Recipe of the week: Provençal daube: An aromatic celebration

A slow-simmered Provençal daube is a beautiful thing, says Anne Willan in the Los Angeles Times. Not just a dish but a method of cooking, this marvelously rich, aromatic marriage of wine and meat is “special enough for a celebration,” even though it uses inexpensive ingredients. A long marinade is essential. Serve with a dark, musky Rhône red.

Recipe of the week

Daube de boeuf Provençale

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(Provençal beef daube with red wine and black olives)

Bouquet garni

1 orange peel, white part scraped away

3 to 4 bay leaves

4 sprigs parsley

6 to 8 sprigs thyme

1 tsp black peppercorns

4 whole cloves

1 stick cinnamon

Tie ingredients in cheesecloth. Set aside.

Daube

2 lbs chuck or round steak

1/2-lb piece smoked bacon

1 (2-inch) slice beef shank (about 1-1/2 lb)

3 onions, cut in eighths

3 large carrots, peeled, trimmed, cut diagonally

2 medium bulbs fennel, tops trimmed, cut in eighths

1 bottle robust red wine

Bouquet garni

2 tbsp olive oil

4 to 6 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped

1-3/4 cup diced canned tomatoes, drained

Freshly ground pepper

1 cup brine-cured black olives

1/4 cup chopped parsley

Trim excess fat from beef steak, cut in 1-inch cubes. Slice bacon, cut slices crosswise to make lardons. Line 5-1/2 quart heavy, ovenproof casserole with bacon rind, put beef shank on top. Add beef cubes, lardons, onions, carrots, fennel, pour wine over. Add bouquet garni, push bag down into marinating ingredients. Spoon over olive oil, cover, refrigerate at least 1 day (up to 3 days). Heat oven to 400 degrees, put rack in lower third of oven. Sprinkle daube with garlic and chopped tomatoes, add 2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper, pour in enough water to almost cover vegetables. Cover, cook in oven until broth is almost simmering,

about 45 minutes.

Stir meat and vegetables. Add olives. Reduce heat to 300 degrees. Cook, stirring occasionally, until cube of beef can be easily crushed between finger and thumb, 2-1/2 to 3 hours more. Take pot from oven, lift out slice of shank. It needs to be falling off bone, so will probably need more cooking: Put it in medium saucepan, ladle in enough broth from daube to cover meat. Cover, simmer until meat is almost falling apart, 30 to 45 minutes longer.

Remove shank with bone, let cool until tepid. Return broth to casserole, discard bouquet garni. Taste broth. If flavor is thin and needs reducing, ladle as much as possible into saucepan, boil until flavor is concentrated

and liquid is reduced to about 4 cups. Meanwhile, pull meat from bones of shank and cut into 1-inch pieces. Stir meat gently into casserole, with marrow from central bone. When broth is reduced, stir it back into daube, taste, adjust seasoning.

Just before serving, stir in chopped parsley, check seasoning again. Ladle daube directly from the pot into shallow pasta bowls. Serves 8.