FLOWER POT KITCHEN: SLOW BRAISED STEAK IN RED WINE

16 Feb 2021

SLOW BRAISED STEAK IN RED WINE

One of the best comfort dinners EVER! Also know as Pot Roast...

Simple old fashioned cooking at its best, rich and deep in slow braised flavour and served with buttery mashed creamy potatoes makes this dinner spoon food heaven and as my nan always did served with a extra mug of gravy with every dish. A very happy family dinner.

Served with lots of garden vegetables all tossed in seasoned butter and of course creamy buttery mashed potatoes to soak up all the gravy on your spoon.

Ingredients

(serves 4)

1 tbsp butter

1 tbsp olive oil

1 kg chuck steak as 1 or 4 steaks

100g pancetta diced

1 onion cut in to wedges

4 carrots peeled and roughly chopped

350ml red wine

500ml beef stock (bone marrow)

3 sprigs thyme

1 sprig rosemary

Perfect Mashed Potatoes

1 kg Albert rooster potatoes peeled and halved

250g butter

1 tsp Himalayan sea salt

1/2 tsp white pepper

1 tsp white wine vinegar

In a Dutch oven add the olive oil and butter on a medium heat, add the chuck steak and sear both sides browning the steaks for a couple minutes, remove and reserve to one side, in the same pan add the pancetta and sear, remove and reserve with the chuck. Next sear the onions and carrots until lightly caramelised, add the wine to the pan and deglaze scrapping off all the lovely caramelised flavour off the bottom of the pan, add the stock then add back all the reserved ingredients along with the thyme, rosemary, salt and pepper. Bring to a gentle simmer for 2-3 hours on the stove top or pop in the oven at 170 C / 338 F.

30 minutes before your pot roast is ready, bring a large pan of seasoned water to a boil, add the potatoes and simmer for approx 25 minutes until fork tender, drain and leave to steam dry for 5 minutes, season the potatoes with salt and pepper. Add the butter to the saucepan and place back on a low heat until melted, add the potatoes and vinegar, mash to your desired consistency, I like smooth my husband likes lumpy!

To serve place a generous portion of the mashed potatoes piled high in the centre of your bowl, place the pot roast on top with some carrots and onions then spoon over a generous amount of the stock gravy, served lots of seasonal vegetables on the side and enjoy.

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LIFE MY PASSION

Welcome to my daily life of cooking, one winters day many years ago my family and I were all inspired by a back to back rainy day of River Cottage this got us to stop talking about and start actually doing, suddenly three weeks later eight vegetable beds were dug, greenhouse erected and our first vegetables were propagating, this was the start to raising and growing our own food, our fabulous son Oscar changed our path in life which lead us to sell our small thriving restaurant of 10 yrs and to start our new life (Terrifying!) a life of the self sufficient in touch with nature and seasons, taking a step back and looking forward to a slower change of pace and making the most of every moment.

My passion for cooking was stronger than ever and having time at home with Oscar I found I had a new direction and I was no longer striving for perfection, I was suddenly very passionate for the enjoyment of the other side of food, something I had not realised, being the Chef/Cook and every other duty of your own small restaurant made me see that I never actually took time to cook what I wanted!

So there I was muddy boots and hands digging deep in more than one sense and I found myself transported back in time to where everyone grew some of their own food, it is a wonderful world with a real sense of achievement and loss, Slugs Snails and Caterpillars! But thats another story! Childhood memories of summers when I lived with my grand parents reminded me of so much that I had learnt about the make do and mend generation that I had forgotten.

Now as a family we love our free wild food days where we gather what nature has provided, have gone from being mini mini garden urban small holders, who did raised pigs at home because we could not wait to find land and supporting ourselves from our garden to now owning a very small farm that allows us to grow more vegetables for the whole of our family and neighbours, raise our own gorgeous Gloucestershire Old Spot pigs, (Sausages!) and pets! Dorset Down sheep, chickens for eggs and pet goats! Suddenly having large quantities of produce started to wake up the Cook in me!

The Cook was awake that part of me that wants to cook for the masses and I found myself setting up Flowerpot Kitchen, a Farmers Market Stall, I wanted to use our honest raised meats and make old fashioned pork pies, rabbit pies and game pies from the local game keeper along with old fashioned techniques and the best hot water crust pastry. This in turn grew to a small cottage industry from home weekly supplying three farm shops and a deli along with also attending three farmers markets A few years later there came a time when my son Oscar's health changed and it was an easy decision to stop.

I still hold the occasional pop up 40 seater restaurant or gourmet lunch which we do for local charities for the love of sharing food and to remind that Cook in me why I love our go slower self sufficient life!

So here I am sitting amoung the vegetables watching the chickens loving that every season nature teaches me something new and that nature is in charge! She has taught me to just go with it and grow. Give it a try from a tray of salad on your windowsill to a few tomato plants it all counts.