Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 2 hours
Ingredients:
- Beef for moist roasting (see below for precise cuts and amounts)
- Lard
- Onion
- Carrot
- Celery
- Butter
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Boiling water
Preparation:
This is the boeuf braisé of the French. Buy a nice piece of well aged beef; assuming it weighs about 1 1/4 pounds, lardon it with 2 ounces of lardons cut to the size of a finger and rolled in salt and pepper, and tie it.Mince a quarter of a mid-sized onion, a half a carrot, and a four inch rib of celery, and sauté the mixture in 2 tablespoons of butter; add the meat and season the whole with salt and pepper.
When the it has browned, sprinkle it twice with a few drops of cool water. Once the water has been absorbed and the meat has browned, add two ladles of boiling water, cover the pot, and simmer the meat until done. Strain the sauce, degrease it, and return it to the fire with a tablespoon of butter, which will improve its flavor; use it to heat through a vegetable, such as spinach, Brussels sprouts, carrots, or bulb fennel, which ever you prefer.
The wine? A nicely aged Chianti Classico Riserva.
