Sauerbraten

Today I made a Sauerbraten. Not the traditional, per say, but wanted to make one like Grandma used to make. The traditional ones are marinated in vinegar and are too "sour" for my taste. It's not every one's piece of cake, if you know what I mean.
You have to of plan ahead for this one, because the beef needs to marinate for about 3 days.
I marinated mine in buttermilk and used spices and onions for flavor.  It ended up being mildly sour with a beautiful hint of the different spices like cloves and juniper berries. The meat was so very tender, it really melted in your mouth, even though it was a super lean cut.
Here is what I used:

Sauerbraten:

1 1/2 lbs.  lean beef roast
enough buttermilk to cover the meat
about 6 juniper berries
about 3 bay leaves
about 5 whole gloves
1 small onion cut in slices

Put the meat in a container and pour the buttermilk over it until it's covered. Then add the spices and onions. Let it marinate for about 3 day's in the fridge. Easy enough, right?
When you are ready to make your Sauerbraten, take the meat out, but don't wipe of the excess buttermilk, just make sure all the spices and onions are not stuck to the meat. Don't yet discard the marinate, you want all those spices.
 Heat your oil and brown the meat from all sides. When the meat is nicely brown, take the spices and onions from your marinate and add them. Add water until it's about 1/3 of the height of the meat. Let it simmer, for roughly 2 hours. Discard the marinate.

After the meat has simmered roughly for 2 hours, take it out of the juice that it simmered in, and wrap it in tinfoil. Strain the juice, removing all of the spices and berries. This will now become a lovely gravy. Put the juices back in the pan and thicken it with flour.

When thickening the sauce, try this easy trick to make sure you don't end up with lumps!
I take a small glass jar with lid and fill it half way with cold water. ( cold water is important because you don't want lumps)  I add about two tbs. of flour and then I put the lid back on and shake it until it's all mixed.( It's also important to put in the water first, if you put the flour first, the flour likes to get stuck in the bottom corners and that will make a lumpy gravy.)

Add the flour mix from above to your gravy in progress until you reach the consistency of gravy you want. Don't forget to stir constantly to prevent lumps! Let it come to a boil and then simmer the gravy for about 10 minutes to get the flour taste out. Add salt and pepper to taste, I also added a little sugar.
Place the meat back in the gravy and let it sit for about 5 minutes.
And it's ready to serve!

I served it with a cucumber, cilantro salad and just plain potatoes boiled in saltwater. 
Yummm!