I decided as the first meal to commit to this blog it should be something that ties together iron working and food. Irn Bru rose to fame in Scotland and abroad from its roots in Falkirk as the preferred soft drink of steel workers there (as legend has it?). Now it outsells Coke and Pepsi in Scotland, and as I moved North on my travels I noticed less soft drink options and more Irn Bru. I'm Okay with that. So here's what I made last night, slow cooked Irn Bru beef.
What you need:
- Sharp Knife ;)
- 1.2 kg chuck steak
- 3 carrots
- 4 cloves of garlic
- 1 onion
- 2 tbs red wine vinegar
- 1 tbs Worcestershire sauce
- Some paprika
- pepper
- 1/4 lemon
- Parsley to serve
- mash potatoes (Surely this needs no expansion)
- 1L Irn Bru ( I get mine from Coles its with the international food, annoyingly I could only get it as 330ml cans)
- 1/3 cup of sugar
Method:
I literally threw most of this into the slow cooker. Simple huh? Cut the carrots into large chunks and dice the onion, add the beef on top of them, crush the garlic and throw it in. add the vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, a pinch of paprika, pepper. Lastly add the Irn Bru over the top.
You should have something like this now. Notice the extra can of Irn Bru, drink that sucker.
I set the Slow cooker to high for 8 hours and went of to do blacksmith stuff. That might not effect the outcome of the dish but you might like to consider it.
When the beef was tender I removed 3 cups or so of the broth, added it to a saucepan squeezed in the lemon and added the sugar. I heated it on the stove until the sauce had reduced stirring frequently.
Lastly I scooped up the beef and placed it in the oven at around 180 degrees Celsius for 10 minutes. It should slightly caramelise on the outside but be careful not to let it dry out.
Serve over mash potatoes with the carrots and sauce then dig in.
It does not look like much but it satisfied this blacksmith and a mechatronic engineer. You know, the really discerning foodie types.