Daube Provencale

Ingredients

• 1.5 kg beef chuck or shin, in 5 cm pieces
• 750 ml robust red wine such as Cotes du Rhone
• 2 onions, sliced
• 2 carrots, thickly sliced
• 4 garlic cloves, crushed
• 2 wide strips of unwaxed orange zest
• 1 bouquet garni of thyme, bay, rosemary and parsley stalks
• 4 cloves
• 150 g pancetta or streaky bacon, in lardons
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp tomato puree
• 200 ml beef stock
• 150 g black olives, pitted
• Salt and black pepper

Before you cook

• Put the beef in a large bowl with the wine, the onions, the carrots, the garlic, the orange zest, the cloves and the bouquet garni
• Cover and marinate in the fridge overnight, or at least 6 hours
• Drain the meat in a colander set over a bowl, keeping the wine and the vegetables separately
• Pat every piece of beef completely dry with kitchen paper

Steps

1. Heat the olive oil in a heavy casserole over medium heat and fry the lardons for five minutes, until their fat runs.
2. Lift the lardons out with a slotted spoon and set them aside.
3. Raise the heat and brown the beef in three batches, giving each batch five minutes and turning the pieces until dark on all sides.
4. Return all the beef and the lardons to the pot.
5. Add the drained marinade vegetables and the orange zest and stir them through for three minutes.
6. Stir in the tomato puree and cook it out for one minute.
7. Pour in the reserved wine and the stock, then bring to the boil and let it bubble for three minutes.
8. Season with salt and pepper, tuck in the bouquet garni and cover the pot with a tight lid.
9. Cook in the oven at 150C for three and a half hours, checking once that it is barely bubbling.
10. Stir in the olives and return the pot to the oven, uncovered, for a final 30 minutes.
11. Skim any fat from the surface and pull out the bouquet garni and the orange zest.
12. Taste for salt, then serve with wide pasta or soft polenta to catch the sauce.