Beef braised in red wine

There's just something magical about pairing red wine with beef.  When you combine the deep flavor of wine with a few hours of slow braising, you've got a mouth-watering dinner perfect for a cold winter night. 

Note: You can make this recipe with a number of cuts of meat.  I wanted to do short ribs, but I couldn't find any today.  At the Asian market I found some cuts from the beef neck, a part that I think is very underutilized.  If you don't like odd cuts of meat, "yucky bits", or connective tissue I suggest that you use oxtail, shank or short rib for this preparation.  But don't be a wuss.

List of ingredients
4 large beef neck cuts (look for ones with a lot of meat and are relatively the same size) or whichever cut you've chosen
1/4 cup olive oil
2 large leeks washed and chopped
1 large onion chopped
2 cloves garlic minced
3 ribs celery
2 large carrots chopped
2 tbsp tomato paste
3 1/2 cups beef broth
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 bottle good red wine
2 tbsp worcestershire sauce
1 4 inch rosemary sprig
1 tsp dried thyme
salt and pepper


Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Salt and pepper the meat on both sides and place on a baking sheet.  Roast the beef for 15 minutes to achieve a good crust.  Meanwhile in a very large dutch oven, heat the olive oil and cook all of the vegetables with a bit of salt until they are soft.  This should take about 10 minutes.  When the beef is done, take it out of the oven and turn the temperature down to 300 degrees.

To the vegetables, add tomato paste, rosemary, thyme, worcestershire sauce, sugar and wine.  Combine well and add the roasted beef to the pot.  Pour the broth over the meat and vegetables, and stir the sauce to combine.  


Cook for about 3 hours or until the meat is very tender.  


Remove the beef from the pot and cook the sauce over medium heat for about 25 more minutes until it reduces and thickens.  While reducing, skim the fat from the top of the sauce.  Skimming the sauce is very important as these cuts of beef can have a lot of fat, and your dish will be very greasy.  I probably skimmed about a cup of fat out of my sauce, so if you think you're done keep going!


Return the beef to the sauce and heat through.  


Serve with a good crusty bread or whatever you like!


Enjoy!