The Braising Method

Braising is simply cooking somethng covered, low and slow in a simmering liquid. Pot roast and Coq au vin, for example.

Hardware:

• Cast iron dutch oven is best. If not, cast iron pan to sear the meat and sautee the vegetables and a pot/casserole/roasting pan to cook the roast in the oven

Ingredients:

• Meat. Bony is best, get a cut with lots of connective tissues. For beef, anything from the chuck primal is good, like 7 blade roast, blade roast, chuck blade roast. Make sure it's cross-cut like a steak
• Spices. Like thyme, cumin, chili powder, coriander, salt, pepper
• Flavorful liquid. Beef or chicken broth, wine, vinegars for example. BUT make sure the flavorful liquid isn't too strong. The end result will be concentrated, so watch out for the salts and vinegars. Should taste good without it being strong before you use it, like a good soup broth. Tomato juice is good too
• Aromatics. Like onions, garlic, celery, leek, carrots. For a pot roast, find something robust, leek would be too gentle and won't come through in the end

Procedures:

• Rub spices on meat, refrigerate up to 2 hours if possible. For red meat, try something like this: 4 part by volume kosher salt, 1 part ground pepper, 1 part spices (combination of 2-3 spices like cumin, coriander and thyme). Grind the spices fresh after toasting it dry if possible. Reserve some for the liquid
• Sear the meat on both sides, high heat 2-3 minutes per side
• Remove meat, turn heat down to medium and add a little bit more oil to the pan/dutch oven and sautee the aromatics until translucent and brown in the edges. If you have left over roasted vegetables, that will do also
• For pot roast, try this as the flavorful liquid to add at this point. 1/4 C balsamic vinegar, 1/2 C tomato juice, 1/4 C reduced sodium beef broth (or vegetable broth or chicken broth or even water)
• Simmer liquid until it's reduced to about half
• Add the meat back in, and put it in 200 degree oven for about 3 hours
• After 3 hours, remove from oven and let it finish cooking on the counter for 30 minutes
• Remove the meat and separate the fat from the cooking liquid
• Taste liquid and add seasonings if necessary, blend the chunks in a blender and add it back in for thickener. If not thick enough, take some of the fat and make a roux to thicken the cooking liquid into gravy
• Serve with roasted red potatoes and other roasted vegetables

Notes:

The same method can be used for whole chickens, ribs (reduce cooking liquid even further to make a glaze and grill or broil the ribs to get the outside crisp), short ribs, briskets, shanks, beef stew, swiss steak, chicken cacciatore, beef bourguignon, and Morroccan tagines. The above can be cooked the same way, just different aromatics, spices and flavorful liquids.