Make Ahead Dinner Party Dish: Beef Daube

I know it’s a scary thought, but I do cook things on top of a stove that do not have sugar, or end up in a baking pan.  Yes, I love sugary, baked goods, but when my husbink is leaving for work in the morning and I ask him to smack his lips to consider what he’d like for dinner and he says, “Meats,”  well, then, “meats” it is.  Lots of meats. Savory, rich, delectable tasting beef.

I’ve seen a few recipes here and there for Beef Daube in the course of my on-going love affair with cookbooks and food magazines and have been curious about it.  I still have the May 1999 issue of Bon Appetit, “Provence,” that included the first Daube recipe that caught my eye.  I’ve been more one who leans toward a bourguingnon instead, trying many different recipes and searching for the perfect one.  How different are they?  Not much.  Essentially, they are both ways to braise beef in wine.  It seems that when the sauce is thickened — whether in the beginning or at the end — is what makes the biggest difference.

Depending on the source of the recipe, one can quickly learn what’s most interesting about daube — its name comes from the type of clay pot it is cooked in.  (Yes, you, too, can now win in Trivial Pursuit:  The Food Version…) No, I wouldn’t have a daubiere, but it’s not required.  But I’ll bet it’s cute and if I saw one, I can guarantee you I’d want one, fetish that I have for all things food.

A daube is usually made with inexpensive cuts of meat.  I suppose that point should be stated the other way around:  less expensive cuts of meat are often tough, so benefit from being braised — hence, daube, or stew.  I’ve seen daubes made with a leg of lamb or boar meat, as well as beef chuck — something I’m more familiar with considering it was a staple on our dinner table most Sundays while I was growing up.

The deterrent for me in making Beef Daube has always been that it can take more than a day to make if I’m using an authentic recipe that goes on and on about the type of wine that should be used and the amount of time the beef needs to marinate.  I have no patience for this, unfortunately, but one day, I’d just like to find out how much difference it truly makes…

Beef daube can be the ultimate “make ahead” dish — something we often want to do, right?  It’s actually supposed to taste better the next day.  Who knew?  There are many, many steps to the recipes I’ve seen, however, and I know that is a complete deterrent for many cooks.  What can I say?  I love to be in my kitchen.  I can think of fewer things I’d rather do than to have a whole day ahead of me thinking about cooking — without frustration and rushing, of course.  It takes some planning, but it can be accomplished.

I’ve chosen “Beef Daube with Egg Noodles” from this October’s issue of Bon Appetit to begin my experimentation.  It seemed less involved than the Daube de Boeuf in the May 1999 issue.  And since lamb is something I’m not thrilled about ever, I’ve also passed by “Daube from Avignon” from Michel Biehn’s Recipes from a Provencal Kitchen (which uses a leg of lamb), and “Beef Daube with Dried Cepes” from Georgeanne Brennan’s The Food and Flavors of Haute Provence, (which sounds excellent, but calls for a much longer cooking time).  Some other differences I’ve noticed between the recipes are: whether there’s orange peel added, and whether there’s some sort of pork added in the early phases of cooking for flavor.  The recipe I used doesn’t include the orange or the pork.  It does, however, include juniper berries.  They look a bit like peppercorns, but they’re soft and can be squeezed.  They give off a pungent, but pleasant evergreen scent, and when chewed, taste a bit like pine nuts with a bite.  Interestingly, a very slight oil reminescent of that found on an orange peel lingers on your lips…Fascinating, don’t you think?

Remember:  Inexpensive meat, and can make ahead…What’s not to like?

The recipe for “Beef Daube with Egg Noodles” isn’t listed at epicurious yet, so I’m begrudgingly typing the whole thing just for you…But I am doing my own version of the directions based on how I prepared the dish.  The alterations don’t change the dish — just provide clarity and ease.

Make Ahead Dinner Party Dish:  Beef Daube

Ingredients

3-3/4 lbs. well-trimed boneless beef chuck, cut into 1-1/2 ” cubes
All purpose flour for coating meat, plus 2 T.

