RECIPE: Braised Beef Shin
With salsa verde, glazed carrots, pommes purées, and zero specialist equipment required.
A big welcome to lots of new readers!
I’m so incredibly excited to share this week’s recipe. It’s the perfect starting point for anyone who wants to dip their toes into cooking more advanced showstopper dishes - the techniques are straightforward, there’s very little multitasking, and there’s hardly any specialist equipment required.
Oh, and the end result is 100% worth it.
Additionally, the carrots and pommes purées are going to become staples in your kitchen repertoire - they’re excellent no-fuss sides that go well with everything.
A few things I hope you’ll take away from this recipe:
Sometimes, all it takes is a couple of extra steps to elevate a normal dish - This recipe starts off as a very standard beef braise (and you can totally just serve it as such). The addition of the bone marrow, the presentation, and the flavour combinations with the sauces are what make it special.
Italian salsa verde is a hugely underrated sauce - As much as I loved the restaurant version of this dish, I felt that the parsley emulsion was a component that could prove to be very frustrating for people. With a salsa verde, you get all the same freshness and brightness of the parsley, while the secret sauce (sorry) of blending in a boiled egg adds body and structure without having to mess around with a fiddly emulsion.
Joël Robuchon’s pommes purées are legendary - Not only do they taste amazing, but they’re also very easy to make, with just four ingredients.
If you do try the recipe, I’d love to hear about it in the comments, or you can hit me up via email. Happy cooking!
Braised Beef Shin
Serves 4
If you’re scaling the recipe up / down, you’ll need to adjust the braising liquid (red wine and chicken stock) so that it nearly covers the beef shin in the pot. With the carrots, the glazing liquid should be sufficient whether you’re making this for 2 or 8 people, so all you need to do is add more carrots. Everything else scales normally.
Total time 4 hours 30 minutes / Active time 2 hours 30 minutes
Italian Salsa Verde
Total time: 15m
Equipment:
Blender / small food processor - I use a NutriBullet; alternatively you can hand grind with a pestle and mortar
Ingredients:
85g parsley, roughly chopped and tough stems removed - Or more vaguely, a large bunch of parsley. Mine was 150g before removing the stems, and 85g after removing. Get the freshest, greenest parsley you can find.
2 tbsp capers (about 25g)
5 oil-packed anchovy fillets (about 18g) - Ortiz is my preferred brand
2 cloves garlic, peeled
1 large hard boiled egg (I simmer for 12 minutes)
1 tbsp red wine vinegar (15ml)
100ml extra virgin olive oil (you may need a little more) - I use Olive Branch
Fine sea salt, to taste
Method:
Place all the ingredients except the salt in the blender. Pulse to blend, scraping down the sides as necessary, until all the ingredients incorporate into a sauce. Season to taste, then cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.
Tricks & Techniques: Try to avoid over-blending, as we still want a little bit of texture in the sauce. If the sauce is too clumpy, add a little more olive oil to help it blend together.
Braised Beef Shin & Bone Marrow
This is a bit of a long process. To avoid getting overwhelmed, I break it down mentally into three smaller subcomponents - (1) the basic braised beef; (2) the beef and bone marrow mix; and (3) the sauce.
Total time: 4h 30m / Active time: 1h 40m
Equipment:
Mandoline slicer (recommended)
Large Dutch oven / ovenproof casserole - I use Staub
Large non-stick frying pan
Medium saucepan with lid
Large saucepan
Mesh strainer
Blender / small food processor - I use a NutriBullet
Ingredients:
Half a large Spanish onion (about 250g)
800g beef shin, separated into 4 large chunks - You can ask your butcher to do this for you; alternatively, ox cheek or chuck beef will work fine too
4 x 250g split bone marrow shafts - This should be available from most butchers; it’s better to buy in person so you get big, chunky bone marrows
3 small-medium carrots (about 150g)
6 medium celery stalks (about 150g)
1 medium brown onion (surprise: it’s also about 150g)
600 ml red wine - Which conveniently leaves you a small glass to drink while cooking; any cheap-but-drinkable, medium to full-bodied red wine will do.
1L chicken stock - I use Knorr Chicken Bouillon Paste, which is great for chicken stock on demand.
