Braised Beef

Chef's Delight

INGREDIENTS

(Serves 6 to 8)

2kg of beef topside

One onion

Two carrots

10g thyme

Two bay leaves

250ml red wine

2lt beef stock

To serve

Your prepared beef portions

The sauce from the reduced cooking liquid

400g celeriac

75ml cream

80g bacon lardons

400g of wild mushrooms

150g of pearl onions

350ml beef stock

Salt and pepper

METHOD

Preheat the oven to 90 degrees Celsius.

Brown the beef on all sides in a pan.

Place the beef in a deep roasting dish.

Roughly chop the onion and carrots and add to the beef with the thyme and bay leaves.

Add the red wine and cover the meat with beef stock.

Cover the roasting tray with tinfoil and place in the oven at 90 degrees Celsius and cook for 8 to 10 hours until tender.

Ideally this can be done overnight.

Allow the beef to cool and remove from the tray.

Using a fork flake the meat into smaller pieces, place in a large bowl add some of the cooking liquid to the meat 100ml approximately.

The remaining liquid can be reduced to form a sauce.

Place a double layer of cling film, lengthways on a flat surface.

Place the beef mixture in the centre of the cling film in a barrel shape.

Then roll tightly to form a barrel shape, approximately three inches in diameter.

Then refrigerate overnight. The gelatinous mixture will set and can be cut into portions as shown in the picture.

To serve

To make the celeriac puree: Finely chop the celeriac, cover with water and cook until soft.

Blend to a purée and add the cream, salt and pepper to taste.

Seal the beef portions on both sides and add to a deep pan with the beef stock, cover the beef a quarter of the way up. This prevents it from drying out while reheating.

Once hot, remove from the oven.

Sauté the bacon lardons wild mushrooms and pearl onions until cooked.

Heat the sauce.

To assemble, place the celeriac puree in the centre of the plate; place the beef on top and finish with the wild mushrooms bacon and onion mixture.

Add the sauce.

Top Tip

This is really a dish that takes three days to prepare, cook and finish, but it’s worth it. You can take your time and get a great result. Happy cooking!

ABOUT THE CHEF

Norbert Neylon is the chef proprietor of The Oak Room Restaurant in Cavan since 2001.

The Oak Room moved to a new purpose-built building in May of 2017 on Bridge Street in Cavan Town.