Klosekraft: Carbonnade

I'm moving a little slowly this morning. (Or afternoon. Whichever.) A friend took me to a benefit for the Women's Expressive Theater last night for my birthday (great plays! great venue! great food! great people-watching! great music! great gift bags!) and I went to bed late.

I don't want to wait any longer to post this recipe though, because it was so fantastically delicious that any beef-eaters out there should make it immediately, if not sooner. Imagine: a panful of jammy caramelized onions cooked for hours with beef, broth, beer and herbs...

I followed Elise's recipe here, a printout of which has been on my fridge for months now. The only things I changed were to to use all beef broth instead of half beef/half chicken and only make about 2/3 of the stated amount. I don't know, three and a half pounds seemed like an awful lot of meat so I only bought two pounds. Whole Foods didn't have anything called blade steaks, so I got boneless chuck roast. And I didn't tie my thyme sprigs together. That kind of behavior smacks of fussiness. I don't cook a lot of meat, but I've been feeling like pushing myself lately and it's a challenge that I'm interested in playing with more.

Before:

After:

To go with it, I boiled two sweet potatoes and three regular potatoes and mashed them together.

Carbonnade
adapted from Simply Recipes

2 lbs boneless chuck roast, trimmed of fat and cut into 1" cubes
salt and pepper
olive oil
2 lbs yellow onions, halved and sliced
1 T. tomato paste
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 T. flour
1 c. beef broth
1 c. dark beer (I used Ommegang)
4 sprigs fresh thyme
2 bay leaves
1 T. cider vinegar

Adjust oven rack to lower middle postion; preheat oven to 300°F. Dry beef thoroughly with paper towels, then season generously with salt and pepper. On the stove top, heat 2 teaspoons of olive oil in a large heavy bottomed dutch oven over medium-high heat until beginning to smoke; add 1/3 of the beef to the pot. Cook without moving the pieces until well browned, 2 to 3 minutes; using tongs, turn each piece and continue cooking until second side is well browned, about 5 minutes longer. Transfer browned beef to a separate bowl. Repeat with second third of the beef and an additional 2 teaspoons of oil. (If the drippings in the bottom of the pot are very dark, add half a cup of the chicken or beef broth and scrape the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon to loosen the browned bits; pour liquid into the bowl with the browned beef and continue.) Repeat again with 2 more teaspoons of oil and the remaining beef. Remove beef from the dutch oven.

Add 1 T oil to dutch oven; reduce heat to medium low. Add the onions, 1/2 t of salt, and tomato paste; cook, scraping the bottom of the pot with a wooden spoon, until onions have released some moisture, about 5 minutes. Increase heat to medium and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until onions are lightly browned, 12 to 14 minutes. Stir in garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add flour and stir until onions are evenly coated and flour is lightly browned, about 2 minutes. Stir in broths, scraping pan bottom to loosen browned bits; stir in beer, thyme, bay, vinegar, browned beef with any of the accumulated juices, and salt and pepper to taste. Increase heat to medium-high and bring to a full simmer, stirring occasionally; cover partially, then place pot in oven. Cook until fork inserted into beef meets little resistance, about 2 hours.

Discard thyme and bay. Adjust seasonings with salt and pepper to taste and serve. Can serve plain or over egg noodles, rice or potatoes.