Wine-Braised Beef Shin

Dusty flagons of vintage homemade wine, inherited from our builder. Though past its best-by date for quaffing, this wine has been an excellent ingredient for winter braises cooked in the Rayburn. Hours, or indeed days, of slow-cooking transforms it: a kind of culinary alchemy.

Choose your beef shin carefully. Cuts from lower down the leg have more collagen, which melts lusciously upon long, slow cooking. If you choose a cut from higher up the leg, with less patterning, at least choose one with the bone in, for added flavour.

Heavy cast iron ovenware, such as Le Creuset, in combination with the distinctive heat of the Rayburn, richly caramelises the ingredients without burning them. Toss everything into the pot - beef shin, onions, carrots, tomato passata, wine, garlic, bay, salt - & cover. Cook overnight in the bottom Rayburn oven, then maybe some more the next night too. Rest for a day, to help bring the flavours together, then you wont quite be able to tell 'where the onion ends & the carrot starts'.

Instead of beef shin you can try lamb shoulder chops, which of course cook quicker than the beef, but do choose chops that aren't too fatty. Extra additions often get popped in along with the usual ingredients, whatever is spare at hand: salt lime, green peppercorns or winter fruits perhaps.