Slow-cooked Shredded Beef

Warm foods are especially comforting now that Autumn is here and the days are getting shorter.  If pulled pork screamed ‘Summer!’, I think shredded beef is all about ‘Autumn!’.  Herbes Salées is a condiment from Quebec, which is made up of a mixture of finely chopped herbs and vegetables packed in salt.  You can easily make it yourself, this recipe here is a typical example.  If you can’t find it, sea salt or Herbamare will do as well.  The zucchini practically disintegrates into the dish and you can’t taste it at all, but bulks it up and gives the gravy some body.

Cooked with red wine, the long and slow cooking yields tender and flavoursome fall-apart meat, which can be easily cooked in large quantities and frozen for meals in a jiffy.  Just about all the alcohol is evaporated with the long cooking time, but if you’re very sensitive to alcohol, feel free to replace the red wine with more bone broth.  Pop everything into your Instant Pot first thing in the morning and dinner can be served really quickly at the end of the day (with a nice big salad, for example).  I’ve not tried cooking this with a slow cooker, but I think it can be done.  I like to freeze leftovers in a thin layer in freezer bags for quick defrosting and use them in stir fries, hash, soups, wraps… the possibilities are endless!