Shin of Irish Beef Stew

 Shin of Beef Stew, with a load of spuds just boiled, ‘Champ’ potatoes or with a fine potato purée  every one has their preference, Chips and stew can be good at times for some. The long slow cooking of the carrots in this dish leaves them beautifully sweet and I look forward to them as much as the morsels of meat.

Recipe for 4 people.
454g / 1lb Diced Irish beef shin meat  (with out the bone- if there’s bone in purchase about 760g)
360g / 3/4lb carrots, peeled and cut into large pieces
1 medium sized onion about 100g 1/4lb, diced finely
 2 sticks of celery, cut into four pieces
285ml / 1/2pt ‘Passata ‘sieved tomato (available to buy in most shops) if you don’t have it handy a tin of peeled plum tomatoes liquidised and sieved will do.
565ml /1pt water
Salt and white pepper to season
Vegetable or sunflower oil for browning the meat

Method
In a large pot add a couple of table spoons of oil and place on a high heat when hot add the diced meat and brown slightly this will take a couple of minutes, reduce the heat slightly then add the carrots onions and celery and season lightly with salt and pepper a pinch of each will do at this stage. Stir and place a lid on the pot for 2 mins this will help sweat the vegetables and release extra flavours into the stew.
Now add the Passata and bring the stew to the boil and cook for a further 2-3 minutes stirring occasionally this help sweeten out the tomato and take its sharp edge off. Then add the water bring to the boil again reduce the heat once this happens, place the lid back on and simmer for 2hrs approx, give it a stir now and again to be sure it doesn't stick or burn at the bottom, Taste liquid frequently to observe the development of flavours and adjust season towards the end of the cooking period.
Test a piece of the meat for tenderness; it should give easily to touch or bite.Check the consistency of the liquid if you think it is too thin increase the heat and reduce it to your desired state.

.nb. As with all stews this taste good the next day!

Serve with potato of your choice. to make a really nice potato purée use about 1.5kg or 3lbs of floury potato (suitable for mash or baking) peeled and placed in cold water to cover them in a pot with a good pinch of salt and little pinch of white pepper then  brought to the boil reducing the heat and simmering approx 20-25 mins depending on size. Once cooked drain the water and let them steam out for 4 to 5 mins, either put through a potato ricer or place in a food processor and purée them on low speed, to finish return to the pot and beat over a low heat adding a very generous amount of butter about 170g or 6oz (using a wooden spoon or heat resistant spatula) and a little milk roughly a 1/4pt or 100ml until you have a smooth purée, taste and adjust the seasoning. 

Braised Beef Cheeks, 'Bellingham' blue cheese Mash

You

Recipes come from?
Fireside stories.

The flavours in this beef dish are inspired by one of my uncles who told of his cattle's strange behaviour one autumn many moon's ago.
Whilst bringing in the cows for milking  they had a stagger about them and their reactions were dopey things didn't  look right at all, in all his years he hadn't seen the like of it.Without any further ado the vet was called. The symptoms relayed, he too was puzzled, there was no obvious answer to his knowledge either.The vet arrived straight away and they walked the field where they duly deduced the cattle had been eating the windfalls from some hedgerow apple and plum trees.The case of strange behaviour was closed, the ripe and fermenting fruit + a ruminants four part stomach = a microbrewery on legs, simple enough the cattle got a little tipsey.
thanks uncle Bernie

This dish is for slow cooking, takes about 4hrs in total but is worth the wait, you can do it in the morning or day before as it reheats well.
Ingredients.
4 Pieces of beef shin or 2 Beef cheeks trimmed and cut in half..
1/2 Btl of Dry red wine
1/2 ltr of  fresh pressed Apple juice
 6 Plums
2 Apples cut in quarters
 2 sticks Celery chopped rough
 2 large Carrots.peeled and cut into quarters
 1 medium Onion chopped skin on
Garlic 5 cloves
1/2 red chilli
1Bay leaf
 2 sprigs of Thyme
12 Black peppercorns
50ml Rapeseed Oil for frying
2 tbspns cornflour.
 Pinch of Salt.
1kg potatoes for mashing(roosters)
150gms Bellingham blue cheese or your local blue.
salt&pepper
grated nutmeg
50gms butter
100 ml milk

Method for braising the beef.
Seal the your chosen beef in a hot pan browning well, place the beef in a casserole dish or deep sided oven pan.
Fry the veg in the pan you used for the beef on a medium heat you want to brown them as this will add to the colour of your sauce, then place in the casserole with the beef.
Boil the wine in the pan to cook off the alcohol, add to the beef.
add the apple juice and the rest of the ingredients.
put the lid on  or cover tightly with tinfoil and cook in an oven for approx 2 1/2 hrs until the meat is tender.
to finish.
Remove the beef and carrots, strain the liquid stock into a suitable pot,discard the rest of the vegetables. Skim of any fat from the stock bring to the boil reduce the heat to simmer skimming as necessary. You want to reduce the stock to concentrate the flavours and itensify the colour- creating your sauce, taste as you go, it should be slighty sweet with acidity from the wine. use a little cornflour diluted in water to thicken your sauce.Place the beef and carrots back into the sauce to reheat.

 'Bellingham' blue cheese Mash
Make a  potato mash as you normally would (potatoes peeled &quartered, boiled 20-25 mins drained and mashed seasoned with salt&pepper, a pinch of nutmeg, a good nob of butter and a dribble of milk).
 break  the cheese into small chunks and stir lightly into the mash keeping the pieces intact just before serving. When eating you'll get a rich hit of salty farmyard tang every now and then that contrast with sweetness and heat of the beef and sauce..

I like to eat this with some chilli slices that have been cooked in sugar syrup for that little extra bit of heat.



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