Asado Negro Caraqueño

Ingredients

• 1.3 kg beef eye of round in one piece
• 100 g papelon, grated, or dark muscovado sugar
• 3 tbsp vegetable oil
• 6 garlic cloves, crushed
• 2 tsp fine salt
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1 large onion, roughly chopped
• 1 leek, sliced
• 2 carrots, sliced
• 1 red pepper, chopped
• 3 ripe tomatoes, chopped
• 250 ml red wine
• 500 ml beef stock
• 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 2 bay leaves

Before you cook

• Pat the beef dry and rub it all over with the crushed garlic, salt and pepper.
• Cover the beef and leave it in the fridge for at least one hour, or overnight if you can.
• Take the beef out of the fridge thirty minutes before cooking and tie it with string at three centimetre intervals.
• Chop the onion, leek, carrots, red pepper and tomatoes and keep them ready in one bowl.
• Grate the papelon if it comes as a solid block.

Steps

1. Put the oil and the grated papelon into a heavy casserole over medium heat.
2. Let the sugar melt and darken for three to four minutes, until it is the colour of strong coffee and just begins to smoke at the edges.
3. Lower the beef into the caramel and turn it with tongs every two minutes.
4. Keep turning for ten minutes until the whole surface is lacquered almost black.
5. Lift the beef onto a plate.
6. Tip all the chopped vegetables into the pan and cook them for ten minutes, scraping up the caramel from the base.
7. Pour in the red wine and let it bubble hard for five minutes to cook off the alcohol.
8. Return the beef to the pan and add the stock, the Worcestershire sauce and the bay leaves.
9. Bring the liquid to a bare simmer, then cover the pan tightly.
10. Cook on the lowest heat for two hours and fifteen minutes, turning the beef every thirty minutes.
11. Push a skewer into the centre, and if it meets resistance cook for another thirty minutes.
12. Lift the beef onto a board and rest it for fifteen minutes.
13. Remove the bay leaves, then blend the vegetables and cooking liquid until you have a smooth dark sauce.
14. Simmer the sauce for ten minutes until it thickly coats a spoon, and season it to taste.
15. Cut the string away and slice the beef across the grain as thinly as you can.
16. Lay the slices back into the sauce for two minutes, then serve with white rice and fried ripe plantain.