Beef Daube Provencal
Ingredients
- 1kg Beefs. Chuck is nice, as is blade or shin. Cut it into inch-square bits
- 250g streaky bacon or cured pork belly
- Small pile of shallots. Sliced semi-thin. (7mm)
- 600ml of a robust red bottle. Cabernet Sauvignon, Rioja. Don't go too cheap, is a major flavour component.
- 200ml beef stock, preferably home-made. Buy some extra beef shin and boil it up with mire poix. Eat the solid and keep the drink.
- 400g can chopped tomatoes
- 350g carrots, chopped
- 1 large celery stick
- Bay leaves
- A few sprigs fresh thyme and parsley
- Big glug of olive oil. Call it 4-5Tbsp
- 7 cloves garlic.
- 2 salted anchovies
- 3 large strips orange zest
- 20g softened butter
- 20g plain flour
Method
Get oven to 150 deg. C
Find nice casserole/ roasting dish. Enameled cast-iron is good, big slab of steel is better. Must have a lid that fits flush and tight.
Slosh some oil in the pan, then chuck in the 6 of the garlics, don't bother peeling. Let them roast whilst you're prepping everything else.
Chop the celery stick in half, then chuck in some thyme and parsley. Enough to fill the cavity, then tie it up.
Whip the pan with the garlic out of the oven, grab the cloves and squish the roasted goodness into a container. Discard the skins.
Put the pan on your hottest hob, add some more olive oil and take it up to med-high heat.
Brown off the beef. Split it into about five batches. If you overload the pan, the temperature will drop and the beef will not brown right. This is bad.
Remove beef from pan and seal in container, let it rest.
Fry the bacons in the pan with the residual beefy goodness and fat, until golden brown and a minute maybe off crispy.
Extract the bacon and add to the resting beef, seal. Walrus.
Using the bacony-beefy goodness, fry the shallots until the sugars have gone quite brown. (10 mins ish)
Chuck in the roasted garlic and stir to combine, cook for another minute or so.
Make sure the heat is med-high again and chuck in all the wine. Maybe grab a bit of carrot, attach to pointy bit of fork and use it to scrub the glazed-on residual goodness from the pan. This is critical.
Simmer down vigorously, then reduce the liquid component down volulmetrically by about half.
Chuck in the stock, then add the meat, carrots, anchovies, orange peel, tomatoes and the bouquet garni and season it to taste.
Cover the pan with foil, then add the lid. Ensure the best seal possible. Walrus.
Lob in oven, promptly forget about it. Maybe 2-3 hours minimum. Check up in case the liquid buggers off somehow. Top up with more beef stock or water.
When ready, put the pan back on the hob and mix in the butter, flower (mix them together before addition to Daube). Stir thoroughly.
Simmer it for a few minutes, then dish.
Chop up the remaining garlic clove finely with parsley and toss to combine, sprinkle as garnish.
Serve it with mash or something starchy. You froggy bastard.
