Traditional Provencal beef chuck daube

Ingredients

• 1.5 kg Charolais beef chuck for braising
• 200 g whole smoked pork belly
• 3 pieces yellow storage onion
• 500 g sand-grown carrot
• 5 cloves purple garlic clove
• 1 l dry full-bodied red wine, PDO Cotes de Provence
• 3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 tbsp no-salt-added double-concentrated tomato paste
• 1 piece untreated organic orange
• 120 g pitted natural PDO Nyons black olives
• 2 tbsp T55 wheat flour
• 2 pieces whole clove
• 3 sprigs fresh thyme sprig
• 2 leaves dried bay leaf
• 1 tsp Madagascar black peppercorn
• 1 tbsp unrefined coarse gray sea salt

Method

1. Cut the beef chuck into large, regular pieces of about five centimeters to preserve all its juices during the long cooking time. Peel the carrots and cut them into thick bias slices. Peel two onions, cut one into large wedges and pierce the second with the cloves. Crush the garlic cloves with the flat of a knife blade. Peel a wide strip of zest from the orange using a vegetable peeler, avoiding the bitter white pith.
2. Place the meat pieces, bias-cut carrots, onion wedges, clove-pierced onion, garlic cloves, orange zest strip, thyme sprigs, bay leaves and black peppercorns in a large deep dish. Pour in the full-bodied red wine to submerge everything, cover tightly and place in the refrigerator for at least twelve hours to tenderize the fibers.
3. Take the preparation out of the refrigerator one hour before cooking to relax the meat. Carefully drain the beef pieces in a colander over a large bowl to collect all the wine from the marinade as well as the aromatic garnish. Pat each piece of beef dry with paper towels so they are perfectly dry on the surface.
4. Cut the whole smoked pork belly into thick, even lardons. Heat the olive oil in a cast-iron Dutch oven over medium heat, then add the lardons. Let them brown gently until they are golden and their fat has rendered well, then remove them with a slotted spoon, keeping the juices and fat in the Dutch oven.
5. Increase the heat under the Dutch oven to get a very high temperature. Add the beef pieces, taking care not to overcrowd them to prevent them from releasing water. Sear them on all sides until you get a nice golden brown, caramelized crust, then transfer the meat out with the lardons.
6. Lower to medium heat, add the third onion, sliced beforehand, as well as the drained vegetables and aromatics from the marinade. Sweat everything for about ten minutes, stirring with a wooden spoon until the vegetables soften. Stir in the double-concentrated tomato paste, then sprinkle the wheat flour over the top. Mix carefully for two minutes to toast the flour without burning it, until you smell a delicate nutty aroma.
7. Pour in the reserved red wine from the marinade, scraping the bottom of the Dutch oven vigorously with the wooden spoon to deglaze all the caramelized juices. Return the beef pieces and lardons with their resting juices, then bring to a rolling boil for five minutes to boil off the harshness of the alcohol.
8. Season with the coarse sea salt. Preheat your oven to 140 °C. Cover the Dutch oven with its tight-fitting lid and bake for three and a half hours of slow cooking. The liquid should just simmer very gently, with very few lazy bubbles on the surface, to let the collagen transform into a silky sauce.
9. Add the pitted black olives to the Dutch oven and continue cooking in the oven for another thirty minutes. The daube is perfectly cooked when the meat yields without the slightest resistance under the pressure of a fork and the sauce has a beautiful mahogany brown coating consistency.
10. Remove the thyme sprigs, bay leaves, clove-pierced onion and orange zest. Taste the sauce and adjust the seasoning if necessary. Let the covered Dutch oven rest off the heat for about fifteen minutes before plating, or let it cool completely to reheat gently the next day.

Nutrition

Per serving

Energy

738.4 kcal

Protein

59.32 g

Carbohydrate

19.83 g

Fat

33.55 g

Fibre

6.6 g

Calcium

73.22 mg

Iron

3.39 mg

Magnesium

43.18 mg