Culinary Disasters

It is getting that time of year again where good old comfort food is what everyone is craving. 

While visiting my favorite Amish meat market I picked up some beef arm roasts (along with a freezer full of meat) so I decided to use these for this dish.  Meat turned out really good but feel free to use any beef roast.  If you can find veal roast by all means that is an excellent substitution. 

This also brings me to another point find a reputable butcher and buy from there.  The stuff you can buy at most grocery stores is just pure crap and should not even be called meat.  I always try to buy from local sources and refuse to buy anything that has been pumped full of hormones.

For this dish you are going to need:

• 4 lbs of beef arm roast 
• 1 ounce of dried shitake mushrooms (if you can find fresh use 8 ounces).
• 1 onion medium dice
• 1 celery medium dice
• 1 carrot medium dice
• 1 green pepper medium dice
• 3 cloves of garlic diced finely
• handful of parsley stems
• 4 sprigs of thyme
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 cup of dry vermouth 
• 2 cups of egg noodles
• 2 tb of unsalted butter
• Tb of cream
• Kosher salt and black pepper

If you are using dried mushrooms we need to rehydrate them so bring 2 cups of water to a boil in a saucepan.  Once at a boil turn off the heat, add the mushrooms, and cover.  Let them sit for about 25 minutes.  Once they have been rehydrated drain the liquid (keep this for a another application like rissotto) and chop the mushrooms into a medium dice.  Set aside.

 Wrap the bay leaves, thyme, and parsley stems in cheesecloth and secure with kitchen twine.  Set aside.

Preheat your oven to 275 degrees. 

In a large pan with a lid over medium heat melt 1 tb of the butter.  Salt and pepper the roasts and place them in the pan to slowly brown(about 5 minutes a side).  When I did this I had two arm roasts each weighing two pounds so I browned each of them individually so the pan stayed at a constant heat.

Once they are browned all over remove and set aside.

Add the celery, onion, carrot, and green pepper to the pan and cook till softened (about 5 minutes).

Once they are softened add the garlic and cook for another minute. 

Add the vermouth, mushrooms, and cheeselcoth package to the pan and bring to a boil. 

 Once at a boil add the meat, cover, and place in the oven.  Let it sit for an hour and a half. 

 

After an hour and a half remove the pan, flip the meat, cover, and place back in the oven for another hour and a half.

After 3 hours the meat should be fork tender so remove it from the pan and set aside.  Discard the cheesecloth package.  Turn the pan heat up to medium and let it come to boil.  Once at a boil add in the egg noodles and stir to combine.  Keep the pan at a boil till the egg noodles are cooked through (about 7-8 minutes).

While the noodles are cooking place the meat on a cutting board and shred or use a knife to chop into bite size pieces. 

Once the noodles have cooked through turn off the heat to the pan.  Stir in the cream and the remaining tb of butter.  Stir to combine.

 

Add the meat to the pan and stir everything to combine.

Serve and enjoy.

Tags: beef, All //