French Provincial Cooking - Elizabeth David [197]
There should be enough for four to six people.
If more convenient, the first 2 hours’ cooking can be done in advance, the stew left to cool and the fat removed; it can then be reheated gently with the bacon, mushrooms and onions added. There are those who maintain that the dish is improved by being heated up a second time; the meat has time to mature, as it were, in the sauce.
To make a cheaper dish, chuck (shoulder) beef may be used instead of topside, and an extra 45 minutes’ cooking time allowed. And when really small onions are not available it is best simply to cook a chopped onion or two with the stew, and to leave onions out of the garnish, because large ones are not suitable for the purpose.
For formal occasions a boned joint of beef may be cooked whole and served with a similar sauce and garnish, and then becomes pièce de bœuf à la bourguignonne.
BŒUF À LA GARDIANE
BEEF AND WINE STEW WITH BLACK OLIVES
A dish from western Provence and the Camargue demonstrating the stewing of a tough piece of meat in red wine without the addition of any stock or thickening for the sauce.
Ingredients for four people are 2 lb. of top rump of beef, 4 tablespoons of brandy, 1 large glass (6 oz.) of red wine, a bouquet of thyme, parsley and bayleaf, plus a little strip of orange peel and a crushed clove of garlic, butter and olive oil; and about 6 oz. of stoned black olives.
The meat should be cut into small neat cubes, not more than an inch square. Brown them in a mixture of olive oil and butter. Warm the brandy in a soup ladle, pour it over the meat, set light to it, shake the pan until the flames go out. Add the red wine; let it bubble fast for about half a minute. Season with only very little salt and pepper, put in the bouquet tied with thread, turn the flame as low as possible, cover the pan with at least two layers of greaseproof paper or foil and the lid.
Cook as gently as possible, on top of the stove, with a mat underneath the pan, for about 3 hours. Ten minutes before serving remove the bouquet and put in the stoned black olives. Taste for seasoning before serving. A dish of plain boiled rice can be served separately.
The flaming with brandy, although not absolutely essential, burns up the excess fat and makes quite a difference to the flavour of the finished sauce, which will be a short one, most of the liquid having been absorbed by the meat. The old Nîmoise cook who showed me how to make this particular version of the dish used Châteauneuf du Pape to cook it in (we were in the district, so it wasn’t so extravagant as it sounds, and it most definitely pays to use a decent and full-bodied wine for these beef stews) and she garnished the dish with heart-shaped croûtons of fried bread instead of rice.
LA DAUBE DU BÉARN
BEEF AND WINE STEW WITH HAM AND TOMATOES
This does not differ substantially from the Provençal and other daubes already described, but variations upon these kinds of dishes are always useful to know.
For this one the ingredients are approximately 2 lb. of topside or leg of beef cut into slices about inch thick and about half the size of an ordinary postcard, 6 to 8 oz. of salt, streaky pork, a slice of raw ham (or gammon from the middle or corner cut) weighing about lb., 2 carrots, a large onion, 3 or 4 tomatoes, a claret glass of red wine, a bouquet of herbs and a piece of dried red pepper, and if you have it, a couple of tablespoons of rich goose or beef stock.
Cut the pork, rind included, into cubes, and the ham or gammon into strips. Slice the onion and carrots. Arrange all these ingredients in a braising-pan or earthen pot (in the Béarn they use a fat round pot narrowing towards the top, called a toupin),28 and set over a low flame. When the fat starts to run put in the meat arranged in overlapping layers, with the bouquet in the centre. No salt. Cover the pan and cook gently about 10 minutes. Pour over the wine, bubbling hot. Cook another 15 minutes or so on top of the stove, and then transfer to a very low oven.