Ed's braising beef again

Last night was a drizzly mess so Ed braised a chuck roast in some beer. It's a safe bet that if it's chilly out, we're braising or making chili or something that takes all day to cook.
I love this recipe because we do a lot of red wine braising in winter and this is lighter and tangier.

1 boneless chuck roast, about 3 to 4 pounds
4 slices bacon
8 to 10 small onions, peeled, or 2 medium onions, quartered
1 to 2 tablespoons brown sugar
8 ounces mushrooms, halved or whole
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1 (10 oz) can beef broth, undiluted
1 cup beer

We use our big Le Creuset for this one. Brown the bacon, then add the onions with the brown sugar. Cook for five minutes or until a little brown. Remove from pan. Add the mushrooms to the pan--there should be a little fat left or add a bit of oil--(we use more because we would have to fight over them if we only used 1/2lb) and get a good sear on them. Brown them and then season them with salt and pepper, then remove to dish with onions.

Mix the flour, salt, allspice and pepper in a gallon bag. Then coat the meat with the flour. Add some vegetable oil to the pan and heat up til it's pretty hot. Sear the meat on each side, then top with the vegetables and add the vinegar, broth and beer. We add some fresh herbs --thyme, rosemary-- at this point. Then the lid goes on and into a 275 oven for 304 hours. You can remove the lid towards the end to let the liquid reduce.

We cooked up some mushroom ravioli and just used the pan sauce over it. Then we put a big piece of the falling-apart meat on top.


And Ed rocked the mushroom searing---they still had a bite to them after 3+ hours! Ruby had some pre-made Yukon gold potatoes (I freeze alot of food for her so dinnertime isn't a nightmare) and some bits of the meat. She really liked the meat! YAY Ruby! We love that she likes the savory stuff like we do.



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