Portuguese-Style Beef Stew (Alcatra)

Ingredients

• Beef, shank crosscuts

  Separable lean only, trimmed to 1/4" fat, choice, raw

  1 oz or 28g

• Salt

  Table

  1 tsp or 6g

• Pepper

  Spices, black

  1 dash or 0.1g

• Garlic

  Raw

  5 clove or 15g

• Allspice, whole

  0 grams or 0g

• Bay leaf

  Spices

  0.5g

• Peppercorn

  Whole peppercorns, black

  1 ½ tsp or 3g

• Onions

  Sweet, raw

  2 onion or 662g

• White wine

  Alcoholic beverage, table

  16 ¼ fl oz or 478g

• Cinnamon

  Spices, ground

  ¼ tsp or 0.6g

• Chorizo Sausage

  Fud

  8 oz or 227g

Directions

1. Beef shank is sold both long-cut and crosscut (with and without bones). We prefer long-cut since it has more collagen. You can substitute 4 pounds of bone-in crosscut shank if that’s all you can find. Remove the bones before cooking and save them for another use. Crosscut shank cooks more quickly, so check the stew for doneness in step 2 after 3 hours. A 3 1/2- to 4-pound chuck roast, trimmed of fat and cut into 2 1/2-inch pieces, can be substituted for the shank. Serve this dish with crusty bread or boiled potatoes.
2. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 325 degrees. Trim away any fat or large pieces of connective tissue from exterior of shanks (silverskin can be left on meat). Cut each shank crosswise into 2 1/2-inch pieces. Sprinkle meat with 1 teaspoon salt.
3. Cut 8-inch square of triple-thickness cheesecloth. Place garlic, allspice berries, bay leaves, and peppercorns in center of cheesecloth and tie into bundle with kitchen twine. Arrange onions and spice bundle in Dutch oven in even layer. Add wine and cinnamon. Arrange shank pieces in single layer on top of onions. Cover and cook until beef is tender, about 3 1/2 hours.
4. Remove pot from oven and add chorizo. Using tongs, flip each piece of beef over, making sure that chorizo is submerged. Cover and let stand until chorizo is warmed through, about 20 minutes. Discard spice bundle. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve.
5. (source: https://www.americastestkitchen.com/recipes/8640-portuguese-style-beef-stew-alcatra)