braised beef mushroom and chocolate stew, boo hoo but Unforgettable Pizza came through!

Tried a new recipe tonight from the Williams-Sonoma Foods of the World Series, Barcelona, called Braised Beef with Mushrooms.  It's a rich dark flavorful beef stew, known as "Fricando" in Spain, and it's made with chocolate.  Beef, mushrooms, chocolate, how can you go wrong?  It's a slow cooker recipe, so naturally the meat is going to be super tender and delicious, right?  Doesn't it sound amazing?  Well after 5 hours of slow cooking...It SUCKED!!  Honestly, it's not even edible.  Yuck!  What did I do wrong?  I followed the recipe to a T.  The beef is super tough, I dislike the taste, what a waste, now I must go in haste.

Here's the recipe, I don't recommend you try it.  I repeat, do not try this at home.  Why am I even giving you the damn recipe then?  Maybe it's because I typed it out while this stinkin meal was slow cooking before I had a chance to try it.  I have an entire pot of it in my fridge.  I feel very guilty throwing it down the sink so I may hang on to it and have some people over for dinner tomorrow night that I dislike (JOKING). 

On the bright side, we ordered some damn good pizza from "Unforgettable Pizza."  It's New York style thin crust.  They are  located at 450 West 8th Ave. Vancouver, BC, off the Cambie Bridge, 604-739-7389.  I definitely recommend the pizza, it was truly unforgettable.  The Braised beef, forgettable.

Braised Beef with Mushrooms

Ingredients

3 cups beef stock
1 oz dried moixemon or mousseron or chantrelle mushrooms
4lb beef chuck roast, sliced 2 inches thick
salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup olive oil
2 yellow onions, sliced 1/4 inch thick
3 garlic cloves, crushed
1 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup drained diced canned tomatoes
1 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped
2 sprigs each fresh thyme, rosemary and oregano tied with a string

Directions

In a saucepan over high heat, bring stock to a boil and add mushrooms, remove from heat, cover and let stand for 1 hour.

Season beef with salt and pepper, dredge beef in 1 cup of the flour, shake off the excess.

In a large saute pan over medium-high heat, warm the olive oil.  Brown the beef 3 -5 minutes per side.  Transfer to a slow cooker.

Reduce the heat to medium, add the onions and the 1/4 cup of flour to the pan and cook, stirring occasionally for 3 minutes.  Add garlic and cook for 1 minute.  Add wine, tomatoes, chocolate and herbs and bring to a simmer.  Slowly pour in the stock and mushrooms.  Simmer until thickened, 3 to 5 minutes, then add to the slow cooker.  Cover and cook on high for 4 1/2 hours.

Remove the herb bundle and discard.  Cut the beef into chunks and serve with the sauce.  Serves 6.

The browned beef roast

The mushroom chocolate mixture

Unforgettable Pizza