FoodB

Almost caught up. Jenn noted that on Wednesday this little site will be a year old. Pretty impressive for a guy that gets distracted easily.

Jenn now has a method to creating new menus for the week. She will find three new recipes, including one soup recipe, and then fall back on three things that we have already made. I have a little input, which is probably for the best. If I have my heart set on something she will go ahead and make it, but if I have to fill up meals for a whole week I usually end up just finding stuff to fill open days. Those filler recipes usually end up being pretty bad and then we get into a funk. It's probably best that Jenn picks the meals out as well just because it's a lot easier to get geeked up for something that you decided on.

That in mind, Jenn found this Emeril recipe last week:

Beef Braised in Barolo

1/4 cup olive oil
1 (3-pound) boneless beef chuck roast, patted dry
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup chopped pancetta or bacon
2 cups chopped yellow onions
1 cup chopped carrots
1 cup chopped celery
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 1/2 bottles Barolo, or other dry Piedmont red wine, such as Dolcetto or Barbera
2 to 4 cups beef stock
4 whole cloves
2 sprigs rosemary
2 bay leaves
1 cinnamon stick
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley, for garnish

1. In a large Dutch oven, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Sprinkle beef with salt and pepper. Add the beef and cook, turning, to brown on all sides. Remove from the pan. To the fat in the pan, add the pancetta and cook until browned, about 3 minutes. Add the onions, carrots, and celery and cook until caramelized, about 10 minutes. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Return the beef to the pan and add the wine, 2 cups of the stock, whole cloves, rosemary, bay leaves and cinnamon stick. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until the meat is tender, 2 1/2 to 3 hours, occasionally turning the meat and skimming any foam that forms on the surface. Add the remaining 2 cups of stock, as needed, to keep the meat covered with liquid.
2. Remove the meat from the pan and tent with foil to keep warm.
3. Strain the sauce into a saucepan and place over high heat. Cook until the sauce is reduced to a consistency thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, about 10 minutes. Adjust the seasoning to taste.
4. Thinly slice the beef across the grain into 1/4-inch thick slices. Serve the beef ladled with the sauce. Garnish with parsley and serve.

Good stuff. We are not wine people so we have no idea what Barolo is so we just used the wine that we had on hand for cooking. The meat itself was very tender and even though we brought knives to eat with, they remained clean for the night. Unfortunately we are going on a diet next week and this meal is not the most healthy of dishes, so it may be awhile before we revisit this one.