Several years ago, my boyfriend asked me if I knew how to make braciole. He hadn't had it since his mother had passed away. I read a few recipes, prepped one, and brought it over to his house to pop in the oven on date night. It was very, very chewy.
"My mom always cooked it all day," he said. "It's not really a weeknight thing." As soon as I heard that, I knew that this was a job for the Crock Pot. This takes significantly more prep than your average Crock Pot recipe, and I usually only make it for family gatherings. The flavor is similar to meatballs, but the flank steak is more intensely beefy than ground chuck or ground sirloin.
If you don't have a meat tenderizer and food processor, you can still make this dish, but it will take more time and effort. See the note at the end of the recipe.
I can fit 4 flank steaks in my 5 quart oval crock pot. If you have a round crock pot, you might want to cut each flank steak in half before rolling and tying.
Sorry for the lack of measurements, but this is one of the things where I really don't measure anything, but go by feel. The stuffing isn't a thick layer -- it's a line of green down the roll that makes infuses the meat with flavor. You have to have some fresh herbs to get that green bulk, but I usually use a mixture of fresh and dried to keep the cost under control.
2 flank steaks (a total of 2-3 lbs)
Filling
2 - 2 1/2 small slices bread (to make ~ 1 c. fresh bread crumbs) -
1/3 ~ 1/2 c. shredded Parmesan, Asiago, Romano or any other hard cheese (pre-shredded tubs OK).
3 -4 cloves of garlic
1 bunch flat leaf parsley
3/4 oz packet fresh oregano, divided
Dried basil
Dried thyme
Fresh or dried rosemary
Freshly ground pepper
Kosher salt
2 ~ 3 Tbsp Extra virgin olive oil
1 egg
Butcher's string for tying
Sauce
1 onion finely chopped
4-5 cloves garlic, chopped or pressed
5 oz (1 "glass") Cabernet Sauvignon or other red wine that goes well with beef
3 oz of tomato paste14.5 oz. can diced tomatoes (fire roasted if possible)
14.5 oz can crushed tomatoes (with basil if available -- or add an extra teaspoon of dried basil)
Dried thyme
Fresh oregano (the rest of the packet)
Fresh or dried rosemary (optional)
Fresh, dried, or frozen basil
On a clean cutting board, pound each flank steak until it reduced to about half of the original thickness. The pounding is faster and easier if you use a 45 blade meat tenderizer first. I pierce each side of the steak about 30 times before I start pounding, and usually go back to pierce the center a few more times to get it to flatten out. If you overdo it with the tenderizer, it will pound into hamburger, so it's better to err on the side of piercing too little than too much.
If you have a round slow cooker, cut each steak in half before setting it aside on a plate or cookie sheet. Wash your hands to prevent covering all of the your tools with slippery beef fat and juices.
To make the filling, drop the garlic cloves into a running food processor fitted with a metal blade, and process until the garlic is all stuck to the side in little bits. Turn off the food processor and add the bread. Pulse until the bread is chopped into uniform crumbs. You may have top open the processor and reposition pieces to get it all evenly chopped. Fresh breadcrumbs are much coarser than the ready-made ones you buy in a can.
Scrape the bread and garlic into a medium sized bowl. Pull the leaves off of about 1/3 of the bunch of parsley, and half of the fresh oregano and pile them on the cutting board. Add any other fresh herbs you're using, and chop them finely with knife or mezzaluna. Add the fresh herbs and shredded cheese to the filling, along with any dried herbs you like. I usually use about 1 tsp thyme, 3 tsp dried basil, and a little rosemary. I sometimes toss in dried parsley as well. Drizzle a couple tablepoons of olive oil into the filling, and break in an egg. Stir until everything is evenly mixed. The filling should be moist but crumbly. Press the filling into an even layer in the bowl, and score it in half if you're leaving the flank steaks whole. (Quarters if you cut them in half.)
Set your butcher's twine next to the cutting board, and have a small sharp knife handy -- or cut yourself eight to ten pieces 8-10 inches long.
Return one piece of steak to the cutting board, with the grain running from left to right. Season the meat lightly with salt and generously with pepper. Using your hands, scoop a portion of the filling onto the flank steak. Spread and pat the filling into a thin layer cover the steak from the edge nearest you to the about 1 inch away from the far edge. Starting with the edge nearest you, carefully roll the steak up like a jelly roll. Tie the string around the roll about every 2 inches with a square knot. (4 or 5 ties per flank whole flank steak) Trim off the dangling ends of string with a sharp knife or scissors.
Fill and roll with the other flank steak. At this point you can put the braciole in the fridge overnight, or go ahead and cook it.
When you're ready to cook the braciole, assembly all of the ingredients for the sauce. Open the cans, and chop any fresh herbs you're using now, so they're ready to go.
Heat a 12 inch skillet over medium-high heat, and add a thin coating of high smoke-point oil or bacon fat. Place the braciole into the hot oil, and turn them occasionally to get as much of the surface brown as possible. If some of the filling leaks out, scoop it out of the oil and toss it into the slow cooker. You'll have time while the meat is browning to finely chop the onion and garlic for the sauce. (Again, I usually use the food processor here, to get a fine texture that melts into the sauce.)
When the meat is brown on all sides, transfer it to the slow cooker. If you have a lot of oil in the skillet, drain some of it off -- a good bit of fat will come out of the meat as it cooks. Add the onion and garlic to the pan, and stir occasionally to pick up all the browned bits. Stir in the wine, and allow it come to a boil. Pour one can of tomatoes over the meat in the crock pot. Pour the other can into the skillet, and add the herbs and tomato paste. Stir until everything is evenly combined and cook until the sauce starts bubbling, and carefully pour it into the slow cooker.
Cover the crock pot and cook until you can pull shreds off the meat with a fork -- but no so long that the meat has fallen apart into the sauce. To get a double-batch fully cooked, and falling-apart tender in 6 hours, I usually set the Crock Pot on high for 2 hours, and then reprogram it to low for the next 4 hours.
When the meat is tender enough to pull shreds off with a fork, turn off the crock pot. If there are pools of fat floating on top of the sauce, skim most of it off with large spoon. Remove the braciole from the sauce and set it on a cutting board or platter. Tent it with foil, and allow it rest / cool for a few minutes. Use a sharp knife and tongs or a fork to cut the string and remove it, and then cut the braciole into 1 1/2 ~ 2 inch pieces with a sharp knife. The ends probably won't be very pretty, but you'll get some picture-perfect spirals out of the center. If you're going to serve pasta with the braciole, toss it with some of the sauce. You can pour the rest of the sauce on a serving platter and arrange the meat on top of it, or pass sauce separately in a large gravy boat or bowl with a ladle.
You don't have to serve this with pasta -- polenta (either freshly cooked or sliced and fried) or mashed potatoes also go well with this dish.
NOTE: If you don't have a food processor, you can chop, press, or grate the garlic -- or even used frozen garlic cubes. I don't recommend jarred garlic ever for anything, but if that's what you normally use go ahead.
You can make fresh bread crumbs by grating the bread on the coarse side of a box grater. I find this a little easier to do if the bread is frozen.
No comments:
Post a Comment