This recipe uses shin beef which breaks down during cooking to be melt in the mouth tender. It makes a lovely rich beefy sauce which we like to pair with Pappardelle pasta.

You will need 800g beef shin ( you can also use brisket), 2 carrots and 1 stick of celery both roughly chopped, 4 bashed garlic cloves, 1 bay leaf, 250ml red wine, 1 beef stock cube/pot, 4 tbsp tomato puree. Pasta and 50g Parmesan to serve. This serves 4-6 depending on appetites!

Put all the ingredients apart from the pasta into a slow cooker with 200ml of water and season with salt and pepper. Cook on low for 6 hours. You can also use a conventional oven or even a hob (both on the lowest setting) for 4-6 hours but put a scrunched up piece of wet greaseproof inside the lid to prevent the top of the meat catching the heat if you use either of these methods.

When cooked, remove the beef from the pot and if necessary you can use two forks to pull the strands of meat apart. Our medallions of shin will little if any effort, the brisket may need a little more if you have cooked one larger piece rather than chunks. Put the pot on the hob to reduce the sauce and thicken it to your liking then mix the meat back in and serve over pasta.