3 bay leaves
4-5 thyme sprigs
200g butter, cubed
Method:
Preheat the oven to 140°C (fan). Very finely slice the Spanish onion on a mandoline slicer. Heat 1 tbsp oil in a medium saucepan on medium, add the sliced onions, and cover, stirring very occasionally. Cook until soft and deeply caramelised, about 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, make a mirepoix by chopping the carrots, celery and brown onion into rough 1.5 cm dice (this doesn’t need to be particularly neat or precise - the mirepoix is just here to add flavour and will be discarded).
Heat 1 tbsp oil in a large Dutch oven on medium-high heat, and add the mirepoix, cooking until soft and stirring occasionally. At the same time, heat 1 tbsp oil in a large frying pan on high heat, season the beef with salt, and brown in the pan on all sides. Both should take about 10 minutes.
Add the beef to the Dutch oven, pour over the red wine and chicken stock, and add the bay leaves and thyme. Bring to a simmer, then transfer to the oven with the lid covered. Braise in the oven for 2h 30m.
Meanwhile, prepare the bone marrow by scooping out the marrow into a bowl and set aside. Roast the hollow bones in the oven for 20 minutes. Allow to cool, then scrape away any meat or cartilage that’s still attached. Set aside.
When the braise has finished cooking, fish out the chunks of meat with tongs and transfer to a bowl. Flake apart the beef shin using two forks (as if making pulled pork). Turn the oven up to 150°C (fan).
Strain the cooking liquid through a mesh sieve into a large saucepan. Heat the liquid on high and bring to a boil, and reduce by half until there is about 750ml of liquid left, about 15-20 minutes.
When the liquid has reduced, pour out 500ml into a medium saucepan, and set aside (we’ll use this for the sauce later). With the 250ml still remaining in the large saucepan, turn the heat down to medium, and continue reducing until a third is left, or about 75ml. (This should take around 15 minutes - pay attention to the heat as the liquid can start to evaporate very quickly).
In a blender, add the 75ml of reduced liquid and the bone marrow fat, and blend briefly to combine, about 1 minute. It should have the consistency of thick cream. Add the bone marrow mixture and caramelised onions to the pulled beef shin, and mix with a spoon or spatula to combine. Stuff it into the bone marrow shafts, mounding it up (see picture below). Place the stuffed bone marrow in a small baking tray, cover loosely with foil, and set aside.
Make the sauce by heating the 500ml of reduced liquid with the cubed butter in a medium saucepan on high heat, until boiling - it should be bubbling fairly vigorously. Turn down to medium, and reduce for about 15 more minutes. The sauce should be very thick and leave a trail when you stir it (see picture below; go by visual cues rather than exact timing).
Tricks & Techniques: this is where the magic happens - the bubbling emulsifies the sauce without any whisking or blending, resulting in a thick, luxurious sauce.
Troubleshooting: If you heat the sauce for too long, the emulsion can split - you’ll see separated layers of oil and watery sauce. Don’t panic, it’s because too much water has been boiled off. Add 4-5 tablespoons of cold water, give it a quick stir with a whisk, and heat it up again until it returns to the bubbling stage.
Place the foil-covered tray of bone marrow in the oven at 150°C (fan) and roast for 15 minutes.
Plate the bone marrow, spoon the sauce over it, and serve.
Hand & Flowers Carrots
Total time: 50m / Active time: 10m
Equipment:
Large non-stick frying pan
Optional: clean scourer pad - just a standard green scourer pad (I keep a dedicated one for fruit and veg)
Ingredients:
4 medium carrots - Ideally with tops still attached, to use as a garnish
300ml water
125g unsalted butter, cubed
75g caster sugar
4 star anise - You can leave it out if you don’t like aniseed, or substitute with other spices like cloves or coriander seeds to bring some complexity to the glaze
1 tsp fine sea salt
Method:
Peel the carrots and rub with the scourer pad to smooth out the peel marks.
Put water, butter, sugar, star anise, and salt into the frying pan on medium heat, and bring to a boil. Briefly stir to mix the ingredients.
Add carrots and turn the heat down to low. Simmer for 40 minutes, turning the carrots occasionally so that all sides are glazed. Garnish with a small sprig of carrot top.
