A sort of beef daube

I picked up a couple of beef shanks at the farmers' market: nice, free-range, happy cows locally and humanely raised, fed, and butchered.

Beef shanks have to be cooked for a long while so they are falling-off-the-bone tender. I decided the lovely beef shanks needed to be prepared in the fashion that is a cross between a beef daube, usually chunks of beef, and osso bucco, the classic Italian preparation for bone-in veal shanks. Daube is a French beef stew made with wine, garlic, herbs and various other things.

I browned the shanks in a tablespoon or so of butter and removed them to a plate. Then I sauted in more butter (you could us olive oil) chopped onions, chopped carrots, and 4 or 5 cloves of chopped garlic until golden. I put the shanks back in the pan and added half a glass or so of red wine and I let it boil for a minute. Next I added enough water (you could use beef stock or something similar) for the liquid to come right up to the top of the shanks. I threw in a couple of sprigs of rosemary for good measure. Once it came to a boil, I turned down the heat to very low, covered the pot, and let it simmer gently for 2 1/2 hours.

I served the daube with some fingerling potatoes, also from the market, that I cut in half lenthwise and fried in olive oil. MMMM! Both were tasty.

Slow-cooked beef is my favorite way to eat beef. A long, slow braise can render the least expensive cuts of beef absolutely delicious!

Oxtail soup

The 1975 edition of The Joy of Cooking is a lot more fun to read than the 1997 revision. Granted it has recipes for things that would never darken the door of the contemporary cook's kitchen, like sea turtle, bear, opossum and raccoon, but that's what makes it exciting reading!

In case you ever need to fix a bear, be sure you remove all of the fat promptly because it turns rancid very quickly. Then you can marinade it for 24 hours and prepare as you would a beef pot roast. Who knew?

Well, I've not been bear hunting recently but I did decide to consult the 1975 hardback of Joy for an oxtail soup recipe after spying some oxtail in the butcher counter at Compare Supermarket. Oxtail, by the way, is a lovely and impressive description for cow's tail that's been sectioned at the joints with a surprising amount of meat attached.

Next time I will double this recipe because it made only about 3 large bowls of soup that I've had as main course for the past three meals.

Here is the recipe from 1975 ed. Joy of Cooking, page 154 (I don't know what page in the 1997 ed.):

2lbs of oxtail
1/2 c sliced onions
2 T butter
8 c water
1 1/2 t salt
4 peppercorns

Brown the oxtail and onions in the butter. Then add the water, peppercorns and salt. Simmer for 4 1/2 hours.

Add to the oxtail broth:

1/4 c. diced carrots
1/2 c. diced celery
1 bay leaf
1/4 c. chopped parsley
1/2 c. canned diced tomatoes
1/4 c. barley
1 t. dried thyme, basil or marjoram (I like thyme)

Cook for 30 minutes. Chill overnight and degrease. When ready to serve, warm the soup up and slowly add a brown roux of 1 T flour cooked with 2 T butter until dark golden in color. Correct the seasonings of salt and pepper.

If desired, add 1/4 c. sherry to soup before serving.

New Year's Eve: slow cooking Italian

Happy New Year's! I hope 2008 is a good one for all.

Yesterday I made a slow cooking meat ragu to go with pasta for a dinner party last night. A dinner party is my favorite way to herald in another year. Nothing beats good food and good company.

The meat sauce turned out great. Three hours of cooking turns simple, fairly inexpensive ingredients into a rich, luxurious sauce. I had to go to three stores to find pancetta. Kroger over by Home Depot off of 15-501 had it. You can substitute bacon for pancetta in a pinch. The pancetta and proscuitto are the most expensive ingredients. While they do add a lot of flavor, they could be omitted or replaced with bacon.

I adapted the recipe from Italian: Slow and Savory. I doubled the batch in order to feed a crowd. I think this would easily serve 10.

6 T butter
6 T olive oil
2 stalks of celery chopped
2 carrots chopped
2 onions chopped
2 cloves of garlic minced
4 oz dried porcini rehydrated in 1 c water and chopped
1 lb beef chuck or brisket chopped
1 lb pork shoulder chopped
4 oz pancetta or bacon
4 oz proscuitto
4 T tomato paste diluted in a bit of water
1/2 c. tomato puree
2 c. red wine
2 c. beef stock
2 c. milk
salt and pepper to taste
unsalted butter
Parmesan cheese

Cook the veggies and garlic in the olive oil and butter until they are golden, about 10 minutes. Add the meats and cook until they are no longer pink, about 15 minutes. Add tomato paste, tomato puree and wine. Cook about 15 minutes until the wine is mostly absorbed. Add milk and stock. Simmer on low heat for 2 1/2 to 3 hours. Stir occasionally and add more stock if needed. Salt and pepper to taste.

Serve over pasta and garnish the sauce w/ a pat of butter and some grated Parmesan cheese.