Dorie Greenspan's Go-To Beef Daube with Saint-Germain-Des-Prés Onion Biscuits

I normally like to do a monthly round up of my French Fridays with Dorie recipes, but this month will be different.  I'm trying to play catch up to last month's recipes and keep up with this month's recipes as well.  I've got a lot of cooking to do!

My husband bought me a brand new Martha Stewart Dutch oven for Christmas.  Hooray!  Prior to receiving this Dutch oven, I had been using the insert in my crock pot as a "makeshift" Dutch oven.  I'm so glad that my husband took notice of my "makeshift" Dutch oven and bought me a real Dutch oven as a Christmas gift.  It really is a beautiful pot and I know that I will get years and years of good use out of it.  Making Dorie's Go-To Beef Daube was the perfect way to break it in!

I have to confess that I've never made or ate a Beef Daube before.  Turns out that a Beef Daube is pretty much a beef stew or even much like a pot roast with veggies.  The recipe begins with a  3.5 pound chuck roast that has been cut into 2- to 3-inch cubes.   Four slices of bacon are cooked in the Dutch oven until brown, then removed.  The beef cubes are then browned in the bacon fat until they have quite a bit of color.  Once the beef has achieved a deep and dark color, it is removed and set aside. 

Do you like to chop veggies?  I love chopping veggies.  It's probably one of my favorite tasks in the kitchen.  Lucky for me this recipe requires a lot of chopping.  Featured in the pan below are two yellow onions and six shallots.  I love to chop, but those onions and shallots were very strong....there were some tears involved.  I stuck my head in the freezer a few times.  Do you ever do that?  It works.  Stops the tears instantly.

After about 8 minutes, once the onions and shallots cooked down, I added one and a half pounds of carrots, a half pound of parsnips, and an entire head of garlic (with the loose papery peel removed).  My kitchen was a mess at this point.  Onion and shallot peels were everywhere, including my hair.  I didn't sweat it though.  You know why?  It was time to break out the alcohol!  Get out the Brandy and the red wine................. 

It's time for the Brandy once all the veggies have a chance to mingle together for a few minutes. Do you like to deglaze?  I do!  I love it. I poured that Brandy in the pot and waited for the sizzle.  Once you hear that sizzle then you know you are going to be in for some wonderful aromas.  Not to mention..... this is your chance to sneak a sip, or two, of the Brandy.  Believe me, look around at your kitchen.  It's messy.  You'll need a few good sips.  Possibly even more than a few sips.

Now it's time to make the bouquet garni.  Do you like to make a bouquet garni?  I love it.  There's just something about that cute little package of herbs and/or spices.  The bouquet garni for this recipe includes rosemary, thyme, parsley, and celery leaves.

The beef cubes and bacon are added back into the Dutch oven, as well as the cute little bouquet garni and then an entire bottle of red wine is added in (I like to use Cabarnet with my beef).  Thankfully I had another half bottle in the fridge left for drinking.  It came in handy when it was time to clean up my kitchen.  I love to chop.  I love to deglaze.  I love to make bouquet garni.  I DO NOT like to clean.

The Beef Daube cooks at 350F for 2-1/2 hours (with a sheet of foil and a lid over the top).  After 2-1/2 hours, it is fall-apart tender, with a deep dark and rich color, and full of flavor thanks to the red wine.  A delightful and glorious meal.  Everyone loved it, including my 9 year old daughter who tends to be picky from time to time. 

We enjoyed the Beef Daube with Dorie's Saint-Germain-Des-Prés Onion Biscuits.  The biscuits weren't one of the recipes for last month or this month, but I thought they sounded delicious and it turns out they were.  The biscuits were tender and flaky and studded with finely chopped and lightly cooked onion.  The biscuits had a mild onion flavor and went perfectly with the Beef Daube.  I would make both recipes again.

Happy Cooking!