Jack's Food Blog

Slow braised fatty cuts of beef are delicious. They’re made even better when paired with a sharp and sweetly spiced sauce. Make a batch of this and you’ll feed 6 hungry people.

This beef chuck recipe makes a soft, tender chunks of meat in a rich and luxurious sauce. It’s an absolute piece of cake to make, with most ingredients simply fried or dumped into a casserole dish pot. Beef chuck is also a very cheap cut of meat, so great if you’re after a special meal at a low price. Win, win, win.

Ingredients

• 600g beef chuck, chopped into around 2 inch cubes (remove any large chunks of fat that you can)
• 1/2 tbsp chinese five spice
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 1tbsp garam masala
• 1tbsp smoked paprika
• 4 cloves garlic
• 2 small onions
• 1 thumb sized piece of ginger
• 1 tbsp brown sauce
• 2 beef stock cubes
• 1 teaspoon meat tenderiser powder (optional)
• 4 large mushrooms
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• Quinoa and green vegetables to serve

Method

1.  First off, if you’re using meat tenderiser, slather this all over the meat and leave to work its magic for at least 10 minutes prior to cooking.
2. Next, heat up 2 tablespoons of olive oil on a high heat in a deep-bottomed casserole dish. Don’t wait too long before adding the meat. Don’t want the oil to burn.
3. Seal your beef in the pan until it’s browned all over. It’s no problem letting the cubes catch a little on the bottom of the pan. This will let it caremalise a bit and add a great flavour.
4. As the beef is sealing, roughly chop your onion, garlic, ginger and mushrooms. Also, pop the kettle on with a litre of water in, and turn the oven to 150 degrees Celsius.
5. Once the beef is sealed all over, take it out of your pan with a slotted spoon, leaving all the juices. Turn the heat down to medium.
6. Add the chopped ingredients to the pan. If this seems at all dry, a touch more olive oil is no bad thing. Cook down for at least 5 minutes.
7. Now, re-add the beef, along with boiling water and all sugar, spices and sauces listed above. All ingredients should be in the pot at this point, and the beef should be well covered with water.
8. Allow to bubble away in the oven for at least three hours. The sweet, sticky sauce will start to penetrate the meat, whilst all of the tough fibres will slowly break down.
9. Serve on a bed of quinoa, with some strong green vegetables like asparagus, tenderstem broccoli, kale or green beans.

Enjoy!