This Hearty Beef Stew Is French Nation Meals at Its Best

For the final a number of weeks, my home has been stuffed with the aroma of scrumptious beef slowly braising in full-bodied purple wine. It’s smelled a lot like massive, daring reds these days that my household is now insisting I take slightly break from cooking with wine altogether. The rationale for that is that I’ve been perfecting my daring, full flavored Gascogne-style beef and root vegetable stew—and I’ve beloved each minute of it, it doesn’t matter what my household says.

The Gascogne area is in Southwest France, tucked between Bordeaux and Spain. The area is widespread amongst culinary aficionados for its earthy flavors, duck and goose foie gras, and different sturdy, lavish dishes. As a result of the area is so well-known for its poultry, particularly duck, it’s not exhausting to see why it has a fame for wealthy meals. As with most regional delicacies, you prepare dinner with what’s native. Within the case of Gascogne, meaning duck fats as an alternative of olive oil, tannic and exceptionally daring purple wines, dried prunes from plentiful plum bushes, and the uniquely nutty and caramel-flavored brandy known as Armagnac. All of those flavors are included into this beef stew.

Ideas for Success When Cooking the Stew

The method for making this stew is pretty easy: Sear the chunks of beef and render bacon to develop a wealthy fond, add aromatics akin to garlic, carrots, and parsnips for earthy taste, deglaze with scrumptious Armagnac, add the wine and broth, then prepare dinner at a low temperature for a number of hours till flavorful and tender. A handful of chopped prunes stud the stew for a welcome sweetness that enhances the acidic wine. 

Warmth administration is vital all through the recipe. When searing the meat, be sure that the pan is scorching sufficient to truly create a crust on the meat however keep away from too excessive of a temperature or you may scorch the pan. Equally, prepare dinner the stew in a really low oven to make sure the muscle fibers and connective tissue within the beef chuck slowly rework into meltingly smooth and moist gelatin. It is that gelatin that makes the meat nonetheless appear moist and tender even after the lengthy cooking.

The Finest Wine Choices for Gascogne-Type Beef Stew

The problem with growing a recipe like that is choosing the correct components. Daube de Boeuf à la Gasconne displays the wealthy, earthy, and daring flavors notable within the delicacies there. The key query is when to stay with conventional components that outline the recipe, and when adjustments are wanted to make it approachable for residence cooks like me who reside exterior of France.

The principle ingredient in query right here is the wine. The suitable wine on this recipe is kind of essential (a full bottle is used, in any case!). Historically Madiran, a purple wine from the Gascogne area, is used within the stew. It’s a tannic purple wine made with tannat grapes, which produce a really strikingly daring taste. I really discovered it tough to get pleasure from ingesting this wine, however it hits the correct advanced, daring taste when simmered with the meat within the stew. 

However Madiran can typically be difficult to seek out in US wine shops, so I additionally examined with extra frequent French purple wines from Bordeaux and Burgundy. And whereas these wines can actually produce a tasty stew, these stews didn’t really feel fairly wealthy or advanced sufficient when in comparison with the stew made with Madiran. A strong wine choice, and much simpler to seek out, is Cahors, which is predominantly made with malbec grapes. If Madiran and Cahors are unavailable, you may substitute a superb high quality malbec wine in a pinch.

Suggestions for a Balanced Stew

Trying by way of outdated cookbooks, particularly Escoffier: Le Information Culinaire, I discovered {that a} daube was historically made by marinating beef in purple wine and aromatics. That is one space I do assume it’s value breaking from custom. In my checks, cooking wine-marinated beef resulted in an excessively boozy flavored stew. 

I do, nevertheless, suggest following the frequent conventional technique of letting the stew settle down after which chill in a single day within the fridge earlier than serving. In my checks, I discovered this produced a richer, extra advanced taste in comparison with consuming the stew when freshly ready. I do know it may be exhausting to plan prematurely and to attend a full day earlier than tucking into the stew, however for my part, if you’re going to splurge on a superb bottle of wine and duck fats for the dish, it could be a disgrace to not let it develop as a lot taste as potential. I discovered that refrigerating the stew in a single day deepens the flavors and permits them to marry. 

Whenever you’re able to serve the reserved stew, merely spoon off any residual layer of fats from the highest earlier than reheating. You can be rewarded with a lusciously wealthy dish that’s decidedly rustic but advanced, earthy, and scrumptious sufficient to reflect the standard flavors of Gascogne.

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