Beef Roast with Chickpea Cream
Beef roast cooked and served in small individual portions. Racion, as the Spanish would say. I like this style of serving food, it's ideal for my parties with more people (not the case now, but good times are coming back, I'm sure) or when serving several courses at a meal. For the upcoming Easter, for example 😉
I find chuck the most worthwhile cut of beef when I want to cook it slowly in the oven, in stews, or to add it to ground meat mixes. The taste-to-price ratio is very good. At a restaurant I once ate grilled beef chuck and was surprised how tasty and tender it was. Maybe slightly fattier than the steaks I'm used to, but very flavorful. Worth trying myself in the future.
This time I prepared it braised in a Dutch oven, 3 hours at low temperature, glazed it in a tasty butter-based sauce and placed it on a smooth chickpea cream. Wonderful result with a maximum of 20 minutes of actual work time.
Ingredients
600-700g beef chuck
1 large garlic clove
1 teaspoon ground hot pepper in oil (or hot pepper paste; or sweet pepper paste if you don't want it spicy)
1 level tablespoon butter
zest of 1/4 lemon
2 tablespoons rice vinegar (or apple cider)
2 tablespoons oil
salt, black pepper
Chickpea Cream
250g cooked chickpeas (+ 175ml cooking water)
2 large garlic cloves
1/4 teaspoon chili flakes
1 sprig rosemary
1 bay leaf
1 tablespoon oil
salt, black pepper
parsley oil (for garnish)
Servings: 4
How to prepare beef roast with chickpea cream
- Cut the beef into large pieces/cubes (about 6 pieces). Sprinkle with salt and black pepper on all sides. Place in a Dutch oven wide enough to fit the meat in a single layer with a little space between pieces. Pour the oil over the meat and then the vinegar.
- Cover the Dutch oven (with a lid or foil) and cook the meat for 2.5 hours at 150C. Turn off the oven but leave the covered pot in the oven for another 30 minutes (or even longer if you have time; it can be left until it cools).
- In a wide pan, heat the oil and add the crushed garlic, chili, bay leaf broken in two and the sprig of rosemary. Saute everything until the garlic smells pleasant (about 30 seconds). Add the cooked chickpeas and water, salt and black pepper and bring to a boil. Simmer for 5 minutes. Remove the bay leaf and rosemary.
- Blend the entire contents of the pan in a food processor or blender until you have a smooth cream. It may seem a bit too soft right after blending, but if you leave it 15 minutes to cool it will thicken.
- When the beef is done, remove the Dutch oven from the oven and move to the stove. The meat should now be soft, easy to break apart with a fork. And if you used a Dutch oven, it should also be quite browned and only a little fat should remain in the pot, no other liquid. If the meat isn't browned, turn the heat under the Dutch oven to medium and brown the pieces of meat in the remaining fat until nicely browned on all sides.
- Over the browned meat add the crushed garlic and hot pepper paste and stir quickly for about 1 minute, until the garlic smells nice. If the Dutch oven seems very hot during this time and you see the garlic burning, pull the pot off the heat and stir to coat the meat with the flavors.
- Add the butter and stir just until it melts and coats the meat, making it glossy. Pull the pot off the heat and add the lemon zest. Mix well so the meat absorbs the flavors.
- On a smaller plate, put 2 tablespoons of chickpea cream in the center and place 1-2 pieces of meat on top, being careful to pour some sauce from the pot over the meat too. Drizzle a little parsley oil around.
