Lauren's Kitchen

Beef Daube with Puff Pastry

Beef Daube with Puff Pastry

I love a good beef stew, and when I stumbled across a recipe for a Beef Daube in my new Williams Sonoma cookbook, I decided to give it a try with some minor modifications.   Beef Daube is a French dish, hinging on a lovely beef stew, starting with a red wine vinegar saute of mirepoix and some dry red wine.  It is slow braised for a couple of hours in the oven, and once the beef is fork tender, topped with a puff pastry and baked until golden brown.  There are large variations of the vegetables to be included, but most have the mirepoix, and many versions include the addition of potatoes and tomatoes.  I’ve even seen some with the juice of an orange and some orange zest, and I intend to include those ingredients on another day.

Ingredients:

• 1.5 lb. beef chuck, cut into 1″ cubes
• 1/2 cup flour seasoned with salt and pepper
• 1 yellow onion, diced
• 3 celery stalks, diced
• 2 carrots, diced
• 5 cloves of garlic, diced
• glug of olive oil
• a good knob of butter
• sea salt and freshly ground pepper
• 1/4 cup good quality red wine vinegar
• the leaves from 3 springs of thyme
• 1 cup dry red wine
• 1.5 cups beef stock
• 1/4 cup tomato paste
• 3/4 lb. new potatoes, cut into eighths
• 4 oz crimini mushrooms, sliced
• Frozen puff pastry sheets
• 1 egg
• 1 Tbsp heavy cream

Directions:

In a large ziploc bag, add flour and salt and pepper.  Add the beef, in batches in necessary, and shake bag to coat each piece, shaking off the excess flour.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Add a good glug of oil to a large dutch oven over medium-high heat, and add the beef chunks.  Brown on all sides, around 5 minutes, and set aside.

Add some more oil and butter to the dutch oven, and add the onion, celery, and carrots.  Saute until tender, about 5 minutes.  Add the red wine vinegar, and then add the garlic and thyme and saute for a few more minutes.

Beef Daube with Puff Pastry

Beef Daube with Puff Pastry

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