Braised shin of beef

The shin is absolutely full of flavour and is a really under-rated cut of beef. Keep it simple and slow cook in a rich beefy sauce for best effect!

You’re definitely best heading to a reputable local butcher to source the meat!  I can highly recommend George Bower in Stockbridge, Edinburgh.

Here’s my recipe:

2kg shin of beef, trimmed and filleted into roughly 5/6cm chunks
1 bottle of dry red wine
2 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
1 medium carrot, diced
1 medium onion diced
1 bay leaf
1-1.15 litre of rich beef stock

1 litre of chicken stock
2 or 3 sprigs of thyme
1 tablespoon sun-dried tomato paste or a few sun-dried tomatoes
2 garlic cloves
30g plain flour
1 sprig of rosemary

Place the beef fillets and bone into a dish and cover with the bottle of red wine.  Marinate for 24 hours.

Remove the meat from the wine, season, and brown on all sides on a high heat in an oven proof pan.  Remove the meat when browned and add the onion, carrot and celery.  Brown the vegetables and place the meat back in the pan along with the reserved red wine.

When the wine has a slightly syrupy consistency, add the plain flour. When the flour is mixed in start adding both the chicken and beef stock then add the remaining ingredients.

Transfer to a pre-heated oven at around 160 degrees and cook for around 3 hours.

Strain the sauce (it should have a nice syrupy consistency) through a fine sieve and pour over the beef.

Serve with baby carrots or mashed potatoes.