Dorie Greenspan's Go-To Beef Daube is From preparation to the plate, this recipe takes around 45 minutes. Head to the store and pick up beef chuck roast, shallots, parsnips, and a few other things to make it today. To use up the cognac you could follow this main course with the Cognac Butterscotch Pudding as a dessert.
Instructions
1
Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F.
Equipment you will use
Oven
2
Put a Dutch oven over medium heat and toss in the bacon. Cook, stirring, just until the bacon browns, then transfer to a bowl.
Ingredients you will need
Bacon
Equipment you will use
Dutch Oven
Bowl
3
Dry the beef between sheets of paper towels.
Ingredients you will need
Beef
Equipment you will use
Paper Towels
4
Add 1 tablespoon of the oil to the bacon fat in the pot and warm it over medium-high heat, then brown the beef, in batches, on all sides. Don’t crowd the pot—if you try to cook too many pieces at once, you’ll steam the meat rather than brown it—and make sure that each piece gets good color.
Ingredients you will need
Bacon Drippings
Beef
Meat
Cooking Oil
Equipment you will use
Pot
5
Transfer the browned meat to the bowl with the bacon and season lightly with salt and pepper.
Ingredients you will need
Salt And Pepper
Bacon
Meat
Equipment you will use
Bowl
6
Pour off the oil in the pot (don’t remove any browned bits stuck to the bottom), add the remaining tablespoon of oil, and warm it over medium heat.
Ingredients you will need
Cooking Oil
Equipment you will use
Pot
7
Add the onions and shallots, season lightly with salt and pepper, and cook, stirring, until the onions soften, about 8 minutes. Toss in the garlic, carrots, and parsnips, if you’re using them, and give everything a few good turns to cover all the ingredients with a little oil.
Ingredients you will need
Salt And Pepper
Parsnip
Shallot
Carrot
Garlic
Onion
Cooking Oil
8
Pour in the brandy, turn up the heat, and stir well so that the brandy loosens whatever may be clinging to the bottom of the pot.
Ingredients you will need
Brandy
Equipment you will use
Pot
9
Let the brandy boil for a minute, then return the beef and bacon to the pot, pour in the wine, and toss in the bouquet garni. Once again, give everything a good stir.
Ingredients you will need
Bouquet Garni
Brandy
Bacon
Beef
Wine
Equipment you will use
Pot
10
When the wine comes to a boil, cover the pot tightly with a piece of aluminum foil and the lid. Slide the daube into the oven and allow it to braise undisturbed for 1 hour.
Ingredients you will need
Wine
Equipment you will use
Aluminum Foil
Oven
Pot
11
Pull the pot out of the oven, remove the lid and foil, and stir everything up once. If it looks as if the liquid is reducing by a great deal (unlikely), add just enough water to cover the ingredients. Recover the pot with the foil and lid, slip it back into the oven, and cook for another 1 1/2 hours (total time is 2 1/2 hours). At this point the meat should be fork-tender—if it’s not, give it another 30 minutes or so in the oven.
Ingredients you will need
Water
Meat
Equipment you will use
Aluminum Foil
Oven
Pot
12
Taste the sauce. If you’d like it a little more concentrated (usually I think it’s just fine as is), pour the sauce into a saucepan, put it over high heat, and boil it down until it’s just the way you like it. When the sauce meets your approval, taste it for salt and pepper. (If you’re going to reduce the sauce, make certain not to salt it until it’s reduced.) Fish out the bouquet garni and using a large serving spoon, skim off the surface fat.
Ingredients you will need
Salt And Pepper
Bouquet Garni
Sauce
Fish
Salt
Equipment you will use
Sauce Pan
13
Serve the beef and carrots moistened with sauce.
Ingredients you will need
Carrot
Sauce
Beef
14
Storing: Like all stews, this can be kept in the refrigerator for about 3 days or frozen for up to 2 months. If you are preparing the daube ahead, don’t reduce the sauce, just cool the daube and chill it. Then, at serving time, lift off the fat (an easy job when the daube’s been chilled), reduce the sauce, and season it one last time.