6 T (3/4 stick) butter, divided

3 T extra-virgin olive oil
2 c. chopped onions
1-1/2 c. chopped leeks (white and plate green parts only; from 2 med.)  Rinse well…
1-1/3 c. chopped carrots
1 lg. celery stalk, chopped
4 garlic cloves, chopped
2-1/3 c. beef broth, divided
10 juniper berries
1 T fresh thyme, chopped
1 T fresh rosemary, chopped
1 Turkish bay leaf
2 750-ml bottles dry red wine
1/2 c. (packed) chopped canned tomatoes in juice
1 T tomato paste

2 8.8-oz. pkgs egg pappardelle or 1 lb. wide egg noodles
6 T chopped fresh Italian parsley, divided

Directions

  1. Place beef cubes in a large plastic bag.  Pour about 1/2 c. flour, salt and pepper into the bag, seal it and shake thoroughly to coat beef.  Remove beef, shake off excess flour, and discard flour.  Mix 2 T. flour and 2 T. butter in small dish to smooth paste and set aside.
  2. Heat oil in  heavy wide pot over med-hi heat.  Add only enough beef to fit comfortably in the bottom of the pan without crowding until browned on all sides.  Remove from pan as browned and let sit in a bowl until all the beef is browned.  You may have to add a bit more olive oil between batches.  It will take nearly 10 minutes per batch of beef to finish the browning.
  3. The bottom of the pan should be nice and brown when you are finished.  Add onions, leeks, carrots, celery, and garlic to the pot.S until veggies begin to soften — less than 5 min.
  4. Add 2 c. broth, juniper berries, thyme, rosemary, and bay leaf.  Bring to a boil making sure to scrape up the brown on the bottom of the pan.  Keep boiling until the mixture is reduced to a thick, shiny glaze — less than 15 minutes.
  5. Add wine, tomatoes with juice, and tomato paste.  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to med-lo, cover, and simmer 1-hour and 15 min.
  6. Remove beef pieces to the bowl they were once in and spoon off any fat that has accumulated on the surface.  Bring the sauce to a boil and add the butter flour paste held in reserve.  Continue boiling until sauce is thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon, stirring occasionally, about 15 minutes.
  7. Return beef and juices collected to the pot.  Thin sauce if necessary with more beef broth. Season with salt to taste.

Can be made ahead 3 days.  Chill uncovered until cold, then cover and keep chilled.  Rewarm before serving.

Prepare noodles according to package directions.  Drain and add 4 T butter and 4 T chopped parsley.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.

To serve, divide noodles among plates and spoon daube over.  Sprinkle with remaining 2 T parsley and serve.

Recipe Notes

  • I used a 7-Bone Roast Chuck which weighed about 7 lbs. — double what the recipe called for. (It was on sale.)  The butcher offered to take the bones out for me, but I decided to keep them to experiment with making my own beef broth, something else I’ve always wanted to do.
  • I didn’t double any of the recipe to compensate for the additional beef, and I’m glad I didn’t because there was plenty of sauce, even with the sauce reductions that were called for.
  • Browning the meat takes a while and has to be considered in the over all amount of time spent in preparation — especially when you consider I had twice the meat.  It took 30 minutes.
  • Make sure you don’t crowd the meat when you’re browning it, as it can interfere with the browning process and you DO want that nice crusty brown stuff on the bottom of your pan.
  • Yes, this recipe uses TWO bottles of wine.  All of the other recipes only call for ONE. I used a French Merlot from Bordeaux which I did try before I poured it into the pot and found to be a bit tart — but I am not someone who understands red wine.  It did not turn the meat purple, however…
  • I had absolutely NO FAT to skim from the surface of my sauce, even with the extra meat.  Very strange.
  • I sauteed crimini mushrooms with garlic, olive oil, and some chopped parsley to mix with the egg noodles because I like mushrooms, and I needed to use them or else…

Since we’re having this dish tonight again, I’ll have to let you know about how great it is on the second day as reported.  It was great last night, but what’s not to like about Beef and Red Wine?  The meat was very tender, the sauce thick, glossy and very flavorful.  The aroma during cooking is heavenly.

So now that I’ve discovered Beef Daube, I guess I better read Chapter Three of Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume Two:  “Meats:  From Country Kitchen to Haute Cuisine” on Braised Beef.