Essential · about 3 h 30 min, almost all of it cooking · Serves 4
Red wine braised eye of round with onions and mashed potatoes
Illustrative image generated with AI, not a photo of the cooked dish.
Kitchen test pending
The same root as the Signature Malbec eye of round with pine mushrooms and brown butter purée: eye of round (peceto), red wine, a dark sauce and a mash. This version is the peceto of Argentine family meals, braised whole in the pot with plenty of onion and wine, thinly sliced and served with its sauce.
The twist is to give the eye of round, a lean cut, the time it needs. It is browned hard and braised covered over the lowest heat until tender, with the liquid only halfway up. The onions dissolve into the sauce and thicken it without flour. The next day it slices better, in thin, even slices.
Special equipment: heavy pot with lid; kitchen twine; potato masher; blender or hand blender, optional
Ingredients
Braised eye of round
- 1 eye of round (peceto) of 1.2–1.4 kg, trimmed of fat and sinew
- Fine salt and black pepper
- 30 ml neutral oil
- 3 large onions, in thick slices
- 1 carrot, in rounds
- 3 garlic cloves, whole
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 350 ml red wine, young Malbec
- 300 ml beef stock
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 sprigs thyme or rosemary
Mashed potatoes
- 1 kg starchy potatoes
- 60 g butter
- 150–200 ml hot whole milk
- Fine salt and nutmeg
Finishing
- Chopped parsley
Method
Braised eye of round
- Tying and browning. Dry the roast, tie it with twine every 3 cm so it keeps its shape and season. Brown it in the pot with the oil over high heat 8–10 minutes, turning it, to a brown crust all over. Remove it.
- Base. Lower to medium heat and cook the onions, carrot and garlic 12–15 minutes, stirring and scraping the bottom, until the onion is soft and golden. Add the tomato paste and cook 1 minute.
- Braising. Deglaze with the wine and boil 3 minutes to evaporate the alcohol. Return the meat with the stock, bay leaves and thyme: the liquid should come halfway up the roast. Cover and cook over the lowest heat 2 h 30 min – 3 hours, turning the meat every 30 minutes, until a fork goes in with little resistance.
- Sauce. Remove the meat and herbs. Blend half the onion and the liquid and return to the pot, or leave it whole if you prefer it rustic. Reduce over medium heat 10 minutes, until the sauce coats a spoon, and adjust the salt.
- Slicing. Rest the meat 15 minutes, or chill it, and slice into 5–7 mm slices, against the grain. Return the slices to the sauce and heat them over low heat 5 minutes.
Mashed potatoes
- Cooking and mashing. Cook the peeled potatoes in pieces from cold salted water 20–25 minutes, drain and dry them 1 minute in the pot. Mash them, add the butter and then the hot milk little by little, beating, to a smooth purée that falls in ribbons. Salt and add the nutmeg.
Finishing
- At serving. Chop the parsley.
The dish
Use hot flat plates. Put a portion of mash on one side and set beside it 4–5 slices of eye of round, slightly overlapping. Cover them with plenty of sauce with onions, letting some touch the mash, and finish with parsley. Final look: brown, juicy slices under a dark, glossy sauce with onions, the white mash and the green of the parsley.
Key points
- Tie the eye of round so it does not lose its shape.
- Brown it well before braising.
- Cook it covered, over the lowest heat and with the liquid halfway up.
- Slice it cold or rested, against the grain.
Pairing
A Malbec, the same one used in the cooking. Without alcohol, red grape juice with sparkling water.
Notes
- Storage: the meat in its sauce keeps up to 3 days at 5 °C (41 °F) or below. Heat the slices in the sauce to 74 °C (165 °F).