Feather blade is such a good value cut of meat and delicious when cooked low and slow. A great dish for the colder months. Serve with potato, onion & horseradish potatoes and some greens. You can make this in advance and reheat before serving.
Wine suggestion: As this is cooked with Port we’d suggest a dry and full-bodied red wine from Portugal if you can find it. As we’d used Quinta de la Rosa’s Ruby Port for this idish it was approriate to drink their Tinto
Feather Blade Braised in Port – serves 4
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 4 feather blade steaks (about 200g each)
- 1 onion, halved
- 4 cloves of garlic, bashed
- 2 carrots, halved crossways
- a bunch of thyme
- 2 bay leaves
- 4 star anise
- 6 white peppercorns
- 2 tbsp tomato purée
- 300ml port
- 1.2 litres of beef stock
- a little flour to thicken the sauce if you like
Preheat the oven to 140C/120 fan/gas 1.
Heat the oil in a large, ovenproof, casserole dish. Season the steaks with salt, then sear in the oil until browned on both sides, about 5 minutes. Do this in batches if you need so the pan isn’t overcrowded. Transfer to a plate.
Add the onion, garlic, carrots, leek, a small handful of the thyme, bay leaves, start anise and peppercorns and fry for 10-15 minutes or until lightly caramelised. Add the tomato purée and port and simmer for 15 minutes or until the port is reduced and syrupy. Add the beef stock and bing to a gentle simmer. Return the meat and any juices to the pan, then cover and cook in the oven for 3 hours.
Gently remove the steaks from the pan, then strain the sauce into a clean saucepan (discard the veg). Bring the sauce to a fast boil and reduced by about half. We thickened the sauce a little with some flour too but you don’t have to do this. Put the meat in the casserole dish to keep warm while you reduce the sauce. To serve, pour the reduced sauce over the meat in the casserole dish and cover with the lid. Bring to a simmer over a low heat, check the seasoning, then serve.
(Original recipe from Marcus Everyday by Marcus Wareing, HarperCollinsPublishers, 2019.)
Jono & Jules do food & wine 