Winter in New England is the time for braising: slow-cooking inexpensive cuts of meat with herbs and wine until the meat is melt-in-your-mouth tender and you have a rich flavorful sauce. This recipe is adapted from America’s Test Kitchen Cookbook and uses Chinese Five Spice Powder in the sauce. The warm spices that comprise Five Spice Powder (star anise, clove, cinnamon, and fennel) contribute an extra dimension to the richness of the flavorful tomato, mushroom, and wine-based sauce. Adding a small amount of tomato puree at the end of the braise brightens the final product and tempers the pungency of the Five Spice Powder. Serve over your favorite starch: rice, pasta, potatoes, or polenta accompanied by green beans or sugar snap peas, or a green salad with a tangy vinaigrette. If you want a more traditional ragu consistency, shred the tender chunks of braised beef with two forks or a knife and fork. Either way, I hope you enjoy this wonderful recipe.

Serves 4

Ingredients:

1 ½ cups beef broth + ½ cup of chicken or beef broth (see Note)
½ ounce dried porcini mushrooms (or dried shiitake if you can’t find porcini)
1-2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves
1 tablespoon tomato paste
3 anchovy fillets, rinsed, patted dry (or 1 ½ teaspoons anchovy paste)
½ teaspoon five-spice powder
½ cup dry red wine
14.5 ounce can of whole peeled tomatoes in puree drained and crushed or well-chopped; puree reserved (5 or 6 tomatoes)
1 1/2- 2 pounds of boneless beef short ribs or chuck roast, fat trimmed
1 cup tomato puree (reserved)

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350 with the rack positioned in the middle position.

Microwave ½ cup of beef broth with the mushrooms in a covered microwave-safe container until steaming hot. Let mushrooms sit and soften in the broth for at least 5 minutes. (Alternatively, heat the broth on the stove until hot, add the mushrooms, cover and allow the mushrooms to soften for at least 5 minutes.)
Drain the mushrooms in a fine-mesh strainer lined with a paper coffee filter. Press the mushrooms to release all the liquid; reserve the liquid and finely chop the softened mushrooms.
Trim the beef and cut into 1 ½ inch pieces. Sprinkle the beef chunks with salt and pepper.
Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a dutch oven over med-high heat and brown the beef. (working in two batches will allow the beef to brown better.) Tent the beef and set aside.
Add another tablespoon of oil in the same pot and add the chopped onions; cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally until translucent and tender (about 5 minutes); add the minced garlic and cook for an additional 1-2 minutes. (don’t burn the garlic!)
Add the tomato paste, anchovies, and five-spice powder and cook stirring frequently for 4-5 minutes until a dark crusty fond forms on the bottom of the pot.
Add the wine, increase the heat to med-high and bring to a simmer, stirring up any browned bits of fond; cook until almost all the wine is evaporated and the pot is almost dry (3-5 minutes).
Add the chopped, crushed tomatoes, a cup of beef broth, the ½ cup of mushroom/beef soaking liquid and chopped mushrooms and bring to a simmer.
Add the beef chunks, cover and cook in the oven for 2 hours until the beef is very tender.
Remove the pot from the oven and let it cool down for a few minutes (it’s hot!). You should have a thick sauce with tender pieces of beef. Taste it. You can serve it like this, or if you want a bit more fresh tomato flavor and a slightly thinner sauce add 1/2- 1 cup of reserved tomato puree and a half cup of chicken or beef broth. Simmer gently over low heat for an additional ½ hour to integrate the fresh tomato puree flavor into the sauce.

Serve over egg noodles or farfalle, or Creamy Parmesan Polenta. The sauce can be refrigerated in a covered container for 3 days or frozen for two months.

*Note: if you don’t want to make your own beef broth, use prepared beef broth from the soup section of the supermarket. Alternatively, you can add 1 ½ teaspoons of beef base concentrate like “Better than Bouillon” added to 1 ½ cups of chicken broth or water.

Pairing wine with 5 Spice powder can be challenging. Try balanced, medium full-bodied red wines with some fruit-forward like a Syrah from the Rhone Valley, Garnacha/Grenache, or fruit-forward Pinot Noir. Avoid high tannin wines.

Adapted from: America’s Test Kitchen Twentieth Anniversary T.V. Cookbook,

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