Daube is a french word that, according to one dictionary definition is: "a stew of braised meat, vegetables, herbs, and spices."
Daube de Boeuf is a classic french dish. The beef is braised then slowly cooked in a heady concoction of vegetables, rich stock, wine and herbs.
The problem is, it's the middle of summer and the heat index is over 100 degrees and the idea of sitting down to a big ole bowl of beef stew is NOT that appealing. So......how to enjoy that wonderful flavor in a summer version?
Answer: Daube Glacée (pronounced Dobe Glah Say)
Often served in New Orleans as an hors d’oeuvres, Daube Glacée is simply leftover daube that was cooked with spices and a stock which included veal bones and pigs feet. These are high in natural glycerin which when mixed with the daube and poured into a terrine, formed a solid jelly-like mass. This was either sliced and served as a cold meal or in smaller pieces as hors d’oeuvres.
I remember as a child my Aunt Louise would give a loaf of Daube Glacée to friends and family at Christmas. I can still picture my father sitting at the kitchen table, quite content, with a thick slide of Daube, a spoonful of mayonnaise and a pile of saltines.
A number of the older recipes for this dish include the pigs feet and so on but as a practical matter, unflavored gelatin does the trick.
The recipe I use comes from Chef John Besh of Restaurant August in New Orleans. His cookbook: My New Orleans, the cookbook should be a "must have" for any chef who loves New Orleans. More information can be found at www.chefjohnbesh.com
I'm not going to type the recipe here as it has a lot of ingredients but you can find it on Google and here is the link: http://books.google.com/books?id=L-PBWXgTTjsC&pg=PA344&lpg=PA344&dq=john+besh+beef+daube+glace&source=bl&ots=qNXE5mIFcc&sig=9c9zW_ALq6n3vxpudRbSTxkEqzM&hl=en&sa=X&ei=SDocUKOFDcfb0QHmpIHwAw&ved=0CGIQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=john%20besh%20beef%20daube%20glace&f=false
I followed the directions pretty closely. The dried mushrooms I used were chanterelle mushrooms. I keep a number of different dried mushrooms and I felt the chanterelle mushroom imparted a pleasant flavor without overpowering the dish. Incidentally, I buy all my dried mushrooms from Olive Nation. They have wonderful products besides the mushrooms. Here is a link: http://www.olivenation.com/Mushrooms-C52.aspx
The big hurdle with this recipe is the veal stock. Where I live, it is impossible to find in a grocery store. So I either have to order it, make it or fake it. My preference is to make it but try finding veal bones. A reasonable alternative is to use store bought demi-glace. The demi-glace is made with veal and when added to a combination of water and beef broth, it comes close. Candidly, I would simply suggest using beef broth. Some will argue with me but I think, especially for this recipe, it adds boldness to the dish.
Something else I take care with is the wine I use. I've written here before that the first rule about cooking with wine is if you wouldn't drink the wine, don't cook with it. This rule applies for any bottle you might already have open. Don't think "well I don't want to waste it so I'll stick it in the stew". If the wine has turned, and you don't enjoy drinking it, don't cook with it. However, all is NOT lost. Don't throw out this wine, save it in a ceramic vat for fabulous red wine vinegar.
I think this recipe calls for a big wine and that makes me gravitate to the Southern Rhone wines. I used a Cotes du Rhone (Guigal Cotes du Rhone 2007).
Something else that I did different was the cooking time. I started this around 5:30 one evening and around 8:00 that night, I let it cool and put it in the refrigerator. I took it out at lunch time the next day and let it simmer on very low heat until around 6:00 that night, stirring it periodically and adjusting seasoning.
Since I hadn't forgotten about those cold winter nights, I didn't make Daube Glacée out of all of it. I put a fair amount in the freezer for the winter.
That reminds me......here is another idea for this recipe: Beef and Barley soup. Somebody remind me later and I'll tell you how I use this as a basis for a great winter soup.
I took the rest of the daube and added the gelatin, let it cool and put it in the refrigerator.
So.....here it is!!!
A nice cold way to eat beef stew on a hot summer night.
How did I serve it? We had a slice of daube accompanied by cooked and chilled haricot verts along with a large dollop of homemade mayonnaise. Not bad.
And....guess what??? Don't like it cold? Hell....heat it up and it is Daube de Boeuf again!!
What did I pour with it??
This is clearly a red wine meal. So I picked one of the great wines from the Languedoc region of France: Mas de Gassac vintage 2000. The wine is a blend of Rhone and Bordeaux grapes and is outstanding.
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