Beef Carrot Daube (page 2 of 2)

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Beef simmered for 4 hours with carrots, a real French classic rarely prepared properly. Here is how to do it.

Place the cotton bag in the center of the dish and pour the wine over.

Add enough broth so as to almost cover the meat.

This dish will cook for nearly 4 hours. If the pot was leaking, much of the aromatic molecules we have taken so long to prepare would escape, leaving a lessened dish. We need to guarantee that as little as possible will escape. The traditional solution is to lute the pot. This is a magical moment. Just mix a little flour with just enough water to obtain a thick paste.

Roll the past with your hands to as to obtain a long snake, and cover the edges of your pot with the dough. As it heats up, the dough will form an impenetrable seal that will trap the flavor in the pot. A hundred years ago cooks used large square copper pots called braisière with a tight fitting lid. These pots where placed in the fireplace and left to cook for half a day in the hot embers...

... but with today's oven this is no longer necessary. Just place your luted pot into the oven and cook for 4 hours at 120C° (just above water's boiling point).

That's it. Now the alchemist opens up his crucible to see how care and slow cooking transformed cheap beef cuts into a dish fit for a king.

We remove the sack and set it aside. Nobody will see that yet everybody will taste and smell the spices that were int the sack. (Take a peek inside).

This dish is best served with potato purée, a very simple dish to make. Unless you are a character from Lost or live in a bunker, there is just no excuse for using dehydrated purée. Just wash waxy potatoes and boil them unpeeled in salter water until a knife can easily pierce them - about 30 minutes. Peel your potatoes (my fingertips prefer I do this under running water), crush them and mix with a little milk and butter.

Braised dishes such as chili con carne, boeuf bourguignon or this delicious daube are often better when reheated the next day. The meat becomes even softer and gorges itself of the sauce's flavor. The home chef new to piggy trotters is in for a surprise when he opens the fridge the next day and discover his sauce totally jellyfied. But no alarm, after a few seconds of heating its takes back its liquid consistance. Here I let the sauce reduce a little, then thickened it with a beurre manié (butter mixed with a little flour) and a drop of cream.

Most people in France in a home setting will want to make a little mound of potato purée in their plate and make a hole on the top to put the sauce inside like lake or little volcano.

This is the top of French confort food. If you do this for yourself or happen to reheat some a couple days later, feel free to eat it with a spoon. No need to bother with forks or knives if you're alone. I ate this 4 nights in a row and it kept getting better every night!