koko's corner

If you're not lucky like me and have a nice secret Santa that sent you the Italian seasoning spice blend needed for the beef, the recipe is included at the end of the post.

My secret Santa also included the Street Food of Chicago cookbook. I used Gene's <my secret Santa> Italian seasoning spice. The rest of the ingredients and procedure I cobbled together from two recipes from the cookbook and Gene's recipe. 

The two roasts together weighed a total of 5 pounds. Brown the roast well on all sides in a large skillet. Remove and set aside, reserving any pan juices. 

Generously coat the browned roast with some of the seasoning blend. 

Cover the bottom of a roasting pan with beef broth that has been seasoned with the beef seasoning blend. The beef broth should come up to the bottom of the roasting rack.

Place the roast on the rack and put into the preheated oven until the internal temperature reaches 130*F.

While the roast is in the oven prepare the beef juice.

Add any pan juices left from browning the roast to a large dutch oven or stock pot. If needed add some vegetable oil. 

Add hot sausage links and cook until browned. 

When browned, remove sausage and set aside. 

To the oil and fat in the pot add the onion,

green pepper, and sauté for a few minutes.

Next add the sliced garlic and sauté one minute more.

Add some seasoning blend to the pot,

some corn starch,

beef broth,

diced tomatoes,

the browned sausage links,

sliced pepperoncini, 

Worcestershire sauce and kitchen bouquet,

dry white wine,

and hot giardiniera mix. 

Simmer for a few hours to develop the flavors. 

Remove the sausage and strain the juices.

Push down on the solids to remove all the juices.

In the meantime the roast has reached 130 internal temperature.

Mmmm perfect.

Some recipes call for slicing the beef and covering the slices with the beef broth and refrigerating overnight, some call for covering the unsliced roast with the beef broth and refrigerating overnight.

I did both, but only after I made myself a sandwich first. I don't know about you, but I don't have the will power to wait until the next day to eat such a wonderful meal.

After I sliced enough meat for a sandwich and covered the slices with some of the beef broth, the remainder of the roast was covered with beef juices and refrigerated.

I sliced the smaller of the two roasts and left the larger one whole before covering with the beef broth. I recommend slicing the beef first, it exposes more of the meat to the broth and is more flavorful the next day.

The recipe I used. 

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Italian Beef

meats, sandwiches, spice blends/rubs

  Gene's Italian seasoning blend
4 tablespoons garlic powder
2 tablespoons onion powder
2 tablespoons dried oregano
2 tablespoons dried basil
2 tablespoons black pepper
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
  end of Gene's blend
1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
2 tablespoons grapeseed oil
5 lbs. bottom round roast
3 links hot Italian sausage; cut into 4ths
1 medium onion; sliced
1  green bell pepper
1/4 cup pepperoncini peppers; sliced
1/4 cup hot pepper giardiniera with oil
1/2 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tablespoon kitchen bouquet
2 tablespoons corn starch
1/2 cup dry white wine
8 cups beef stock divided use; approximate amount
1 15 oz can diced tomatoes; drained
  or 1 cup diced tomatoes

Preheat oven to 325*F  Mix the seasoning blend. Heat the oil in a large
skillet. Brown the roast on all sides; remove and set aside, reserving any
pan juices. Generously coat the roast with about 1/6th of the seasoning
blend. Season 4 cups of beef broth with 1/4 cup of the seasoning blend.
Cover the bottom of a roasting pan with enough of the seasoned beef broth
to come up to the bottom of the roasting rack.
Place the roast on the roasting rack, put into the preheated oven and cook until the internal
temperature reaches 130*F. Let beef rest half an hour before slicing. 

While the roast is cooking prepare the beef juice.
In a large stock pot or Dutch oven, add the pan juices from browning the
roast. Add more oil if needed to sauté the Italian sausage links until
browned on all sides. When browned remove links from pan and set aside. To
the pot add the onion and peppers, sauté for 2 to 3 minutes then add the
garlic and sauté one minute more. Add 2 tablespoons of the seasoning mix to
the pot and sauté for 1 minute; then add the corn starch, beef broth,
diced tomatoes, browned sausage links, pepperoncini, Worcestershire sauce, kitchen bouquet, wine
and giardiniera mix.
Simmer for a few hours to develop the flavors, skimming any fat that may
accumulate on the top. Remove the sausage links and set aside. Strain the
juices, pushing down to extract all the juices from the peppers and onions.

Return beef juices to pan, and adjust the seasoning if necessary. Simmer
the juices adding sausage and sliced beef.
While the sausage and beef is simmering, sauté a medium sliced onion and a
sliced green pepper.

Serve on hard rolls with sautéd onion, peppers and gardiniera.

This is what I cobbled together from Gene's Italian beef recipe on abf,
Auntie Fran's and Authentic Chicago Style Italian Beef from the cook book
Street Food Chicago, that was a secret Santa gift from Gene.


** Exported from Now You're Cooking! v5.84 **

And that's that