One of the amazing things about being on this farm is the semmingly endless supply of humanely raised meat. And by humanely raised, i mean these are some of the best treated cows ever. They get as much grass as they want, are fed grain twice a day, and love to come up to people to be pet and scratched and then frolic away. And then we eat them. Kinda strange, but I try not to think about that too much. Right now they are just happily living their cow lives.
So anyways, we have a freezer full of home raised beef that we are allowed to use at our will, and tonight I decided to take advantage of that. Slow cooking meat makes it unbelievably tender, moist, and flavorful. It takes about 4 to 5 hours to be ready, but prep only takes a very small amount of that time. All you have to do is plan ahead a little. And then of course, making the sauce and side dishes takes some time, but not more than a regular dinner . The red wine sauce turned out delicious, but was very strong and overpowered the meat flavor, so try some meat without it too to see what you like best. I chose to make oven roasted potatoes and steamed chard, all home grown, to accompany my tasty cow :)
Ingredients serves 2
1 T-bone steak
Handful of fresh thyme
3-4 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 cup Red wine
2 tbs olive oil
Salt and pepper
-Defrost the meat if necessary. Poke lots of holes in it to let in the marinade, then rub in the thyme, garlic, salt, pepper, and olive oil. I try to push some of the garlic and thyme into the holes in the meat. Pour the wine on top and let sit for about an hour, more if possible.
-Preheat oven to 250 and put in the steak. According to Darina Allan, at 250 or below, the meat should be able to cook for a long time without deteriorating the proteins.
-Cook for 2-3 hours, and take out of the oven and eat!
Red Wine Reduction Sauce
1 large shallot, finely chopped
Marjoram
Mustard seeds
Pepper
2 cups red wine
1 tsp mustard
1 tsp sugar
Salt
1 tbs flour
Oil
-Sauté the onions, marjoram, mustard seeds, and pepper for a few min, then add the red wine and reduce until it is mostly evaporated.
-Add the mustard, sugar, and some salt. Add some flour if you want it thicker.
-When the meat is done, add a few tbs of the drippings. Mix together and Adjust salt and put on the meat when ready :)
The steak marinating in wine, oil, and herbs
Reducing the wine for the sauce. Smells so good :)
Adding some drippings to the sauce. This steak had lots of fat on the edges, so lots of drippings and the meat cooks nice and moist!
The amazingly cute, smiling, slug-shaped potato that we found :)
And the meal put together… Mmmm, so tasty and so richhhh
Till next time :)
-Celia