This is one of those casual dishes that evolved over five minutes.
I needed to cook a serious-but-not-heavy lunch, and I had a load of other things to do. So I put the beef together with things I knew would taste good, and put it away to cook in a slow oven for four or five hours. At some point, a tempting savory smell wafted through the apartment, and I knew the dish was a success.
The recipe is a loose set of instructions, sort of like those that appear in medieval cookbooks between the dough for pigeon pasties and spiced mead. But you’ll see that it’s all about good ingredients and low heat, so it can’t go wrong. To judge by the Husband’s and the Little One’s enthusiasm, it was actually pretty great.
This beef recipe is so good and easy. Leftovers will taste even better the next day, or several days later. I can tell it’s going to be one of those recipes that makes life easier.
It’s important to use an oven-proof skillet with a lid, or a covered casserole dish, or a pan that will just accommodate the pieces of beef. You want to keep the cooking juices, not have them evaporate in the oven. You can adjust the temperature during the cooking process to prolong or shorten cooking time, but it will take at least three hours to finish.
The quantities below will serve four hearty beef eaters or six with a selection of side dishes to fill up their plates.
