Five hour pulled beef

Ingredients

3kg piece of chuck steak (or any stewing steak – but not too fatty), visible fat removed
vegetable oil spray
2 cups beef stock
300ml passata
1 cup water
3 tbsp brown sugar
4 large garlic bulbs, halved
8 small-medium onions, peeled and halved
handful rosemary stalks
4 fresh bay leaves

Method

Heat oven to 150°C or 130°C fan-forced.

Heat large deep roasting pan on the stove top, add oil and brown meat on all sides.

Add all other ingredients and bring to the boil. Cover tightly with foil (if roasting dish has a lid, put this on over the top) and slow cook for 5 hours, checking every now and again to pour liquid over meat.

Remove from oven and let stand for 30 minutes before serving.

Don’t throw away the onions or the garlic bulbs as they are so full of flavour – serve them on the side. The sauce makes fantastic gravy; just pour it all into a jug and serve alongside the meat.

Serving Suggestions

Note

It’s best to get the meat from a butcher. If you explain to them what you are doing (just say 5 hour slow cooked beef in lots of liquid), they’ll point you in the right direction. Just don’t get an expensive cut – it’s so not worth the money. Use dried bay leaves if you don’t have fresh (I have a bay tree, so it’s handy for these types of things). Use three dried bay leaves.
It’s a lot of beef, I know! But use all the leftovers to make sliders, a quick ragu or cottage pie. Dinner all week!
Meat and sauce freeze really well. Just be sure to put a little bit of the sauce in with the meat before you freeze it.
This recipe was created by Jay Rogers for Kidspot, New Zealand’s best recipe finder.