Month 8 day 7: Braised Beef and Coleslaw

Today I made:
Spice-Rubbed Braised Beef, Cooking Light September 2009
Chopped Coleslaw Salad, Cooking Light September 2009
I also made two more desserts-- Peanut Butter Cup Blondies and Mississippi Mud Pie-- which I will write about tomorrow when I actually taste them. They are for our weekly lab cookie hour!

These dinner recipes are from a party-planning guide. But I was still taken a bit by surprise when I looked at the serving number and this beef was 10 servings! But G ate about 3 servings himself, so I think we'll be ok :-P I guess it's 10 servings assuming that you've also made the polenta canapes as an appetizer and meringues as a dessert.
G really liked this dish (obviously). He thought it was similar to the Ropa Vieja from a while back, but more tender. The spices and ingredients are quite a bit different, but they are both steaks braised in a tomato sauce. This one was braised in the oven instead of the stovetop though, so I think the temperature was more controlled and probably more correct. After just about 1.5 hours (instead of the 2.5 suggested in the recipe) it was already cooked through and quite tender. I think this is because instead of a 3 lb roast we used two 1.5 pounders. We couldn't find a chuck roast so we used top round roast (I think). It's entirely the wrong part of the cow, but at least it's a muscle above a leg :-P And it seemed to work out! G especially liked the sauce, which was just sort of a standard tomato sauce but with brown sugar and red wine vinegar added. Most of the flavor comes in from the large quantity of spices rubbed into the beef a few hours before, though-- about a tablespoon each of paprika, sugar, garlic, etc. G suggested next time to serve this over rice to sop up all the sauce. I think this would be a great, hearty winter recipe, maybe with some homemade bread too :)
The coleslaw was really strongly flavored-- I used a precut slaw mix, so I think it was about 1/2 the veggies with the full amount of dressing. G didn't care for it, but I thought it was good, and it reminded me of the sauce for the pulled chicken that I loved this summer-- they're both dominated by vinegar, mustard, and sugar. I like coleslaws that aren't just a bunch of mayonnaise.