Tricks & Techniques: These carrots reheat well as they’re cooked very gently. If you fall behind schedule on the rest of the dish, just turn off the heat on the carrots, and reheat them on low heat, 10-15 minutes before finishing.
Joël Robuchon's Pommes Purées aka The Best Mashed Potatoes In The World
Total time: 40m / Active time: 15m
Equipment:
Large, medium, and small saucepan
Potato ricer / food mill (recommended)
Tamis sieve (recommended)
Wooden spoon or spatula
Whisk (recommended)
Ingredients:
500g potatoes, scrubbed - La Ratte or fingerling potatoes are best; alternatively, any good mashing potatoes will do, like small Maris Pipers
125g butter, diced
125ml whole milk
Salt and pepper, to taste
Olive oil / truffle oil to finish (optional)
Method:
You can also just ignore my recipe and follow a video by the legend himself (en français), or by Bruno Albouze (in English). I promise I won’t be offended.
Place the potatoes in a large saucepan with 600ml of cold water (or enough to cover) and a good pinch of salt. Bring to a simmer, cover, and cook until there is little resistance when poked with a paring knife, about 20-25 minutes (timing can vary depending on the size of your potatoes).
Drain the potatoes and peel. Pass the peeled potatoes through a potato ricer, straight into a medium saucepan (alternatively, you can mash but it won’t be as smooth).
Tricks & Techniques: La Ratte potatoes not only taste great in mash, but they’re also small and cook quickly, and their skins usually slip off easily - use a peeler to peel partially, and you should be able to pull off the rest with your fingers.
Cook potatoes briefly on medium heat, stirring the potatoes around to dry them out a little, about 3 minutes. Meanwhile, heat the milk in a small saucepan to a simmer, taking care not to burn.
Turn the heat on the potatoes to low, and add the butter bit by bit, stirring vigorously with a wooden spoon until well-incorporated. Repeat until all the butter has been added - the texture should be almost like a dough. Then, very gradually pour in the hot milk, continuing to stir energetically. Switch to stirring with a whisk as the purée starts to loosen up. Season to taste with salt and pepper. You may need to adjust with a little more or less milk to reach your desired consistency - just be careful to add milk very gradually - we don’t want potato soup.
For a smoother purée, pass it through a fine mesh sieve, and keep warm until ready to serve. Drizzle over a little oil (if using) when serving.
Tricks & Techniques: This is a relatively small portion of mash, so it can get cold quickly. To keep it warm, I either keep it in a tightly covered bowl in the oven (easiest if it’s just going to be a few minutes), or put it back in the saucepan on the lowest heat, stirring in a small splash of milk every few minutes to stop it from drying out (more hassle, but gives you more control).
To assemble and finish
Plating everything up warmly shouldn’t be too hectic (hopefully). The beef shin will be insulated by the bone marrow, and the carrots can be kept warm in the pan for quite a long time, so all you need to do is prioritise the temperature of the pommes purées and sauce. The salsa verde is of course, cold.
Method:
Place bone marrow slightly off centre on the serving plate, and spoon the sauce over it.
Place carrot next to bone marrow.
Dollop a large spoonful of pommes purées on the top right of the plate, and drizzle oil, if using.
Spoon the salsa verde on the bottom right of the plate.
Timing Grid
This grid is designed to help you plan your cooking. Coloured blocks indicate active cooking time.
Most steps have some buffer built in, especially on steps like chopping and peeling - if you have very competent knife skills, you will likely be ahead of schedule.
This is a fairly lengthy cook, but I’ve divided the cooking time into two blocks with a 2 hour break in the middle, which provides quite a lengthy buffer if anything in the first block takes longer, and also provides ample time to get organised for the second block.
Equipment and Ingredients
Potato ricer - Key to a perfectly smooth mash. I prefer triangular ricers to cylindrical because there’s only one moving part, so they’re more durable than the cylindrical / piston ricers.
Tamis sieve- I find these much more versatile than conical sieves, because you can push purées and thicker sauces through them more easily. Also great for sifting flour.
Dislaimer: this is a little awkward, but I want to be 100% transparent so that you can have full confidence in my recommendations. I get paid from Amazon links as part of the Amazon Associate program. I will always check to see if the same product is cheaper elsewhere. I don’t receive payment from any other websites I link to. I will only ever link to brands and products that I personally use.