Robert's braised beef with a Calvados soft plum sauce

Ingredients for 6 servings:

• 1.8 kg roast beef, preferably from the rump, trimmed, I leave the fat on
• 3 tbsp clarified butter
• 2 large onions, brown, peeled, diced
• 1 large parsley root(s), peeled, roughly diced
• 3 large carrots, peeled, quartered lengthwise, then roughly diced
• 7 cloves garlic, peeled, halved and sliced
• 2 tbsp instant flour (Vienna semolina flour)
• 10 cl Calvados
• 10 soft plums
• 600 ml beef stock
• 4 sprigs of thyme
• Sea salt, from the mill

Instructions

Working time approx. 30 minutes; Cooking/baking time approx. 3 hours 10 minutes; Total time approx. 3 hours 40 minutes

from the wood-fired oven

Take the meat out of the fridge at least 2 hours before cooking. The bigger the meat, the sooner. Preheat the oven to approximately 180°C (top/bottom heat). I cook it in a wood-fired oven. Heat the clarified butter in a roasting pan (a Dutch oven works great too) and brown the meat all over. Remove the meat and keep warm. Add the vegetables to the roasting pan and sizzle. This will loosen any browned meat juices immediately. Once the meat has taken on a nice color, add the garlic and sizzle for another minute (if the garlic gets too brown, it will become bitter). Dust with flour (I deliberately use Viennese Griesler flour because it doesn’t clump) and stir well again. Add the Calvados. If you want the flavor to be more intense, you can increase the amount. Add the soft plums (I use these because they dissolve nicely during the braising process, and the flavor is then absorbed into the sauce), along with the thyme and 400 ml of the beef stock. Stir well again, cover, and place in the oven for 3 hours (on the middle rack of the oven). Turn the meat every half hour and scrape up any drippings from the bottom. Add more beef stock as needed. The meat should almost fall apart. The sauce will then have become wonderfully thick. I consider pureeing completely unnecessary. You can see what’s in it. Season with a little sea salt, if desired. Remove the thyme sprigs. Side dishes: I use my spaetzle recipe for this. https://www.chefkoch.de/rezepte/1983271321626444/Champagner-Topfen-Spaetzle.html These are also wonderful to prepare in advance. I always make three times the amount and then freeze them in portions. Simply sauté in clarified butter (preferably in an iron skillet). I served Brussels sprouts as a side dish. I sautéed them with bacon bits and goose fat, then poured over beef stock (I had 200 ml left in the jar, so it was a perfect way to use it up). Tip: Make sure you make more than you need. It tastes wonderful reheated, too.