Mediterranean Pulled Beef

You will love this recipe for Mediterranean Pulled Beef. The slow cooking method ensures that the beef is meltingly tender, and as it slowly cooks, the beef absorbs the Mediterranean flavours of garlic, onion, rosemary, oregano and tomatoes. A less expensive cut of meat is transformed into a flavour-filled dish, and as the cooking time is mostly hands-off, dinner time is made easy with this delicious beef recipe. Serve with creamy polenta, crusty bread, over pasta and more.

Course Main Course

Cuisine Mediterranean

Prep Time 30

Cook Time 4 30

Resting Time 10

Total Time 5 10

Servings people

Calories 557kcal

Author Alexandra Cook - It's Not Complicated Recipes

Ingredients

1.5 kg (3.3 lbs) boneless bolar beef/blade – trussed if necessary See Notes 1 and 2
3 large garlic cloves – cut into thin slivers
1 stalk fresh rosemary
½ teaspoon cooking sea salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil See Note 3
2 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon fresh rosemary - finely chopped
2 large brown/yellow onions peeled and cut into thick wedges – leave some of the root end so they’re secure
1 cup (250 ml) beef stock See Note 4
2 ¼ cups (560 ml) tomato passata See Note 5
¼ teaspoon dried red chilli pepper flakes
fresh basil leaves - finely chopped, for serving

Instructions

Remove the beef from the fridge. If necessary, remove excess fat and truss the meat. Using a sharp knife, make a deep insert into the fat side of the flesh and insert a sprig of rosemary (about 5 leaves) into the flesh along with a garlic sliver. Use the tip of a blunt nose knife to push them down.
Repeat this procedure on all sides, leaving a space of about 2.5 cm (1 inch) between.
Rub the salt and black pepper all over the beef and set aside at room temperature for 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 140 degrees C. (285 F)
After the 15 minutes, pat the beef dry with a paper towel.
In a large, heavy-based Dutch Oven or oven-safe saucepan with a tight-fitting lid, on your stove top, heat the olive oil on medium-high heat.
Add the beef, fat-side down, and brown for 3–5 minutes. Turn the meat over and continue to brown all sides for 3–5 minutes.
Turn the heat off on the stovetop. Add the onion wedges to the saucepan and sprinkle the dried oregano and chopped rosemary on the beef.
If you have any leftover garlic slivers, add them to the pan.
Pour the beef stock and tomato passata around the side of the meat. Put the lid on the saucepan and place in the preheated oven.
After about 1 ½ hours, carefully remove from the oven and check that there is sufficient liquid - there should be plenty. If there isn't, add a little more stock.
Baste the beef with the juices and return to the oven for another 3 hours, basting again once more during the cooking process.
Carefully remove the beef from the saucepan onto a board, cover with foil and rest for 10 minutes. (It will be very fragile – so ensure it is supported as you lift it out.)
Shred the beef and return to the tomato sauce. Serve with the finely chopped fresh basil.
Optional: While the meat is resting, use a ladle to remove excess fat that has risen to the surface from the pan juices.

Notes

Boneless bolar beef: if necessary, you may need to truss the beef. We do this for two reasons; to help the meat have a more uniform shape and therefore cook more evenly. The butcher may have already trussed the meat or be happy to do it for you. But if not, it’s not difficult. There are classic techniques used by butchers. They use a continuous length of twine, using specific knots, but you can get a good result with a simpler method. To begin, you will need kitchen twine. Shape the bolar blade with your hands and bring a loop of twine around, tie it as tightly as you can and cut off the ends. Repeat at 2.5 cm/1 inch intervals. It will still give you a good result.
Other cuts of beef: brisket is also suitable. It comes from the breast section, under the first 5 ribs. Look for a cut that has good fat marbling. Chuck is also excellent. It comes from the upper shoulder, has rich flavour, a good amount of connective tissue and internal marbled fat and becomes very tender. We have found that these cuts take 30-60 minutes less cooking time, however, just check throughout the process that you're happy with the tenderness.
Tablespoon: we use a standard Australian tablespoon which is 20 ml (4 teaspoons). For readers located elsewhere in the world, please use 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon for each listed tablespoon.
Stock: it is unlikely you will need to add more liquid, but if you find it drying out when you check it, add a little more stock to the pan. We recommend using a flavoursome homemade stock or good quality commercial stock.
Tomato passata: this is pureed, strained, tomatoes, generally sold in glass bottles. If you are not able to source this, you can use the same quantity of canned, crushed tomatoes.
Storage: cool leftovers as quickly as possible and store in the fridge in an airtight container for up to three days. However, for safety reasons, if the beef has been at room temperature for two hours, it should be discarded.
Freezing: freeze leftovers in a freezer-safe container for up to 2 months. Cool the beef, separate it into portions, wrap in cling wrap and store in a freezer safe container or ziplock bag.
Reheating: gently reheat in the frying pan, oven or microwave, adding some liquid stock or water if necessary to keep the flesh moist.
Servings: will serve 6-8 people, depending on what it is served with/how you use it. Some ideas include: on top of creamy polenta, crusty bread, your favourite pasta or as a side to a green salad and roasted vegetables.

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