I spent most of last week pondering the idea of the plum mixture used in the plum tarts tweaked slightly to be used as a sauce for meat. I thought it would be exceptionally tasty, and so I did a little searching around Gode Cookery to see if there were any recipes there that agreed with me. I found this recipe for Stwed Beeff.
I had all the ingredients but the currents, and I decided that dried plums would be just as lovely in this dish. I had planned to be using my oven all day, and this looked like the kind of dish that would be improved by low, moist heat cooking, so I decided to use my crock-pot for this.
I diced up an onion and put it in the bottom of my crock-pot mixed with half a cup of fresh loosely chopped parsley. In a separate pot I took 2 cups of red wine and added 1 cup of chopped dried plums, 1 tsp. cinnamon, 1/4 tsp. cloves, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 long pepper cone and 1/4 c. sugar and boiled it down to a syrup. I decided to use long pepper rather than regular pepper in this dish because I thought the floral notes in it would accent the fruitiness of the plums. I browned a couple pounds of beef short ribs in some olive oil, then placed them in the crock-pot, pouring the syrup over the top. About 5 hours later, I decided that they were tender enough and sliced the meat from the bones. I strained the sauce and spooned most of the fat off the top, then reduced it to about half and poured it over the meat.
I thought it was extremely tasty. I think this sauce may become a new staple around our house for pouring over roasts when you want a slightly different flavor. It wasn't overly spicy and the fruit and wine blended together with the meat and onions to make a rich thick sauce that was very lovely.
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5 comments:
MMMmmmmMMMMmmmmm. Now you mention it, we used to do a crock pot dish that was a slab-o-cheap beef stewed in redwine onion, and apricot fruit spread. It was frakkin wonderful, but the woman who had done the redaction kept the recipe to herself.
That's too bad! Unless someone is making a living off their particular recipe, I've never quite gotten the phenomenon of the "secret recipe". I firmly believe in the idea of sharing knowledge. No one can make a recipe exactly like anyone else anyway, so nothing is lost by sharing.
That sounds amazing!!!
It was amazingly yummy. I think it would be even better used with a chuck roast because you'd get more meat than you would with just ribs, but you'd still get the connective tissues to give the sauce that rich gelatin-y goodness.
Very thoughtful bloog
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