Boeuf En Daube - French Beef Stew
A humble yet rich and hearty French stew!
My husband is a champion of anything French, having lived there for two years immersed in French verb conjugations, mo-ped acrobatics and patisseries, especially those that baked chaussons de pommes and palmiers. As a young wife, eager to please, after having mastered crepes, I learned to make this rich beef stew, a younger sibling to the more mature and developed Beef Bourguignon. But this entree is more colorful – thank you red peppers – and nestled on a bed of rice, nothing short of sophisticated, soul-soothing elegance. Worthy of being the centerpiece, the piece de resistance of any buffet!
Boeuf en Daube - fRENCH bEEF sTEW
3 pounds round of beef or chuck roast, trimmed of fat
¼ cup flour
1 tsp. pepper
1 tsp. salt
6 strips bacon
2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
12 mushrooms, cleaned, trimmed & sliced
2 cups red wine
12 pearl onions, peeled
12 small carrots, sliced
1 red bell pepper, peeled and sliced
6 peppercorns, slightly bruised
4 whole cloves
2 tab. fresh parsley, chopped
1 bay leaf, crumbled
1 tsp. salt
¼ tsp. dried marjoram
¼ tsp. dried thyme
-Cut beef into 1 ½ inch cubes. Mix flour, pepper and 1 tsp. salt in plastic bag. Add beef cubes and shake to coat the meat.
-Fry bacon until brown in dutch oven. Remove bacon from pot leaving fat. Crumble into 1 inch pieces. Set aside.
-Add beef to pot and brown well on all sides keeping beef pieces from touching one another. Sear beef cubes in batches if necessary so that cubes are not too close to each ohter, allowing them to sear on all sides. Add oil to pot as needed to facilitate browning. Remove beef cubes from skillet as they are browned and add others.
-Pour 1 cup wine into pot and cook to remove bits from pot bottom (deglaze). Place meat on top of bacon in the dutch oven.
-Brown mushrooms in a tablespoon of metled butter in a skillet and layer over meat. Pour consomme over ingredients in the pot. Add onions, garlic, carrots, pepper, cloves, red pepper, parsley, bay leaf, 1 tsp. salt, marjoram and thyme. Pour in remaining cup of wine. Cover and bake at 300 degrees for 3 – 4 hours, stirring occasionally. Serve over rice, garnished with additional chopped parsley. Serves 8
PERSNICKETY NOTES:
** Pearl onions are “persnickety” to peel and tedious! I often use a regular yellow or white onion and peel and cut it into 8ths, or a jar of peeled pearl onions or frozen if you can find them.
**To peel peppers, place them on a tray under the broiler close under the element and broil on high, turning them with tongs every couple of minutes until they are blistered and blackened over most of the surface. Remove and place in a plastic bag and let cool for 10 minutes. Under cold running water slough off the charred skin. It will come off very easily but you may have to pick at a few pieces with your nails or a knife. (Or a short-cut: use bottled already peeled red peppers - but the process above works easily.)
