Daube de boeuf: slow-cooked French beef stew recipe

Details

• Cuisine: French
• Recipe Type: Main
• Difficulty: Hard
• Preparation Time: 60 mins
• Cooking Time: 360 mins
• Serves: 8

Step-by-step

1. Marinating the beef the day before: trim any rind from the chilled pork fat and slice it into lardons ½cm (¼ inch) wide and thick. Cut the lardons about 5cm (2 inches) long (or the same size as the pieces of beef) and set them aside.
2. Chop two of the garlic cloves very finely and transfer to a mortar along with a pinch of fine salt. Pound with a pestle to make a smooth garlic pulp.
3. Finely chop a small handful of leaves from the parsley (reserving the rest) and mix into the pulp to make a flavoured paste. Roll the lardons in the paste. With the tip of a small knife, pierce the centre of each piece of beef and push a lardon into the hole with your finger.
4. Put the meat in a deep daubière or suitable vessel for marinating. Add the olive oil, wine and crushed peppercorns.
5. Make a bouquet garni by tying together the reserved parsley, the thyme and bay leaf. Add this to the daubière along with the two remaining cloves of garlic, crushed whole. Cover and transfer to the refrigerator for 12 hours, turning twice.
6. On the day: remove the meat from its marinade and pat it dry. Reserve the wine marinade.
7. Set a cocotte, or other flameproof casserole (Dutch oven) over low heat, add the olive oil and cook the lardons of streaky bacon until the fat runs. Add the pieces of beef and colour them on all sides. Lift them out, along with the lardons, and set aside briefly.
8. Discard the fat from the bottom of the cocotte, wipe it clean and line the bottom with the pork rind, fat-side down. Set the cocotte over low to medium heat, add the carrot, onions, tomatoes and orange zest.
9. Cover the cocotte and leave the ingredients to sweat for about 15 minutes or until soft. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 150ºC (300ºF, gas mark 2). Strain the reserved wine marinade through a fine sieve.
10. Pick out and keep the bouquet garni. Bring the strained liquid to a boil then remove from the heat. Add the meat, lardons, bouquet garni and wine marinade to the cocotte. Season very lightly. Cover and transfer to the oven to cook very slowly for 6 hours.