Like many other active and growing boys, Keanon Michaels had a big appetite growing up. This egged him on to cook his first egg fried rice when he was nine years old and today, he owns a catering business called Keanon’s Kitchen.
The young chef dreams of creating opportunities for other aspiring chefs in the neighbourhood where he was raised, Strandfontein in the Western Cape. Coffee and beef lovers can indulge in chef Keanon Michaels’ coffee braised beef shin recipe.
Ingredients:
- 2kg beef shin
- 5 litres freshly brewed strong coffee
- 2 tbsp ground cumin
- 1 tbsp fine salt
- 1 tbsp freshly ground black pepper corns
- 4 tbsp freshly grounded coffee beans
- 2 kg scrubbed carrots and finely chopped
- 2kg washed leeks and finely chopped
- 2kg celery finely chopped
- 6 fresh bay leaves
- 2 star aniseeds
- 100g fresh thyme pulled off the stalks
Method:
- Mix grounded coffee, cumin, salt and grounded black pepper corns.
- Season beef shins with spice mixture.
- In a non-stick pan, seal off (brown) the beef shins on both sides on a medium to high heat. Set aside.
- Sauté carrots, leeks and celery in a medium pot, and add the fresh bay leaves, star aniseeds and half of the thyme.
- Deglaze the vegetable pot with coffee. This means that while you slowly pour the coffee in the pot, you scrape off all the flavour sticking to the bottom of the pot due to the sauté.
- Add the rest of the coffee, season with salt and pepper and allow to simmer for 30 minutes.
- Put the sealed shins in a baking tray, cover shins with the coffee and veg mixture.
- Try to submerge/soak shins in liquid.
- Cover with heavy duty foil, shiny side down.
- Put into an oven at 180° for 3 hours until meat starts falling off the bone.
- Serve with hot mash potatoes and enjoy.
