Tour de France '20 - Stage 16: La Tour de Pin to Villard de Lans.
This stage brought us back into the Dauphiné region. Since I had already made the region's most famous dish (Gratin Dauphinois for Stage 5), I made their next famous offering today: Daube de Boeuf á la Dauphinoise. This labor of love started 30 hours before chowdown when I larded the individual cuts of beef (a very resourceful technique, most likely invented by a very lonely chef...it gets real intimate) and marinated them in 2 bottles of wine, herbs and cracked peppercorns. However, I needed to also somehow source a pound of pork skin. So, I found myself skinning ham hocks last night (so much for that 2nd scheduled "rest day" on Le Tour). The day of, I rendered lardons for an hour before browning the beef and braising it with all of the vegetables and herbs...for 6 hours!
Daube de Boeuf a la Dauphinoise (Beef Daube)
Adapted from French Regional Food, Joël Robuchon & Loïc Bienassis
This recipe takes a bit of leg work. If you love slow-cooking and working with your food, you’ve found your match.
4-5 lb lean beef, chuck roast or round
4-5 oz chilled, hard pork fat (easily obtained from slab bacon)
Caul fat (optional)
4 garlic cloves
Parsley
Extra-virgin Olive Oil
2 bottles of affordable Cabernet Sauvignon
Peppercorns
Bouquet garnis: Thyme & bay leaf
4-5 oz slab bacon
14 oz pork rind (ask your butcher if they have any for sale, otherwise cut from a pork shoulder or about 8 ham hocks)
3-4 lbs carrots, ¼” diced
Bag of fresh pearl onion (or 12 oz. frozen, thawed)
1 lb tomatoes, seeded and ½” diced
Two 3-4” zests of orange
At least 12 hours before cooking, or up to 2 days in advance, cut the meat into 2-inch large chunks, removing any silver skin or sinew. reheat the oven to 400. Mince half of the garlic and place in a mortar along with a pinch of kosher salt and grind the mixture into a paste. Add about a tablespoon of minced parsley to the paste. Cut the chilled pork fat into small 1-2” long pieces (these will be stuffed into the chunks of beef). Roll all of the fat lardons in the herby, garlic paste. With a small knife, puncture the center of each beef chunk (sinking the knife nearly all the way though) and insert the lardon into the hole. You may need to cut down the lardons to fit. (If using caul, cut small pieces and wrap them around the beef chunks.) Add the beef to a large bowl, drizzle with 2 tbsp EVOO, crush 10 peppercorns with a knife and add them to the bowl along with 2 crushed cloves of garlic and all of the wine. Tie together 4 sprigs of thyme with a bay leaf and add to the marinade. Cover the bowl and place in the fridge for as long as you wish to marinade the beef; giving it a good stir every 6 hours or so.
On the day of cooking, cut the slab bacon into lardons and render them along with a tbsp of EVOO over low heat in a large dutch oven. Meanwhile pull the beef out of the marinade, dry the individual pieces and season them with kosher salt and black pepper. Raise the heat to medium and brown the beef on all sides; removing them along with the rendered lardons and set aside in a bowl.
If using fresh pearl onions: While the beef browns, bring a small pot of water to a boil. Add the pearl onions and blanch for about a minute then transfer to an ice-water bath. After they cool cut the tail ends and squeeze the onion until it ejects from the peel. (Skip this step altogether if you are using frozen pearl onions).
Discard any leftover fat from the pot and give a careful, quick wipe with a paper towel. Line the bottom of the dutch oven with the raw pork rind(s), fat-side down. Place the pot over medium-low heat, adding in the carrots, tomatoes, onions (fresh or frozen), orange zest and pinch of salt. Cover the pot and let the vegetables cook-down for 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 300 and place rack in lower-third. Remove the cover of the pot, add in the beef and lardons and then pour the marinade into the pot through a fine-mesh strainer. Retrieve the bouquet garnis from the strainer and throw in the pot along with just a pinch each of salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, cover and place in the oven for 6 hours. Stir the contents of the pot, carefully to avoid disturbing the rinds on the bottom of the pot, every 90 minutes.
To serve, remove the bouquet garnis and orange peel. Transfer the meat to plates using tongs, spooning the daube juices and cooked vegetables over the meat. Serve with a simple boiled potato, giving it a light bath of daube juice on the plate as well.
Copyright 2020, Brendan McCann, All Rights Reserved.
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