Slow Cooked Beef /w Port & Rosemary

PixieLandGirl

PixieLandGirl

PixieLandGirl

Associate
Joined
13 Jul 2009
Posts
1,133
Location
Cambs
Unfortunately I'm not connoisseur of food but with Christmas approaching and my friends throwing a nice meal I thought I'd have a dry run of some slow cooked beef.

The images aren't great but I'm sure you'll get the gist.

Ingredients
  • 1kg beef joint mine was slightly over at 1.2kg
  • 2 carrots
  • 1-2 parsnips
  • 3 sticks of celery
  • 5 shallots
  • 1 head of garlic
  • rosemary
  • 4oz swede
  • potatoes
  • schwartz rich beef gravy
  • ruby port
  • salt
  • pepper
  • olive oil

Equipment
  • knife
  • wooden utensils &/or tongs for turning joint when browning
  • 2 pans or 2 metal bowls
  • chopping board
  • frying pan
  • colander
  • measuring jug
  • square of tin foil
  • slow cooker

001.jpg

002.jpg


Prep

Break garlic on the chopping board.
003.jpg


Place into pan and place other pan on top.
004.jpg
005.jpg


Shake for a good 10 seconds or until required number of cloves are peeled.

Place 6-7 cloves onto the tin foil, drizzle with oil and season with salt and pepper.
006.jpg


Make into a parcel and place into a pan. Cook in a pre-heated oven for 25-30mins 200C (fan assisted).
008.jpg


Whilst the garlic is cooking peel, cut and wash your veg.
009.jpg


Place veg into slow cooker.
012.jpg


Once the garlic has finished cooking mash it up using a wooden utensil & put to one side.
010.jpg


Now start to brown your beef joint. I used 1 tbsp of olive oil.
011.jpg


Once beef is sealed place into slow cooker and top with rosemary.
013.jpg


Empty gravy, 100ml port & mushed garlic into measuring jug and season with salt and pepper. Mix.
014.jpg
015.jpg

016.jpg

Pour sauce over beef joint and mix around the veg.
017.jpg


Cook for 5-6 hours on high or 10-12 on low. Low is preferable.

Result
It’s cooking so I’ll have to keep you posted ;)
018.jpg


Notes
I'm going to be lazy and use micro steam bags for the new potatoes :p
For the gravy I separated some from the crock pot and thickened on the stove.
The garlic doesn't have to be slow roasted, I find it gives a more subtle flavor if it is. If you don't slow roast I'd reduce the number of cloves by 1-2.
 
Last edited:
Like a plonker I forgot to turn it on before I helped my lodger move in. It's just finished cooking, 6 hrs on high. Tasted a small piece and it's nommy.

I think I'll have an early lunch tomorrow :D.

I may take the veg and roast them .. I've not decided yet :p.
 
That's a lot of effort to go through with the garlic! But indeed it looks and sounds tasty, and since im getting a slow cooker any day now it'll be a nice one to try.
 
I really don't see the point of pre-roasting the garlic. Seems an almighty amount of faff for no reason since the garlic will cook off in the sauce anyway.

I'm interested in the cut of beef you used...'housekeepers'...Google reveals that this is the same as top rib, which should apparently have a decent amount of fat and marbling and lends itself to slow cooking. Two observations: that cut doesn't look that fatty or marbled, in fact it looks positively lean. Secondly, four hours on high would absolutely destroy that piece of beef. Gotta be low and slow for that cooking method I'd have thought.
 
Roasting the garlic like that would give it a sweeter flavour than steaming/simmering it. That said, I'd personally keep the gravy separate to add to my meat later (the idea of super garlic-y gravy would just be too tempting to pass up).
 
Updated OP.

You don't have to slow roast the garlic, I find it just gives a more subtle flavor. If I wasn't roasting it I'd likely reduce the number of cloves slightly.

The beef cut was marbled but not as much as say brisket; which is the cut I usually would use but there wasn't any available & I was too lazy to drive to the next store :p.

Low heat for 10+ hours gives the best results but with this being a dry run more for the balance of flavors with the veg, port and rosemary I didn't mind it being slightly less tender (although still awesomely soft and tasty).
 
Because of this thread and it looking so good, I cooked this today! :D
Slightly different ingredients.. no shallots, swede or potatoes, and added butternut squash, didn't pre-cook the garlic and used merlot cabernet as that's all I had.
I used 500g of beef because I only have a tiny slow cooker!
I would've done (and normally do) 8 hours low heat but didn't have time so cooked for 4-5 hours on high. Still tasted awesome though!
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom