hello this is chef john from food wishes comm with miso braised beef that's right
when the weather turns cold and the days grow shorter the one thing i crave
besides warmer weather and longer days is some good old-fashioned warming from
the inside out comfort food and while these recipes tend to be
classics that we make the same way every time there's no reason we can't tweak a
few of the ingredients to maybe make something a little more interesting and
unusual and that is exactly what I attempted to do here and I think very
successfully so with that let's go ahead and get started by seasoning some beef
and what you're seeing here is a few pounds of beef chuck which is a
wonderful cut to braise and I'm gonna go ahead and season it very generously with
kosher salt freshly ground black pepper and cayenne and you can if you want just
use chunks of beef as long as they're about the same thickness and the only
reason I'm using strips is because the butcher was selling these is boneless
beef country ribs which I'm pretty sure is not actually a thing but anyway long
story short this was actually a dollar cheaper pound than the regular chuck so
that's where I'm going with but any breathable beef will work but anyway
what we'll do once that seasoned is go ahead and sear this over high heat and
some fresh peanut oil and if you're wondering what that is it's literally
the oil that you get at the top of a jar of peanut butter okay when you open a
fresh jar the real stuff you should have about two or three tablespoons of this
stuff at the top and this clear peanut oil is amazing to fryin so I went ahead
and added a couple tablespoons into this pan set over high heat in which we will
Brown our beef and by the way if you haven't recently purchased a big jar of
peanut butter you can just use regular vegetable oil or olive oil for this but
no matter what you use we're gonna want to Brown this very well on high heat
ideally on all four sides which is gonna take you a few minutes and of course
while you're waiting for that to happen you can always prep your other
ingredients and one of those items I want to highlight here are these
gorgeous large king trumpet mushrooms which are pretty much 100% edible and
for this recipe to prep these all we're gonna do is cut them in half and yes any
fresh mushroom will work for this so if you can't find these no worries but if
you can try to use them they're really good
and look super cool so we can go ahead and prep those among other things while
our meats browning and then once we do have our meat Brown to our liking we'll
go ahead and remove that from the pan and we will actually turn off the heat
for a minute and let the pan cool down a little bit and also add a nice big chunk
of butter and as soon as that butter melts we'll turn the heat back on to
medium and then place our mushrooms in cut side down oh and if you want to burn
yourself just throw them in like this with your hands so the butter splashes
up or if you don't want to burn yourself use some tongs but anyway we'll toss
those mushrooms in and cook them over medium heat for about three or four
minutes until they start to lightly Brown at which point we'll flip them
over and give the other side a couple minutes at which point those can be
removed to the same plate as our meat and by the way if you're getting
concerned about how dark the pans getting don't be that is as intentional
as it is necessary and fair warning it's going to get worse because what we'll do
at this point is tossed in a diced onion along with a big pinch of salt and we'll
cook those for three or four minutes until they start to take on some color
as well and I know it's hard to believe
especially if you don't cook a lot but all that charred goodness at the bottom
which our French friends call a fond is not only gonna give our braise a
beautiful deep brown color but it's also gonna add a tremendous amount of flavor
and no it does not taste burnt as you will find out when you make this but
anyway after we've sauteed our onions for a few minutes we will go ahead and
stir in a little bit of wine and I'm using sake here but just a plain old
white wine will work and what's gonna happen is we stir that around there's
all that incredible goodness from the bottom is gonna be released from the pan
and basically form the foundation of our sauce so we will go ahead and stir that
in and it's gonna evaporate fairly quickly but before it does we want to
add the rest of our ingredients which will include about three tablespoons of
yellow miso or as I would have called a golden miso but nobody asked me and then
we'll also want to do a couple tablespoons of maple syrup and no you
may not substitute pancake syrup for this all right please throw that stuff
away and get some maple syrup and then after that we will also do a little bit
of ketchup as well as a nice big splash of chicken stock or broth
or if times are tough some water would work and that's it we'll go ahead and
stir that all together and then as soon as that comes back to a simmer we can go
ahead and add our brown pieces of beef back in along with of course our King
trumpet mushrooms and as always any and all accumulated juices alright those
must be have to be added back in alright you don't put those back in we cannot be
friends and that's it once everything's back in all we're gonna do is cover this
and let it cook on low to medium low heat for about two to three hours or
until our meat is tender and while we don't want a rolling boil we do want a
bit of a simmer so adjust your heat if necessary so it's sort of bubbling like
this and about halfway through after about maybe an hour or so I generally
like to give the meat a flip just to sort of see how things are going and if
it looks like things are drying out I will add another splash of broth but
this was looking just about perfect so I went ahead and covered it back up and
continue cooking down low to medium low for about another hour and a half or
until our meat is fork tender and how we will test this to make sure it's
fork-tender is with a no not spoon fork and a spoon and we really do want that
fork to slide in pretty easily okay we don't want this falling apart but we do
want a very tender and if your meat is fork tender like mine was we will move
into final production which means drizzling in about a tablespoon of the
vinegar of your choice for a little bit of sharpness to balance our Ridge savory
and little bit sweet flavors and then speaking of sharpness we will also toss
in a little bit of sliced green onion and thinly slice Hot Chili Peppers or
sweet if you want that's up to you I mean you are after all the Uncle Buck
of your miso braised chuck so use what you like and that's it what we'll do
once all that's been stirred in is cover this back up and cook it for just five
more minutes at which point theoretically it should be ready to
serve but we don't know for sure until we taste it and adjust the seasoning or
it might need a little touch of salt or if you prefer a little bit of soy sauce
but I determined mine was just right so I went ahead and serve mine up on some
mashed potatoes next to some roasted Romanesco
and for the record this would be just as magnificent over some rice or noodles
but personally mashed potatoes are my favor for this oh and if everything's
gone according to plan when we spoon them up our mushrooms should look just
like pieces of hotdog oh yeah so pretty but anyway I went ahead and finished up
with some sliced green onion and that's it our miso braised beef is ready to
enjoy and that my friends was just like a fall flavor festival in a bowl
all right just very very savory and just a little bit sweet and a little bit
salty and a little bit tangy and a little bit country and a little bit rock
and roll and by the way the knife is not for the beef is to cut through those
glorious mushrooms which are just such incredibly effective sponges soaking in
all this flavor and yes it does help if you cut all the way through there we go
and please believe me when I say those mushrooms were as good if not better
than the actual beef I mean just incredible in fact I think I just
inadvertently showed how to make a world-class vegetarian entree if you did
it without the beef and just use all king trumpet mushrooms or if you have
connections porcini which if you don't are like $30 a pound and yes I was a
little bit stingy with the sauce so I'm gonna add a little more so to recap the
sauce was tremendous the beef was exquisite in the mushrooms sublime and
really my only regret here was not working in any miso puns so for that I
will say me so sorry but anyway that's it where we're calling miso braised beef
what they do with the beef and the mushrooms or just the mushrooms or just
the beef I really do hope you give this a try soon
so head over to food wishes dot-com for all the ingredient amount some more for
as usual and as always enjoy
you