12-hour wine braised shin of beef

I stole this from the River Cafè cookbook and it must be the most fool-proof, hassle free and delicious way to pot roast a beef I have ever come across. You'd be hard pressed to mess this recipe up, and it sunds impressive enough to ellicit "ooohs" of wonder from your friends.

First arm yourself with a 2.5 kilo piece of beef shin, with the bone still in it. Then go and purchase a couple of bottles of Chianti, doesn't need to be the best at all, but Chianti has good flavours to marry with the beef.

Pre-heat your oven to 70 degrees, the lowest setting you can get. After seasoning generously, plop your beef shin in a deep, heavy-bottomed cast iron pot - one that can go in the oven eventually - and pour over one bottle of wine. Add about 30 cloves of garlic, a handful of herbs of your choice, such as thyme, rosemary and parsley. Bring to the boil rapidly for 2-3 minutes, then turn off the heat.

Pop the beef in the oven and leave it for twelve hours, checking every four hours or so to see if the wine needs topping up. Best to do it over night.

Once cooked, take the beef out and put it on a carving plate, wrapped in foil to keep it warm and succulent. Pieces should literally be falling apart by now.

Reduce the wine by boiling it vigorously on the hob, add onions if you want. Once it has reduced by a third, strain it, mush up some of the garlic cloves into the strained jus and serve with your sliced beef, and some roasted root veggies. Aye carumba!