I recently had a wonderful evening taking a French cooking class. One of my favorite dishes was the beef daube, which I made at home a couple of weekends after the class. Beef daube is a classic French stew along the lines of Beef Bourguignon. The distinguishing feature is the use of Herbes de Provence and Nicoise olives; this recipe also uses white instead of red wine, which is what the earliest recipes called for.
The recipe requires a bit of work and time, but is well worth it. You can prepare beef daube a couple of days in advance, which is great for a dinner party, and I think the stew is even better after a day or so in the fridge. I tinkered a bit with the class recipe, adding garlic and more detailed instructions, which I hope will be helpful.
Ingredients
3 pounds beef stew meat (shoulder cut is best) cut into 2 inch cubes
3 cloves garlic, sliced thick
4 cups dry white wine (Sauvignon Blanc works well)
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 carrots, peeled and cut in 1 inch pieces
1 large onion cut in medium sized strips
1 1 / 2 pounds brown (Cremini) mushrooms, stems removed and quartered. If you can’t get Cremini mushrooms use white button mushrooms. The Cremini just make the stew richer and earthier.
2 tomatoes, peeled*
3 strips bacon, sliced into 1/ 4 inch pieces. Use good, thick cut bacon.
1 small can black Nicoise olives, pitted. In a pinch, use 1 /4 cup or so of black Kalamata olives.
1 Bouquet Garni**
1 tablespoon Herbes de Provence (available in most supermarkets.)
1 orange, zested
2 cups homemade or organic beef stock (you want to watch the salt content because of the bacon and olives in the stew.)
Flour, about 2 tablespoons.
Salt and Pepper
* To peel tomatoes, place in a pan of boiling water for about 30 seconds. Remove and place in bowl full of ice water. Score the skin lightly with a paring knife a couple of times and it will peel off easily and with no mess.
**More here about Bouquet Garni
Tools: You will need a large (6 1/2 to 7 quarts) Dutch oven or stove to oven pot and a long handled wooden spoon would be useful, too/
Preparation
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Place beef, garlic and wine in a large bowl and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Marinate for at least 3 hours in the refrigerator, turning a couple of times. Remove beef from bowl and pat dry with a paper towel. Reserve half of wine marinade, placing in a pot so you can heat it up for later use. You can also place it in large Pyrex ® measuring cup and heat in the microwave, which is easier and doesn’t take up so much space on your stovetop.
Sprinkle salt and pepper evenly over beef. In a large Dutch oven, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil until it starts to smoke. Add beef to pot in batches, making sure not to overcrowd in the pot so you can brown it all evenly. Add a small amount of olive oil as needed to brown beef. This will take about 5 minutes or so per batch. Transfer beef to a clean plate and set aside.
In the Dutch oven, add bacon to cook until browned. Remove bacon and add to plate with beef. Add sliced onions to the pot and cook until translucent. Sprinkle flour over onions and cook for about two minutes, until the flour is lightly browned and smells nutty. Do not let the flour mixture burn!
Add browned beef and bacon pieces, then add carrots, tomatoes, mushrooms and olives; then pour in warmed reserved wine marinade, beef stock, Herbes de Provence, Bouquet Garni and orange zest. Stir well.
