French Style Oven Braised Beef

This is a recipe that I have had for years and it is always a special treat when I make it. When I clipped the recipe from our newspaper years ago I was a young wife and hadn't savored too much time in the kitchen yet :) I thought I was really heading down the gourmet path since I was actually putting wine and brandy in a recipe...Oooo-la-la!

Sometimes I add peas and sauteed mushrooms and serve it on a bed of wide noodles - yum!


I regret that I can't share the source for this recipe. When I retyped it onto my computer years ago, I threw away the recipe and, sadly, the source - never thinking that one day I would be blogging! Even attempts to find it online didn't help. But here it is, anyway. The flavors are delicious

French Style Oven Braised Beef

Printable Recipe

4 to 5 lb lb boneless chuck
1 medium onion, peeled and thinly sliced
1 rib celery, cut into thin crescents
3-4 carrots, peeled and sliced into thin discs
2 teaspoons salt
½ teaspoon pepper
1 cup dry red wine*
¼ cup brandy*
1 tablespoon tomato paste
3 sprigs parsley, chopped
1 clove garlic, peeled and minced
1 teaspoon dried crushed thyme
2 bay leaves
2 whole cloves
Cornstarch

*Note – I like to increase these amounts to make sure I have lots of juices for making the sauce later.

Please heavy duty foil, enough to wrap up meat in shallow roasting pan. Arrange meat in center, fold up edges of foil leaving space to add onion, carrot and celery. Place pan under broiler and brown meat fairly well, turning several times from side to side. When meat is half browned, add onion, carrot and celery so they will brown slightly.

Remove pan from oven and reduce temperature to 300F. Sprinkle meat with salt and pepper. Stir together wine, brandy and tomato paste. Add parsley, garlic, thyme, bay leaves and cloves. Pour over meat. Seal foil with a ‘drugstore’ fold and bring two longest ends of foil up over beef and vegetables so edges meet; fold these edges together twice. Seal ends of foil by turning up and folding over twice. Return sealed package in the roasting pan to the 300 degree oven.

Bake until tender as you like – approximately 3-1/2 to 4 hours. Open foil and remove beef to a warm platter; keep warm in low oven.

Please a fine mesh strainer over a quart measure and strain juices into measure. Do not force vegetables through. Skim off fat. For each 1-1/4 cups of liquid, mix 1 tablespoon cornstarch with 1 tablespoon cold water until smooth. Pour liquid and cornstarch mixture into a saucepan. Over moderate heat, stirring constantly, cook until slightly thickened, clear and boiling. Taste and add salt and pepper, if desired.

Makes 8 to 10 servings.