My Recipe for a Traditional Provencal Beef Stew a Daube (2024)

• 2 lbs Boneless Short Ribs beef cheeks, or any other gelatinous cut of beef
• 1 zest / juice of Orange see notes
• 1 Cinnamon Stick
• 1 Star Anise
• 1 Bay Leaf
• a few Juniper Berries
• 1 bottle of Big Red Wine
• 1/4 cup Extra-Virgin Olive Oil
• 3 medium Carrots sliced into rounds
• 1 sweet Onion diced
• 1/4 cup Garlic Cloves mashed
• 4 ounces Slab Bacon diced
• 1 tbsp All-purpose Flour
• 1 14-ounces can of San Marzano tomatoes, undrained
• 1 cup Beef Stock chicken stock, or water
• a big pinch of Saffron Threads
• 6 Oil-Packed Anchovy Fillets chopped
• 1 cup Picholine Olives

• In a large nonreactive bowl, combine the beef, orange zest and juice, cinnamon, star anise, bay leaf, juniper, and wine. Cover and marinate overnight in the refrigerator.

• Place a fine mesh strainer over a large bowl and strain into the bowl, reserving the liquid. Discard the orange zest and spices. With paper towels, pat the short ribs dry.

• Heat the oil in a large Dutch oven or stockpot over high heat. Add the beef and cook, frequently turning, until browned on all sides, 5 to 8 minutes. Transfer the meat to a plate. Add the carrots and onion and cook, occasionally stirring, until lightly softened, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and bacon and cook until the bacon is browned about 5 minutes. Stir in the flour. Squeeze each of the tomatoes in your hand until they pop, then add them and their juices, the stock, and reserved marinade to the pot. Stir in the saffron, anchovies, and olives, then add the beef. Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat.

  If you are using a daubiere, you should transfer everything to the clay pot at this point. Please see the cooking note below.

  Reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer until the meat is insanely tender or about 5 hours.

  See Also

  Easy Vegan Bolognese Sauce Recipe

• Serve directly from the pot.

If you are using a clay daubiere, transfer all the ingredients to a daubiere after step 3. Heat the daubiere with the ingredients very slowly. I even bought a cast iron skillet to act as a diffuser. Sometimes it takes an hour for my daube to come to a simmer. Cooking in clay is not a race; you will be richly rewarded with a heavenly scent and the most tender meat ever.

Some Daube Tips:
Never eat a daube the same day it is made. Let the stew mature and its flavours marry, then blossom into the work of art that humble peasant cooking is. Serve it with boiled or mashed potatoes, spätzle, potato gratin, or buttered noodles.

Cooking is meant to be a joyous thing and not as exacting as everyone makes it out to be. Have fun, and do what you like. If you don't have juniper, bacon, anchovies, and/or olives, don't worry. Cooking is free-form poetry at its very best.