Daube of Beef

Name: Daube of Beef
Cuisine: France
Ingredients: 2 garlic cloves; 1 large carrot; 2 large onions; 2 celery stalks; bouquet garni of 2 pieces of tangerine peel, 2 bay leaves, some parsley stalks and sprig of thyme, all tied with string (you can buy dried tangerine peel in Oriental markets); 1.75 litres/3pt fonds brun, or canned beef consommé mixed with water, or just water; 4 ox cheeks or 1 kg/2¼lb shin of beef, boned but left in a large cross-cut piece (If using shin, ask your butcher for some of the beef marrow bones, sawn into pieces, and use immediately to make stock or freeze for future use; alternatively, cut out the marrow yourself and freeze for an entrecôte bordelaise); 1 bottle (750ml/27fl oz) of fullbodied red wine; bunch of flat leaf parsley; 2tbsp lard or duck fat; flour, for coating; 450g/1 lb frozen button onions; salt and pepper; 225g/½lb smoked streaky bacon in a piece; 450g/1 lb button mushrooms

Preparation info

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

Keep it Simple

By Alastair Little and Richard Whittington

Published 1993

About

Slow-cooked meat dishes which use red wine as both a marinade and a cooking liquid are those which most of us remember as an early revelation in our introduction to French food. This is comfort food: rich and satisfying. Food with implied memories of the slowest simmering pots on the stove, the house filling with a delicious and all-permeating aroma, as the constituent elements combine into a glorious amalgam. Thus do the toughest pieces of meat give of their best Indeed, the last thing