A key principle for a well functioning kitchen is planning. Making sure that you have the right amount and diversity of ingredients for a given time. Planning and organizing your kitchen is something worth a post of itself and I will write about that soon.
However, I’m pretty spontaneous about what exactly to cook for the next meal.
I don’t follow recipes. I’ll usually look into the fridge, check what vegetables or other ingredients I have available and make something using them. Cooking inside the limitations of the moment saves time and is more sustainable.
Make sure you have a piece of meat, some vegetables (onions are mandatory) and high quality cooking oil. That’s the base. The rest is optional.
This dish was prepared the same way. The preparation is simple. Most of the work is done by your oven and the slow, low heat braising process.
You need:
- 2 pounds beef chuck roast cut into 2-inch cubes.
- 4 tbs olive oil or ghee.
- 1 cup white wine (optional).
- 2 big red peppers chopped into small cubes.
- 4-5 Dinosaur kale cut into 1-inch cubes.
- 1 big onion, chopped.
- 3 garlic cloves.
- 3 medium tomatoes, diced.
- 1 tbs tomato paste.
- 1 tsp smoked paprika.
- 1 tsp cumin.
- Salt and fresh ground black pepper.
How to Prepare:
- Take the meat out of the fridge 2 hours before cooking.
- Pre-heat the oven for 275F.
- Liberally season the meat with salt and pepper.
- In a large cast iron pot, heat the oil or ghee. Brown the chuck cubes from all sides on medium heat. Be patience here. It takes 6-8 minutes to brown the meat well from all sides. Put the meat aside
- In the same pot add 1tbs oil and sauté the peppers and onions for 4 minutes on medium heat.
- Add the garlic and sauté for another minute.
- Add the wine and use it to scrape all the flavor-containing bits that are left from the browning process. Use some water if you don’t have wine. Reduce the liquids in half.
- Add the tomatoes and tomato paste. Stir everything gently until you get something that starts to look like a sauce.
- Stir in the kale.
- Add the spices, salt, and fresh ground pepper.
- Cook for 2-3 minutes on medium heat.
- Put the meat back in the pot. You want the meat to be about half covered with liquids, so add some water if needed. Cover and put in the oven for 3 hours.
- After 3 hours take the lead off and check in – if the dish is nice and brown with a thick red sauce then it’s ready. If it’s kind of pale and watery, increase the heat to 400F and return the pot to the oven, uncovered, for 10 minutes. That should do the work.
Hope you enjoy this!
