Rosemary and Red Wine Braised Beef Roast (a.k.a Man Meat)

I'm on a bit of a 'man' kick these days. I would tell you to rush to your kitchen and make this for your man, someone else's man, any man, really, now. But I know that hardly ever happens. And you probably don't have a beef roast on hand, and/or the other ingredients, so me bossing you to make this now would really just be futile.

Instead, I will only bid you this: Gaze.

Gase upon this beefy, mushroomy goodness, and look into your future. A future of eating this.

I'm actually looking at a past of eating this. I made it last week. And it was gone within seconds.

Okay, maybe I exaggerate a bit. But when I presented my husband with this for supper, he was nothin' but happy. It's just the kind of wife I am. The kind who likes to have supper waiting on the table for her man. What can I say?

When my husband reads this, this will be about the time where he clears his throat, looks at me with a twinkle in his eye, and says...

Nothing.

He knows this is the best way to improve the ratio of evenings when he actually does arrive home to supper waiting to the evenings when he does not. He doesn't bite the hand that feeds him.

But back to the beef roast...

I was feeling the need for something braised, savory and dark, so I concocted this little recipe. And let me tell you, I was not disappointed. I served it simply with a side of toasted brown rice and squash, because it has a pretty bold flavor, and I didn't want the sides to clash.

Ingredient List...

• ~ 5# Beef Roast (arm or chuck recommended)
• 1 tsp. Dried Rosemary
• 3 tsp. Salt, divided
• 1/8 tsp. Pepper
• 2 tsp. Brown Sugar
• 1 Tbsp. Flour
• 3 Tbsp. Butter
• 1 and 3/4 Cups Red Wine, divided (red zin or cabernet recommended)
• 1 and 3/4 Cups Beef STOCK (not broth), divided
• 1 Medium Yellow Onion
• ~ 8 oz. Mushrooms (I used cremini), rinsed or wiped clean

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pat your roast dry. Mix together the rosemary, 2 teaspoons salt, pepper, brown sugar and flour in a little bowl, and rub it all over the roast.

Melt the butter in a skillet over medium / medium-high heat until it just starts to bubble. Place the roast in the pan and sear for about a minute on all sides.

While the roast is searing, go ahead and slice up the onion.

You don't need to separate the rings... This will happen all on its own in the next step.

When the roast is seared, removed it from the pan to a casserole dish and surround it with the mushrooms...

At this point I have to confess a couple of things...

1) I am a naughty mushroom washer. I know you're not supposed to. I know you're just supposed to wipe them clean with a damp paper towel or something, otherwise they supposedly get rubbery. But who has the time? All I'm sayin' is, I just want to be honest. You do your thing with your mushrooms, and I'll do mine.

2) I ended up transferring everything from this casserole dish to another one because this one wasn't quite big enough by the time it was ready to go into the oven. So just a note to self and a note to you... Use a casserole dish that allows you a little room.

Moving on...

As soon as you removed the roast from the skillet, deglaze the pan with a 1/4 cup of red wine and a 1/4 cup of beef stock, then add the onions.

Allow the mixture to simmer until a lot of the liquid has evaporated or absorbed into the onions. Then add in a 1/2 tsp. salt, another 1/4 cup of red wine, and another cup of beef stock. Again, allow to simmer until it has cooked down.

And then... Do it one more time! 1/2 tsp. salt, 1/4 cup red wine, 1/4 beef stock. Simmer down. You will end up with this...

Layers upon layers of savory flavor. You could whip up some onions in just this way and throw them on a burger. Oh yeah, you totally could.

Now, pour the onion and all the juices over the top of your roast, and add in one more cup of wine and one more cup of stock...

Cover and cook in the oven for about 3 and 1/2 hours, or until your meat is tender and falls apart. About halfway through, your house will take on a lovely, savory aroma.

When you plate it and take it outside to take photographs for your blog because that is where the best natural light is (just pretend along with me that you do this too), your dogs will draw near and look at you lovingly...

Just trust me... Make this for any male -- man, child or dog -- in your world, and he will be happy to know ya'.

Comments

[A]

I made this the other night. I did it in my enameled cast iron dutch oven that I just got. I don't know if I didn't have enough liquid, cooked it too long, or what. But eveything almost burned to the bottom of my pot. My mushrooms were hard and some cooked and stuck to the side of it too. Parts of the meat were stuck on there too, and it was almost syrupy, and had a bitter taste to some of it! Some parts of the meat were tender, and the flavor war great. But since I'm new to braising, and cookin in the dutch oven, I dont know what it could have been that made it that way?! Mine looked like your pictures up until after the cooking for 3 1/2 hour part. Yours looks tender and juicy and your mushrooms look plump, everything in mine was dark and sticky?! If you have any insight please let me know. I'd love to try it again!