Beef Shin in Red Wine with Baked Potatoes in Cheese, Garlic & Herbs

I hate wine.
Red. White. Rose. Champagne. All of them.
To those who appreciate it, wine might taste fruity, chocolatey, oak-ish, sending them back to a chateau in France or a valley in California, whatever. To me, wine tasted sour, bitter, and smelt weird.
Oucchhhhhh! (Got hit by gadzillions of saute pans thrown at me by avid wine fans. Opps)
I'm sorry but it was my truth. Was.

Sous chef, recently enlightened by the great health benefits of a glass of red wine a day regime, which apparently is greater than a cup of broccoli a day, started bringing crappy cheapest-of-the-bunch bottles of red wine home, and insisted that I drink half a cup a day. Boy, it was a torture.

Later on, I thought I've found a great way to enjoy ruin wine. Ehm, by mixing it with loads of sprite and ice. All the sugar I drank probably exceeded the health benefits of red wine, antioxidants and all. Opps again. But after my recent cheddar cookies and red wine experience, I discovered that to enjoy wine, I gotta drink it with something I love, something that's gonna make the wine sweeter, something which magically gets rid of all the sourness and bitterness. Something like what I had last night.

Beef Shin in Red Wine

Recipe
(adapted from here)
- 1 kg beef shin (you can change this to other parts of beef, the original recipe called for chuck steak, but I only had beef shin :p)
- 4 cloves of garlic (peeled, crushed)
- 1 whole onion (cut into large chunks)
- 2 sticks of celery (cut 1 cm thick pieces)
- 1 carrot (cut into 1 cm thick pieces)
- thyme (I used dry)
- 3 bay leaves (I used dry)
- chicken stock (I used powdered version, 3 tsp)
- red wine (the recipe called for 1 whole bottle, but I used just 1-2 cups of Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon, just until it's fragrant)
- bacon (I skipped this, cos I didn't have any, but it's still delicious)
- olive oil, hot water (just enough to cover everything), salt (1 tsp), black pepper, sugar (2 tsp)

I used pressure cooker, so "slow cooked" beef turned "fast cooked" beef. Hehehe. In the pressure cooker, I sauteed garlic and onion, threw the beef in, threw the rest of the ingredients, close the lid and pressure cook for 20 minutes, adjust flavors before serving. If you don't have a pressure cooker, simply bring to boil and cook on low heat until the meat is tender.

I served this dish with...
Baked Potatoes in Cheddar, Garlic and Herbs

Recipe
- 2 large potatoes, halved and sliced thinly (about 3mm thick pieces)
- grated cheddar cheese (or parmesan, just enough to cover the top of the potatoes)
- italian mixed herbs (oregano, rosemary, sage and thyme)
- 4 small cloves of garlic, crushed with skin
- black pepper, salt, olive oil
- lime/lemon zest (optional)

Preheat oven to 200C. I lined a baking pan with foil (lazy to scrap bits and pieces off the pan), scatter potato pieces (if possible in 1 layer), drizzle olive oil, season with salt, pepper and herbs, grate cheese all over, bake until the cheese's golden brown and the potatoes are soft. Grate lime/lemon zest when serving.

Cheers to good health and better sleep!