Chef's Beef Paleron
serves 4-6 total time 14 hours total prep time ~1 hr
INSTRUCTIONS:
1. In a very large roasting pan or dutch oven place 2-3 tablespoons of clarified butter (or a mix of olive oil and good salted butter) on medium, medium-high heat.
2. Cut the beef chuck in half, lengthwise. Brown the beef - one at a time - in the butter, evenly, on all sides. Remove from pan and set aside.
3. Add the onions, carrots and celery to the pot (along with a generous pinch of salt) and sweat, stirring occasionally until onions are clear; this should take about 5-10 minutes (I tend to turn the heat down a bit at this point.) Then add the mushrooms, continue to cook on medium, stirring occasionally, for another 5 minutes, or until the mushrooms have let go of most of their moisture (I tend to turn the heat up a bit at this point.)
4. Turn the heat up even more (medium high) and add the calf foot. Continuously stir for several minutes, turn the heat back down to medium and then deglaze with all of the wine. Add the beef back into the pot along with the bouquet garni, the peppercorns, cumin, and chili powder and stir. Turn the heat up so that the juice simmers and reduce the wine by half. This should take 15-20 minutes.
5. Pour the beef stock over the recipe, seal the pot tightly with foil and then cover with an oven proof lid.
6. Place in the oven at 195 Fahrenheit for 12 hours.
7. Remove the meat from the pan, place on a platter and cover with foil.
8. Strain the sauce into a sauce pan and reduce to a glaze (this takes some time) and whisk in the butter. At this point, the sauce should be very thick and shiny.
* I have had no luck finding a calf foot in VA. Instead, I used pig's feet which gave a bit of a different (but still yummy) flavor and the same amount of collagen needed to thicken the sauce.
BON APPETIT!
