Last week, I praised the melt-in-your-mouth daube, the glorified beef dish that was served at the National Museum of Women in the Arts Fall Benefit cabaret evening. I tracked it down to Occasions Caterers, that excellent company, whose co-founder and CEO, Mark Michael, tells me it was beef cut from short ribs. That’s a bright idea for this dish, as it is best when the meat used has a gelatinous content. This is why French housewives make sure the butcher includes a cut from the shin or shank meat along with the rest of the stew meat.
Here’s the way this dish is made in Avignon. Daube doesn’t take much work, but it does take time to marinate and 4-6 hours to cook. Don’t worry that there is no step for browning the meat; it will come out of the oven nicely browned after the long cooking.
Put 4 lbs. stew meat, cut into one-and-a-half-inch lengths, into a bowl along with 2 medium-sized carrots sliced into coins, and 2 onions, sliced, 3 cloves of garlic, chopped, 1 tsp. herbes de Provence, half a bay leaf and an inch of orange rind, diced. Add one-half teaspoon salt and several grinds from the pepper mill. Add red wine to cover. Let marinate 2-3 hours or overnight.
Heat the oven to 200 degrees. Line a Dutch oven with either 1/4 lb. of salt pork, diced, or thick-cut bacon, with rind. Place the marinated meat on top, add a medium onion stuck with 3 cloves, pour on the marinade with the vegetables and add beef stock, from the grocer or homemade, to cover. (Optional: Lay a split-lengthwise calf’s foot, or pork trotter on top, to give extra succulence. Also optional addition: one-quarter cup cognac.) In France, the cooking is usually finished on top of a stove, but that requires several hours of careful attention, so use your stove’s oven.
Start the cooking on the stovetop, by bringing the uncovered stew just to a boil. Remove from the fire, cover, and put into the oven to bake. Check from time to time, adding more stock or water if needed. Bake for 4-5 hours or until completely tender. Salt and pepper to taste. Half an hour before the meat is done, add one-third of a pound of pitted black olives. Reduce the liquid in the pan if too thin. Daube is traditionally served with plain boiled noodles, with some of the juices from the meat poured over them.
Here’s the way this dish is made in Avignon. Daube doesn’t take much work, but it does take time to marinate and 4-6 hours to cook. Don’t worry that there is no step for browning the meat; it will come out of the oven nicely browned after the long cooking.
Put 4 lbs. stew meat, cut into one-and-a-half-inch lengths, into a bowl along with 2 medium-sized carrots sliced into coins, and 2 onions, sliced, 3 cloves of garlic, chopped, 1 tsp. herbes de Provence, half a bay leaf and an inch of orange rind, diced. Add one-half teaspoon salt and several grinds from the pepper mill. Add red wine to cover. Let marinate 2-3 hours or overnight.
Heat the oven to 200 degrees. Line a Dutch oven with either 1/4 lb. of salt pork, diced, or thick-cut bacon, with rind. Place the marinated meat on top, add a medium onion stuck with 3 cloves, pour on the marinade with the vegetables and add beef stock, from the grocer or homemade, to cover. (Optional: Lay a split-lengthwise calf’s foot, or pork trotter on top, to give extra succulence. Also optional addition: one-quarter cup cognac.) In France, the cooking is usually finished on top of a stove, but that requires several hours of careful attention, so use your stove’s oven.
Start the cooking on the stovetop, by bringing the uncovered stew just to a boil. Remove from the fire, cover, and put into the oven to bake. Check from time to time, adding more stock or water if needed. Bake for 4-5 hours or until completely tender. Salt and pepper to taste. Half an hour before the meat is done, add one-third of a pound of pitted black olives. Reduce the liquid in the pan if too thin. Daube is traditionally served with plain boiled noodles, with some of the juices from the meat poured over them.
