This Hearty Beef Stew Is French Nation Meals at Its Most interesting

For the final a number of weeks, my home has been stuffed with the aroma of scrumptious beef slowly braising in full-bodied pink wine. It’s smelled a lot like massive, daring reds these days that my household is now insisting I take somewhat break from cooking with wine altogether. The explanation for that is that I’ve been perfecting my daring, full flavored Gascogne-style beef and root vegetable stew—and I’ve liked 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 standard 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 laborious to see why it has a fame for wealthy meals. As with most regional delicacies, you cook dinner with what’s native. Within the case of Gascogne, which means duck fats as an alternative of olive oil, tannic and exceptionally daring pink wines, dried prunes from ample plum timber, 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 approach for making this stew is pretty simple: Sear the chunks of beef and render bacon to develop a wealthy fond, add aromatics equivalent to garlic, carrots, and parsnips for earthy taste, deglaze with scrumptious Armagnac, add the wine and broth, then cook 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 essential all through the recipe. When searing the meat, ensure the pan is scorching sufficient to really create a crust on the meat however keep away from too excessive of a temperature or you possibly can scorch the pan. Equally, cook 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 tender 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 creating a recipe like that is choosing the proper substances. 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 substances that outline the recipe, and when modifications are wanted to make it approachable for house cooks like me who dwell exterior of France.

The principle ingredient in query right here is the wine. The precise wine on this recipe is kind of necessary (a full bottle is used, in spite of everything!). Historically Madiran, a pink wine from the Gascogne area, is used within the stew. It’s a tannic pink wine made with tannat grapes, which produce a really strikingly daring taste. I truly discovered it tough to get pleasure from ingesting this wine, nevertheless it hits the proper complicated, daring taste when simmered with the meat within the stew. 

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

Suggestions for a Balanced Stew

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

I do, nonetheless, suggest following the frequent conventional methodology of letting the stew settle down after which chill in a single day within the fridge earlier than serving. In my exams, I discovered this produced a richer, extra complicated taste in comparison with consuming the stew when freshly ready. I do know it may be laborious to plan upfront 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 might be a disgrace to not let it develop as a lot taste as doable. I discovered that refrigerating the stew in a single day deepens the flavors and permits them to marry. 

While 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 complicated, earthy, and scrumptious sufficient to reflect the normal flavors of Gascogne.

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