Provencale Beef Daube

Delicious magazine recipe

Serves 4

• 1 large celery stick
• 2 bay leaves
• 7 sprigs fresh thyme and parsley plus handful fresh parsley leaves for persillade
• 1kg lean braising steak (or venison)
• 4 tablespoon olive oil
• 225g thick cut rindless streaky bacon cut into strips
• 3 onions, halved and thinly sliced
• 6 fat garlic cloves, thinly sliced, plus 1 fat clove, sliced for persillade
• 600ml red wine
• 200ml beef stock
• 350g carrots cut into chunks
• 400g can chopped tomatoes
• 2 salted anchovies rinsed (optional!!)
• 3 large strips pared orange zest
• 20g softened butter
• 20g plain flour
• 100g small black olives (optional!!)

Make a bouquet garni by cutting celery in half and sandwiching the bay and herb springs in between. Tie everything into a tight bundle with some string.

Cut the steak into large chunky pieces. Heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a large casserole over a high heat. Brown the beef in batches until well coloured all over. Season. Add the bacon to the pan and fry until golden brown. Set aside with the beef. Add the reminaing oil and the onions to the casserole and fry for the 10-12 minutes until richly browned. Add the garlic and fry for 1-2 minutes more. Add the wine and simmer vigorously, scraping the base of the casserole to release the caramelised juices, until the liquid has been reduced by half.

Preheat oven to 150 degrees (130 if fan and gas 2).

Stir in stock, then return beef and bacon to casserole with carrots, tomatoes, anchoives, orange zest, bouquet garni, season. Cover with foil and tight fitting lid and cook in ove for 2 hours or until meltingly tender (I found cooking for 2 hrs, drinking some passionfruit martini's and forgetting it for another 2 hours worked wonders!).

Shortly before it is ready make the persillade garnish by chopping together the parsley and garlic. Mash the butter and flour together to make a thickening paste (beurre manie).

Remove daube from oven, uncover and skim off any excess oil. Discard the bouquet garni and orange and bring to gentle simmer on the stove. Whisk in beurre maine paste (if needed) a little at time until thickened. Stir in olives. Simmer for 5 minutes, then sprinkle with the persillade garnish. Serve with honey roasted carrots and parsnips and new potatoes.

Coq au Vin

This is a combination of many recipes off the internet, kudos goes to Nigel Slater, Delia Smith and Jamie Oliver for some of the best ideas.

• 1 whole chicken, ask your butcher to cut this into 4 joints for you
• 2 ribs celery, chopped coarsely
• 500g baby onions (soak in water to peel easier) cut in half
• 500g chantaney carrots, unpeeled, topped and tailed and cut in two
• 4 cloves garlic
• 2/3 bottle rich red wine (Cote du Rhone etc)
• 1 litre chicken stock
• 180g bacon lardons or thick bacon chopped into cubes
• 300g button mushrooms
• butter
• fresh thyme
• salt and pepper

Put chicken, carrots, celery and onions in bowl and add the wine. Mix until all covered, cover with lid and leave somewhere cool overnight to soak up.

Next day, put a good sized knob of butter in a large pan, once melted, cook the bacon lardons in the pan until lightly browned. Put to one side.

Next cook off the button mushrooms in the butter and bacon juices. After 4-5 mins of cooking remove frompan and set aside with bacon.

Take the onions soaked in wine out of the bowl and cook them off next until soft, then repeat for the carrots and the celery (these could be done together). Keep the wine, you're going to need it soon!

Finally in all the remaining pan juices, fry off the chicken pieces until browned on each side.

Once chicken is brown, add the onions, carryots and celery back in. Cook them off for 2-3 mins adding the garlic and the thyme.

Then pour in the wine, chicken stock, add salt and pepper and boil. Turn onto a low heat and simmer.

After 1-2hrs of cooking, add the bacon and mushrooms. Taste for seasoning and if needed add a little cornflour mixed with water to thicken the sauce.

Serve with buttery mashed potatoes.

Beef in Red Wine

This is one of those recipes I can't give exact amounts for the ingredients, I just know what I put in ;) Have to thank my mum for this one :)

• Suitable casserole dish, like round cast-iron, with lid
• Brasing steak (enough to fill 1/4, for a six person casserole I use around 0.8kg, if it is for a dinner party, I would use better steak)
• Chopped Carrots (enough to fill 1/4, again for a six person casserole I would use around 6, cut however you choose, chunky is usually good)
• Chopped onions (enough to fill 1/4, for six people I use around 2 large again cut chunky), or have used chopped fennel as well
• Chopped mushrooms (enough to fill 1/4, for six people I used around 2/3 of a large punnet)
• 1 bottle red wine (for 6 people)
• 1.5l beef stock
• Salt & Pepper

Chop up all the ingredients, making them chunky. Add to casserole and mixed so they are evenly distributed throughout. Season with salt and pepper, then pour in red wine to around the 1/3 - 1/2 way point, then top up with the beef stock. Place in oven at 160oCand cook for as long as possible, usually 3 hours is good. Stir occassionally and when ready to serve, if juices are thin, use gravy granules to thicken up. Serve with either new potatoes and veg, or with rice.