This dish is fabulous – the meat can literally be eaten with a spoon! I would describe it as a Beef Ragu because the meat is so tender. Jamie describes his recipe:
“Cooking a shin of beef or any good stewing cut this way gives you some really fantastic comfort food. Just letting it slowly blip away in the oven, with the sauce becoming more and more intense, is the nicest sort of cooking there is. Delicious served with some mashed root veg – like carrots, potatoes, a bit of swede, some turnips – but you could also serve it with straight mash, polenta or bubble and squeak (you know, fried veg and potatoes, cockney-London style!) and some nice buttered cabbage or spinach. ”
His original recipe comes from “Cook With Jamie”, and here is the link to the website recipe:
http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/beef-recipes/melt-in-your-mouth-shin-stew
I love shin beef, and in Australia it is known as gravy beef. Jamie sing sings its praises and lovingly describes the unctuous flavours derived from long slow cooking of this cut of beef.
Here is my version. The most significant change I made is to lower the oven temperature to 160 degrees C. I think long, slow cooking is the way to go with this recipe.
Ingredients
• Lug of olive oil
• 6 eschallots, peeled and roughly chopped
• 6 baby carrots, trimmed and used whole
• 2 cloves garlic chopped
• A few sprigs of fresh rosemary
• 1 bay leaf
• 750g quality shin of beef, trimmed and cut into 5cm pieces
• Sea salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tbs flour
• 1 x 400g tinned tomatoes
• 1/2 bottle red wine – shiraz or cab suav
Method
Preheat your oven to 160 degrees C. In a heavy-bottomed casserole, heat a lug of olive oil and gently fry the eschallots, carrots, garlic and herbs for 5 minutes until softened slightly. Meanwhile, toss the pieces of beef in a little seasoned flour, shaking off any excess. Add the meat to the casserole and stir everything together, then add the tomatoes, wine and a pinch of salt and pepper. Gently bring to the boil, cover with a double-thickness piece of aluminum foil and a lid and place in your preheated oven for 3 hours or until the beef is meltingly tender and can be broken up with a spoon. Taste and check the seasoning, remove the rosemary sprigs and bay leaf.
Serve with pappardelle, polenta, mash or rice.
The Quirk and the Cool 