- 3 kg of beef for slow roasting in one piece no bones (english skirt, Portuguese, cozer sem ossos)
- 1 medium size red pepper
- 8 / 10 big cloves of garlic
- 2 /3 teaspoons of cooking salt
- 1 large glass of red wine
- 1.5 – 2 teaspoons of freshly ground pepper
- Gravy browning
- Hendersons Relish or Worcestershire Sauc
Takes all day to marinate and cook but very easy to prepare
1. Cut 3, 1 cm deep slashes across the top of the meat, turn it over and cut 3 more slashes on the bottom.
2. Put the meat in to an enamelled dutch oven / covered roasting pan, or into a stainless steel or big glass dish.
3. Roughly chop the red pepper and peel the garlic, put both into a container along with the wine salt and pepper and using a magimix process in short burst until you have a marinade liquid.
4. Pour this marinade over the meat and work it into the slashes.
5. Leave for 4 / 6 hours, turning and rubbing in the marinade every hour if possible.
6. Preheat the oven to 160 degrees Centigrade
7. If the meat is in an enamelled dutch oven / covered roasting pan put it into the oven (covered), if not put the meat into a roasting pan and cover tightly with foil (you need to keep the juices in !)
8. Put in the preheated oven an cook for about 4 hours. Turn the meat every hour to ensure that all of it gets to be in the sauce to cook
9. Take the meat out the oven remove from the sauce and put onto a carving dish , cover in foil and leave to sit in a warm place for 30 minutes.
10. Meanwhile bring the sauce up to the boil and reduce until it has thickened to a nice pouring consistency. Add a few drops of gravy browning to improve the colour, and a teaspoon of Hendersons Relish or Worcestershire Sauce, taste and alter the seasoning as required.
11. Cut the meat into thick slices and serve with boiled or mashed potatoes / green vegetables and the sauce. Great for sandwiches the next day if you can get people not to eat it all !!
One of Rowena’s own dishes inspired by reading lots of Portuguese cookery books. First served February 2010.