Jay's shin of beef recipe

Rediscover a classic British recipe with this shin of beef from Food: What Goes in your Basket?

Serves 4 people

Ingredients

1kg shin of beef - meat pre-cut by a local butcher
Salt and pepper for seasoning
Oil
135g chopped spicy chorizo ring
50g chopped leek
Half a stick chopped celery
60g chopped carrot
84g chopped onion
2 gloves of crushed garlic
1 bottle of ale or red wine
1 pint chicken stock made from chicken stock cube
Sprig of bay leaf, thyme and parsley for the bouquet garni (wrapped in leek and tied with a string) / mixed herbs
1 tbsp brown sugar
Flat leaf parsley to garnish

METHOD

How to make Jay's shin of beef

1. Season shins with salt and pepper then sear off in oil until browned. Remove from casserole and reserve. In the same oil cook off the chopped cooking chorizo sausage. Add classic mire poix - chopped carrots, celery, leek, onion. Caramelise. Add a couple of crushed cloves of garlic. Cook for a couple more minutes.

2. Deglaze with a glass of ale, reduce until thickens. Add the rest of the bottle, bring back to simmer. Return shins. If not fully covered top up with chicken stock from cube. You could add bouqet garni or just a teaspoon of mixed dried herbs. Stir in a tablespoon of brown sugar.

3. Cover and put in pre-heated oven for four hours at 130°C. The meat is ready when it starts to fall apart on a fork.

4. Now... Strain off all the liquid into another pan, leaving the shins by themselves covered in the pan to rest. Reduce the liquor by half. It will thicken and the flavour deepen. Return the shins and serve with lots of chopped flat leaf parsley. Done.