Beef with Wine, Rosemary, Orange, Chestnuts and Mushrooms

From Chef Oonagh Williams of Gluten-Free Cooking with Oonagh

Heading into the Holiday season and then other get-togethers, I wanted an entrée easily made, with easily available ingredients. And then I saw packets of roasted, vacuum packed, organic chestnuts in my local chain grocery store. My father always made a chestnut stuffing to go with the roast turkey.  London at Christmas with gleaming bright Christmas lights across the streets and in shop windows on Oxford Street and all the other street names you recognize. Braziers of roast chestnuts giving off light and heat on a winter’s night, trying to peel a hot chestnut with gloves on and then burning your tongue with the lovely flavor are special memories.

I’ve always made my beef stroganoff with sirloin steak. Traditionally it’s made with beef tenderloin/fillet steak and cooks in minutes, but you need to take out a mortgage for the recipe for a party and also count on being able to get well butchered, matured beef for flavor and tenderness. Beef Stroganoff is a very popular recipe with students and clients and one I have to always cook for certain clients. If you decide on this for a party, buy the beef sirloin when it’s on sale, trim it of fat, cut it up yourself rather than have the butcher do it and freeze ready to make a day or two in advance of the party. The flavor does develop and mellow if made in advance and helps you keep your sanity knowing another dish is prepared. 

Gluten-Free Wine & Rosemary Beef
6-8 portions when served as part of a meal with other dishes

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs boneless beef sirloin, trimmed. Slice into thin slices about 2-3” long x 1” wide x1/4”-1/2” thick. 
• 2 medium onions, peeled and finely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
• 2 Tbsp butter or olive oil 
• ¾ cup orange juice 
• ¾ c Marsala wine 
• ¾ cup gluten-free chicken stock
• Zest of one orange, and then remove peel/skin of orange, segment and use for garnish
• 4 x 4-inch stalks of fresh rosemary.
• 2 3.5oz bags of cooked, peeled chestnuts
• ½ 10 or 12 oz tub of fresh mushrooms  
• Cornstarch to thicken, as needed
• Salt and pepper
• Chopped fresh parsley

Directions:

1. Melt butter/olive oil in 8 cup pan and gently cook onions and garlic until translucent. This sweetens the onions and garlic.
2. Turn up heat, add beef strips, and sauté beef strips until evenly brown or seared. 
3. Add marsala wine, orange juice, chicken stock, orange zest, rosemary stalks, salt and ground pepper, stir well, turn temp to as low as possible. Cover pan and simmer for at least 20 minutes until beef is tender. This can take up to 45 minutes depending on quality of sirloin, size of pieces and pan used.  Use your slow cooker if you have one for cooking and reheating. (5 lb sirloin plus everything fits in 6 qt slow cooker and is great for a party, when I serve it with bacon and smoked Gouda risotto, not pasta.  Pasta tends to slide around the plate and drop on the carpet or clothes if you are standing to eat.)

Check that the pan is cooking at the lowest possible heat otherwise all the juices will evaporate away, leaving a dry mass. Add ½-1 c water if going dry.

I have also made this with Angus beef bottom round, labeled for a pot roast. Cut off heavy fat, and cut into small cubes. Roughly 2 hours in 350 oven or 30 minutes in pressure cooker once it comes to pressure. 

4. Once meat is tender, increase heat, add mushrooms and quickly cook with meat mix.
5. Dependent on amount of juices, thicken with cornstarch and let it cook for 2-3 minutes.
6. Add chestnuts and let them simmer for a few minutes. If you add chestnuts too early, they break up, so you get the flavor but not the mouth experience of whole chestnuts. Remove stalks of rosemary, leaving just the needles.  For flavor without visible rosemary, put rosemary stalks in small coffee filter or cheesecloth tied shut. You can also add some parsley stalks to increase flavor if you add rosemary this way. 

Garnish with orange segments and sprinkle with fresh parsley.