A Traditional Greek Beef Recipe that's served mostly in Greek christenings and weddings. A special and utterly delicious dish you're absolutely going to love!
It may look like classic roast beef but it's not. It's actually a Stove Top Pot Roast. Made with a part of beef that's much more cheaper then tenderloin, and it's called silverside (in Greek we name it Nua).
Silverside is a cut of beef (from the hindquarter just above the leg), that's mainly used in Europe countries and Australia. It's a lean piece of meat that requires slow cooking.
Ask at your local butcher shop if they can provide this cut for you. Otherwise, you can use a bottom round roast or an eye of round roast. Check out this thorough guide on beef cuts for roasting.
So What's This Greek Beef Recipe?
In Greek, we call it Moshari Lemonato. Moshari = beef, Lemonato= with lemon. It's slow-cooked beef that resembles an oven roast. Cut into thin slices, and served with lemon gravy.
An utterly delicious dish that's loaded with garlic and lemon flavor.
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE → Hearty Greek Beef Stew In Tomato Sauce
How To Make This Greek Beef Stew Recipe
First and foremost, you load the meat with garlic and pepper. You do this by making small incisions with a sharp knife and stuffing whole cloves of garlic and plenty of freshly ground pepper inside. Since it's a big piece of meat this helps to flavor it on the inside.
Actually not only helps to flavor it but makes it completely irresistible. As the garlic cloves will melt inside the meat while it's slowly cooked giving it a DIVINE flavor!
Secondly, you can either cook the meat as is or tie it like a roast. When you tie the meat, you give it a nice look and shape by holding it together. It's better if you tie it but won't make a huge difference if you don't.
Check my step by step tutorial on How To Tie A Roast...
What really makes a difference in this dish though is its impeccable lemon gravy! Which contains all the flavor of the meat, A LOT of garlic, rosemary, and of course lemon.
So here's basically how it's made...
- Prepare the meat. Stuff it with garlic, pepper and a bit of salt here and there.
- Tie it or leave as is.
- Sear the meat in the pot (with olive oil). Do it well on all sides giving it a deep brown color. The deeper the color the stronger the flavor of the sauce. Don't overdo it though, keep it on the brown, not black palette ?.
- Remove the meat, and in the same pot caramelize the onion along with a few whole garlic cloves (yes a lot of garlic I know...).
- Pour in some white wine, bay leaves, and sprigs of rosemary. Add the meat back in the pot and cover with water and the pots' lid (which you're going to leave slightly open).
- Simmer over medium heat. It took me 3 hours over medium heat. But times may vary depending on the piece of meat, the age of the animal, how fresh it is (beef gets more tender when left 2-3 days in the fridge uncovered). Basically you'll have to simmer it until it feels tender when you prick it with a knife.
- Remove meat from the pot once it's cooked and set aside for a bit, to slightly cool down (so you'll be able to cut it into thin slices).
- Make the lemon gravy in the pot, by passing the sauce (which has to be reduced to about 1 liter) through a sieve to easily remove the rosemary sprigs, the bay leaves and the whole carrot (yeap forgot to mention the carrot which is added along with the rosemary and bay leaves ?).
- Then add the garlic and onions back in the sauce (we didn't add that much garlic just to throw it away now did we?) and blend the sauce using an immersion blender. Bring sauce to a boil over medium-high heat.
- Whisk cornstarch in a small bowl along with COLD water and pour it in the sauce to thicken it. Whisk until it gets all nice and glazy and thickened (1-2 minutes). Finish off by adding the freshly squeezed lemon juice and zest (I got myself one of those thingies that make my life a lot more easier now).
- Serve the meat cut into thin slices along with the sauce or leave it in the pot to keep warm and absorb some extra "saucy goodness" while it sits. (Ouf, now that was much more laboring writing it than cooking it? ).
SERVE IT WITH:
Traditionally, it is served with simple boiled rice which acts like a neutral white canvas that lets its flavor truly shine (that came out really poetic). But you can also serve it with → These Truly Crunchy Roast Potatoes
Or...Follow me on my Skip The Butter Mission and serve it with these Greek Yogurt Mashed Potatoes. No butter just Yogurt!
Recipe
Greek Beef Recipe - STOVE TOP POT ROAST (with lemon gravy)
Ingredients
- 1,5 kg / 3.3 pound silverside beef or bottom round roast or an eye of round roast
- 18 garlic cloves
- 2 medium-sized onions minced
- 100 ml white wine
- 1 carrot peeled
- 2 lemons juiced + the zest of one lemon
- 3 dried bay leaves
- 2 twigs fresh rosemary
- Optional: natural twine
- cornstarch (adjust accordingly to the sauce, you need 1 tablespoon of cornstarch for every cup of sauce)
- Optional: 1 lemon juiced and zested
- 3 tablespoons butter
Instructions
- Make a small incision to the meat (one that just fits a garlic clove) using a sharp knife. Stuff it with lots of pepper (about ⅓ of a teaspoon), kosher salt, and a whole garlic clove. Make about 7-8 incisions here and there, exactly the same way. Keep the remaining garlic cloves to use in the sauce. At this point, you can tie the meat. See my post on How To Tie A Roast.
- Heat a good splash of olive oil in a medium-sized cooking pot, over high heat.
- Sear the meat on all sides giving it a brown color. Remove from pot and set aside.
- Reduce heat to medium-low and in the same pot cook the onions until completely tender and golden in color.
- Add the remaining garlic cloves, bay leaves, and fresh rosemary. Pour in the wine. Lemon juice, and lemon zest.
- Add the meat back in to the pot and wait until wine completely evaporates (it stops smelling of alcohol).
- Cover the meat with hot water and season with salt. Keep in mind the salt you added inside the meat. Add the carrot (no need to cut it we just want to get its flavor).
- Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer covered for approximately 3 hours. Prick the meat to check if it feels tender in the center.
- Remove the meat from the pot and set it aside on a cutting board.
- Remove the bay leaves, carrot, and rosemary from the sauce. Blend the sauce using an immersion blender. Weigh the leftover sauce. For every cup of sauce, you need one tablespoon of cornstarch to thicken it. Or for every 1 liter of sauce, you need 4 tablespoons of cornstarch.
- After you have weighed the sauce and calculated how many tablespoons of cornstarch you need, add the sauce to the pot and add the cornstarch to a mixing bowl. Add as much cold water as needed in the bowl with the cornstarch in order to create a runny paste.
- Heat the sauce over medium heat. Using a ladle pour spoonfuls of the hot sauce in the bowl with the cornstarch while you stir the cornstarch mixture with a hand whisk. Once you have added most of the sauce into the bowl with the cornstarch, transfer the mixture back to the pot.
- Let the sauce get back to a simmer and start to thicken. Taste it for any additional seasoning and if you like it more sourish add the juice and zest of 1 more lemon. Turn the heat off and mix in the butter.
- Cut the meat into thin slices and place in a large pan or dutch oven. Pour the hot sauce on top. Cover and let it stand for at least 30 minutes in the sauce before serving.
Nutrition
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