Morning all,

My mother-in-law has a few cows and once in a while after they've gone to slaughter, I get loads of different cuts of beef for a very decent price.

I have had a cut labelled 'Rindbraten' in my freezer for a while now. Google suggests it could be a round of beef. I'm not sure whether it's top or bottom as I'm no beef expert. It's got a bit of marbling and quite a bit of sinew, weighs around 2 pounds. It's off the bone.

Have any of you got suggestions on how to cook it? Rather than a roast, I'd prefer a stew/braised dish. Preferably something asian inspired as I'm a MASSIVE fan of spices, aromatics and herbs.

Many thanks!

We had a similar glut of unknown/untranslatable cuts in France a couple of years back, give as a thank-you for some furniture, and I found that a safe method for almost any of them was to stick the meat in a pot with some red wine, some veg, some herbs and some spices, then let it cook in a moderate oven for a couple of hours.

No 'standard' mix, but variations included more or less onion, carrots, celery, parsnips, more or less fresh or dried chillis of whatever varieties were around (sometimes going towards a mexican feel with real mex dried chillis), fresh or tinned tomatoes (or not) and experimenting with various fresh herbs from the garden (as a starting point I'd suggest a standard bouguet garni selection including bay, thyme, rosemary etc.). Oh, and some aromatic spices like cloves, star anise, peppercorns etc.

The best results were stunning, the worst were just very good. It's hard to go wrong, TBH.

Thanks very much Ace. Great suggestion. Depending on my mood on Sunday, I'll either do that or chop it into chunks and make a beef rendang, one of my all time favorite beef dishes.

A big lump of undefined mystery meat beef.
Try a Sauerbraten, it's the season now and is great with Knödel or potatoes and red cabbage.
Take your beef and marinate it in a mix of vinegar, onions, carrots, juniper berries, garlic, bay leaves.
Leave it for a week at around 10°-15° then dry carefully with a towel and fry in a pot or in the oven, use the marinade to make a brown sauce, you should get something like this...

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Excellent tip this. I totally forgot about Sauerbraten. Thanks Slammer!

So I ended up making a Braised Rendang Roast and it was superb. A thick, coconutty, deep and rich spiced beef delight served with plain basmati rice. Apologies to my Asian friends for bastardizing the traditional rendang recipe but this turned out really very good and took no effort whatsoever.

I browned the beef in peanut oil and set aside. Made my own rendang spice paste, fried it in the same pan for a few minutes, deglazed the pan with coconut milk and beef stock and transferred everything to a casserole. Added a few stalks of lemon grass and a few lime leaves and then in the oven at 160 C for 3.5 hours and that was it. I will certainly be doing this again.

Me too.

Was introduced to Rindbraten today by a Swiss friend and how to chose a good piece for the weight/price whilst out grocery shopping. She's a great cook but I forgot to ask her for recipes!

Can't wait to buy and cook some using the recipe suggestions here.