious things, pop it in the oven and don’t look back for 4 hours kind of dish. Literally! The most beautiful thing about this dish, apart from the fact you don’t do anything with it for four hours is that when you do finally pull it from the oven, you merely poke it with 2 forks and the whole thing falls apart in shreds. It’s like nothing ever seen before and really must be experienced on a Winter’s evening to be believed.
So, roll up your cashmere sweater and give this a go, you will be delighted with the results. Serving recommendations: garlicky mash and lemon broccolini. Keep it simple and keep it fabulous. Oink.
Balsamic and Garlic Slow Roasted Beef
Feeds: 4 Hungry Piglets
Prep Time: 5 Mins. Cooking Time: 4-5 Hours – completely unsupervised i.e. This Little Pig went to the market all day and it was perfect upon return.
Ingredients of Slow Roasted Marvellousness:
1.3 x Kg Beef (chuck or blade) – a little bit of fat left on is quite nice as it renders beautifully
4 x Garlic Cloves
¼ x Cup Balsamic Glaze (This Little Pig used a sticky balsamic glaze from Margaret River)
½ x Tbs Sumac
½ x Tbs Paprika
2 x Tbs Olive Oil
2 x Tbs Soy Sauce
1 x Beef Stock Cube (+ 1 cup of boiling water)
½ x Tsp Chilli Flakes
1 x Tbs Honey (This Little Pig used local "Honey I'm Home": Rosemary and Garlic Honey)
4 x Rosemary Sprigs
½ x Cup Red Wine (for creating a marvellous red wine jus to serve it with
For serving: mashed potato and lemon broccolini (which you can find in this recipe HERE).
Method of Slow Roasted Marvellousness:
- Preheat the oven to 150 degrees.
- Boil at least 1 cup of water in your kettle.
- Skin and roughly dice your garlic cloves.
- Pull all the leaves off 2 of your rosemary stems.
- Find yourself a heavy based pot that has a lid and is oven friendly (waves hello as it nears oven).
- Now place your beautiful beef in the pot and proceed to lavish it with all the above ingredients except for the red wine & the beef stock cube. These ingredients would be the diced garlic, balsamic glaze (1/4 cup), sumac, paprika (½ Tbs), olive oil, soy sauce (2 Tbs), chilli flakes (½ Tsp), honey (1 Tbs), and your 2 sprigs worth of leaves of rosemary.
- Now place underneath your beef the 2 extra sprigs of rosemary and pop your beef on top.
- Crumble your beef stock cube around the beef (not on it) and then pour one cup of boiling water around your beef (not on it as it will wash off all the goodness you just rubbed in).
- Now pop the lid on, pop him in the oven and walk away piglet. You can check him at the 4-hour mark and see how he is looking. His outside will be a little crispy and there should still be juice in the bottom of the pan still and when you poke him, he should threaten (in a non-violent way) to fall apart beneath your fingers.
- Once he is ready, pull him out of the pot (reserving the pot and the juices) and use two forks to shred him into amazingness.
- Pour your ¼-½ cup of red wine into the beef pot and put on a low heat to bubble and pick up all the lovely juices and mix together ready for your jus – cook for a little while to reduce the sauce. You can either pour the jus over your shredded beef just before serving or mix your beef back into the pot to warm up and soak up all those lovely flavours.
- Now serve out your mashed potato and top with your glorious beef, pop a side of lemon brocollini down next to it and sit down triumphant, completely un-sweaty and unfazed and totally impressed with yourself. Oink. PS. Please note: also makes amazing beef and gravy rolls with a touch of fresh horseradish. Wow!
