Honeyed braised veal that melts in your mouth

Everyone's favorite food is roast beef that melts in the mouth, who doesn't have childhood memories of family gathered around the table, especially on Sundays? We enjoy it together with fried potatoes, mashed potatoes, rice or spaghetti. The recipe is easy and always a success! All it takes is good meat, delicious tomatoes and lots of love!

Materials

For the braised beef
1,200 gr. calf
3-4 sheets garlic
Salt
Pepper
4-5 tbsp. olive oil
1 large dry onion (very finely chopped)
2 carrots
1 strand. celery
1 tbsp pelt
2 packs peeled whole pomontories
1 fl. dry white wine
A little warm water (or chicken stock)
1 bay leaf
Spice
Cloves
Cinnamon

For serving

1 pack thick spaghetti
A lot of kefalotiri (finely grated)


Dry the veal very well with absorbent kitchen paper, so that there is no moisture on it.

Finely chop the garlic on our counter with a knife or chop the cloves and add plenty of salt and pepper.

Mix the garlic with salt and pepper.

Pierce the meat in places with a pointed knife and insert the garlic with salt and pepper into the meat with your finger.

Tie the meat to keep its shape.

Put olive oil in a large pot and over a high heat brown it very well all around for about 7-8 minutes so that it forms a crust all around.

Take it out on a plate and keep it covered for a while

Lower the heat and add the chopped vegetables and saute for 4-5 minutes, stirring.

You can chop all the vegetables in the blender with intermittent pulse but do not puree them. We want them in 3-4 mm brinoise-like pieces.

Add the tomato paste and rub it into the base of the pot.

We extinguish with the wine. Let the wine almost evaporate and the pot dry.

Put the meat with all the juices it has extracted on the plate back into the sauce.

Melt the whole peeled pomontoria (tomatoes) with your hands in a bowl and add them to the pot.

Let it boil.

Lower the heat and add a little hot water or broth, about 2 fl.

Add the bay leaf and allspice.

Cover the food and simmer on low heat until the meat is tender and the sauce thickens for about 2 hours.

Boiling time always depends on how tender the meat is

The beef is also made in the kettle, thus reducing the boiling time.

After the meat has softened, cut it into smaller pieces and leave it in its sauce to simmer for an additional 10-15 minutes and absorb the sauce.

It is the time when we flavor the food with some cloves and cinnamon.

I tie 2-3 cloves, 1 small piece of cinnamon stick and put it in the pot for a while towards the end.

I leave them for a few minutes and remove them so that everyone wonders if the beef has spices or not.

Add salt and pepper towards the end of boiling.
For the spaghetti

Boil the thick spaghetti after the meat has boiled.

We drain them very well because they keep water in the hole inside.

Put them in a bowl and pour over them with a little sauce from the roast beef.

Stir them until they are red and coated with sauce.

We put them on a large plate, put the braised meat on them and pour over it with its rich sauce.

We serve them with plenty of kefalotyri immediately.

Secrets to the best roast

How do I achieve the tastiest roast beef?
How do I make the meat tender and melt in the mouth?
How do I make a great braised sauce?

These are the most common questions you ask me and here I have all the secrets to make the best roast beef for your tables. Follow my instructions closely and rest assured, everyone will be blown away by your technique and cooking.
Proper armor, the greatest secret
Allow the meat to come to room temperature before cooking. There is nothing worse than a frozen piece of meat going into a hot pot to brown. Immediately the temperature of the oil will drop and instead of browning and caramelizing on the outside, it will begin to boil and fill your pot with liquid. Instead of browning, it will simply turn a boiled color and you will lose half of its deliciousness. At the same time, the meat dries out and no matter how much you boil it, it will become dry inside.
Dry the meat very well before going into the browning pot.
For the shielding, use a thick-based plasote pot over high heat with a little olive oil. This way, the meat will get a nice pink color on all its sides and so the food will become very tasty.
You have to sear the pieces of meat a little at a time, because if you put too many in the pot instead of browning and crusting, the temperature of the oil will drop, they will start to release their juices and instead of being properly seared with a nice crust, they will start to boil.
With shielding – browning what we achieve is a nice pink crust all around. Which will retain all the juices of the meat inside during cooking. 50% of the deliciousness of the roast is in the correct browning.
Deglazing, the technique that condenses all the aromas and enhances the flavor of the stew
Every time we shield - we brown the meat all around for the roast, down at the base of the pot, the juices of the meat solidify due to the high temperature. So you see the caramelized juices of the meat crystallizing at the base of the pot.
So then, add - extinguish the meat, with wine or meat broth and rub - deglaze the base of the pot. In this way, the solidified juices of the meat become liquid again and all the aromas of the wine are combined with the taste of the meat. This is how we enhance the deliciousness of the stew even more.

What is the trio of ingredients that will make your food unique?

Dry onion, carrot and celery chopped into cubes in the sauteed meat will give a great taste and aroma to your stew. Don't miss them if you want everyone to talk about the unique deliciousness of your food.
Sautéing a little tomato paste in the stew will deepen its flavor and give your food a musky summer smell. In general, the tomato paste gives extra flavor to the stews and binds the stewed sauces beautifully.

How can I achieve very soft and juicy meat in the braise?

Following all the above but having patience and respect for your materials. The meat should be cooked on a low heat for about 2 hours, so that the connective tissues soften and the meat becomes tender and melts in the mouth. It is essential to simmer the stew covered so that the liquids of the sauce do not evaporate and it becomes soft and delicious.
Which cut of meat is ideal for braising?
Ideally use shoulder, because it is rich in intramuscular fat and this will help to grease the meat during boiling. As a result you will have the softest and most tender food.
What is the ideal accompaniment for braised meat?
Here I will tell you that, about appetite…. spaghetti, rice, mashed potatoes, mashed aubergine, dumplings and whatever else you like is purely a personal choice.