Pašticada is a beef pot roast, requiring many hours of preparation, so is usually served at Christmas or Easter.
This recipe quite closely follows the recipe here.
The beef cut in Croatian recipes is usually described as top round, but butchers in the UK who were shown the pictures from Croatian recipe books say that the cut of beef to get is Silverside:
Carefully trim off the white fat that the butchers leave on. Spike the beef all around with a knife, and insert pieces of garlic and pancetta:
Marinate in a bowl of red wine vinegar. Cover in a fridge, and leave to marinate for at least overnight, and ideally 24 hours, turning occasionally.
After marinating, dry off the beef, and fry off in a mixture of lard and olive oil until brown on each side. Remove from the heat, and fry off a kilo of finely chopped onions and some pancetta in the same oil. Once softened, return the beef along with chopped carrots, celery, parsley, a handful of dried prunes, a whole bulb of garlic, a few cloves, and a few peppercorns.
After half an hour, add some beef stock, half a bottle or so of full bodied red wine, a spoon of fruit jam, and some tomato concentrate. Leave to cook on a low heat for two to three hours.
Once the meat is cooked, remove from the pan and slice:
Remove the juice, and put through a colander and then push through a fine sieve.
You don’t want to liquidise the mixture, as it will end up thicker and bittier than desired, instead of a really rich gravy. This is what’s left after sieving:
Now, return the beef slices and gravy back to the pan and cook for another hour.
Serve with potato gnocchi and a dusting of parmesan cheese:
