Beef Chuck Steak with Herb “Curry”

A neighbor came over recently and gave us a nice big bundle of herbs, mainly some robust-looking rosemary, thyme, and oregano. So in his honor, I chopped up a gigantic mound — probably two cups — and set them aside while I pondered what the hell I was going to do with such a large pile of fresh herbs. My kind of problem!

I had taken out of the freezer a two-pound (or so) pack of beef chuck steak (from Chileno Valley Beef), a cut I would normally braise for a few hours with lots of aromatic Indian spices, plus probably some coconut milk and beef stock, for a more-or-less classic beef curry. But the pile of herbs beckoned. Hmm, what about the possiblity of Mediterranean-style cooked-down mass of highly herbed onions and carrots, and braising the beef in that?

I’m happy to report that results were lovely.

Here’s how I did it:

• heavily coat one side of the chuck with freshly ground pepper, coriander seeds, and salt, and brown that in some olive oil/butter. Do the other side in the same crust, and brown that too. Remove from pot and set aside
• Add several cups of finely chopped onions and carrots, and roughly two cups of chopped thyme, oregano, and rosemary, and saute in the same pot.
• Just for fun and for the maximum “curry” effect, chop up several fresh heat-packing chiles of choice. I used a combo of rococo, manzano, and new mexico.
• When all of that is soft, put the beef back in and drizzle in a healthy stream of carrot juice. Cover and cook for about an hour over low heat. Check it — does it need more liquid? If so, decide which liquid.  I used a little homemade beef stock, but I could have used water, wine, other stock, more carrot juice, fruit juice, almost anything really. Cook for another 45 minutes or so, and declare victory

This dish has so much flavor it’s almost overwhelming. And real kick — the chiles did their job admirably. Not exactly what most people would choose to cook on a beautiful, 80-degree day, but what the hell — the smell of the house makes up for any additional heat! The photo above reflects the dish after the first braise, not as I would serve it, of course — the meat has to be deboned and de-fatted. The final plating would look something like this:

Served with a simple salad and some rice, possibly some Japanese-style pickles. My kind of meal!

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