On Saturday, my boyfriend and I bought a bottle of Australian Pinot Noir from one of the local wine shops. It sounded like it would be tasty, it smelled wonderful when we opened it and it was completely disappointing when we tasted it. It tasted kind of like boring* (at least compared to the smell).
This means I have about 2/3 of a bottle left, and I figured it’d be decent for cooking. My boyfriend suggested I braise a hunk of beef in it, and I’ve always liked other people’s braised meat, so I agreed that’d be a good idea. But I’ve never braised anything, so I don’t know how.
Anyway, so I thought I’d ask all the great cooks here for some suggestions. I’ve thawed 2.02 lbs of chuck roast, I’ve got onions, garlic and beef and chicken broths. I’ve probably got most, but not all, pantry staples.
So, I’d love any suggestions people might have on how to use this wine for cooking, but so my food doesn’t taste like boring (or at least terribly disappointing).
Oh, and I’m home all day (though working on homework), so this doesn’t have to be something I throw together at the end of the day, but it can’t take all my time all day either.
*Yes, it tasted like boring. It wasn’t exactly boring, just completely underwhelming compared to the smell.
Braising: heat a small amount of oil in a heavy skillet or pot to about medium-high heat. Salt the meat and sear on all sides (you’re not trying to cook it through, just brown it good, edges too). Remove the meat from the pan. Add whatever veggies you need to saute (at reduced heat), and add the liquid you’re going to use. Return the meat to the pan and cook in the liquid until the meat falls apart. Braising is meat cooking’s miracle.
You could turn this into a good soup with onions, tomatoes, garlic, peppers and wine.
When you return the meat to the pan, cover it well, and turn the heat down to low.
At the very end of the cooking, if you want to reduce down the sauce a bit, uncover the pan (you might want to remove the meat if it’s very well done), raise the heat to medium or medium-high, and let the wine-meat juice goodness bubble away for a while until it’s reduced to the consistency you want. Pour the sauce over the meat when you serve it.
Navy bean soup is soup made with navy beans, which are a kind of small white bean. You can make soup with them using any white bean soup recipe. That said, IMHO, a big braised meat dish is probably hearty enough on its own without a big hearty soup to go with it. If you braise the meat with a bunch of vegetables (I’d definitely put in onions, carrots, celery, and cloves of garlic, but you can run with whatever you like that you think will hold up to a long cooking time), you’ve got a built-in side dish right there, and I think that the meat, veggies, and a light salad would make for a lovely dinner.
That’s what the crockpot is for. It’s excellent for braising, which is basically nothing more than cooking at very low temperatures for a long time, which is precisely what a crockpot does.
To adapt that recipe to a crockpot, where it says to set the meat aside, place it in your crockpot. Then when you get to this part:
Add that to the meat in the crockpot instead of the pan. Toss in all the rest of your ingredients and set to low and cook for 6 or so hours, or high for 4 or 5 hours. Just don’t open and stir as the linked recipe calls for. Using a crockpot negates the need to stir, and doing so will reduce the heat to the point where you’ll need to add at least another 30 minutes to the cook time to make up for the heat loss.
Chefguy pretty much has that part of it. Other than that I get a pound of white beans and soak them over night in water. Then rinse and add water to about 1 inch above the beans. I add 3 cubes of beef bouillon to the water, some dill, salt, pepper. Boil then reduce to slow boil for several hours (probably 3) watching and adding water as needed.
Keep tasting and adding salt, dill, pepper as needed. When the beans are soft, it’s pretty much done, then add in the mix Chefguy mentioned above. (I use kielbasa only because it’s easier and I like the flavor)
Before serving take a spoon and smash several of the beans around the edge and mix together to thicken the soup.
Thanks. That will teach me to post when I’m in a hurry.
I use braising when I make spaghetti sauce, using pork and beef. It simmers in the tomato sauce until it breaks down, then I add the meatballs. Damn fine dish.
The other night I made the following (warning: recipe is still in the fine-tuning stage):
2 very thick Costco porkchops, fat trimmed off, sliced in half laterally
1/2 large onion, coarsely chopped
1 red bell pepper and 1 orange pepper, thinly sliced and coarsely chopped
3 cloves garlic, crushed and chopped
2 cans diced tomatoes
chili seasonings (ancho, cumin, chipotle, etc.) to taste
salt
Braise the pork and remove from the pan. Add a bit of olive oil and saute the onions and peppers until soft. Add the garlic and saute for about a minute. Add the chili spices and saute for a minute. Add in the tomatoes and return the chops to the pan. Cover and simmer for a couple of hours, or until the chops are fork tender. Break up the meat in the pan and serve the stew with some heated tortillas and sour cream. Or strain out the liquid and roll the remaining ingredients for burritos.
Well, I went down to the little grocery on the corner to get the few things I needed to make the crockpot stew, and they had closed early. I had decided earlier today to do up to putting it all in the crockpot tonight and make it for tomorrow.
So I think I’m now just going to wing it for tomorrow. That’s how I made my first ever pot roast in the crockpot, and that turned out wonderfully.
Any new suggestions, however, are gratefully accepted.