Grace's Boeuf en daube (beef stew from Provence)

August 04, 2020

This little cutie-pie is my mother in law, Grace Sterling (nee Lloyd), when she was all of about 20 years old. When I met her, Grace had returned to nursing after a hiatus of many years. She worked in the nearby community hospital in Hamilton, New York, and was greatly loved there. In due time, she spent nearly 4 years in the skilled nursing wing, where she was lovingly cared for by nurses whose lives she had touched. She passed away with some of them by her side on December, 14, 2011, at the age of 86.

Grace could do anything, or so it seemed to me. On a snowy night, with a doctor snowed in at his home, she delivered a baby with not much on her side except common sense and her own experience of two births. "Well, maybe just push a little," she told the mom, and then caught the baby as he made his exit. I found this story quite exciting, since I'd had c-sections myself and found the whole natural birth process quite mysterious (not to mention terrifying).

Grace could also cook. My father-in-law was a professor of romance languages at Colgate University, and was a great fan of French cuisine. Grace's specialite de la maison (sorry, I can't seem to find accent marks), was called boeuf en daube, a delicious beef stew from Provence. A daube is a stew made with wine, meat, and veggies. Most of the recipe below is just as Grace made it, though I use an entire 750-ml bottle of good Merlot instead of the two cups she always used. I also add mushrooms and olives, to complete that Mediterranean effect.

Grace's Boeuf en daube

3 T olive oil

3 lbs beef chuck, cut into 1- to 2-inch chunks

2 med. onions, coarsely chopped

4 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped

5 carrots, peeled and sliced

6 plum (Roma) tomatoes, coarsely chopped

1 c. green or black olives (or mixed)

1 lg. can mushrooms

1 tsp dried sage

1 tsp dried thyme

4 whole cloves

3 (1/2 inch wide) strips orange peel

1 bay leaf

1 tsp salt

1 tsp ground black pepper (or to taste)

1 750-ml bottle red wine (use Merlot; don't be cheap !)

Water to cover

16 oz wide egg noodles

In large, ovenproof casserole, heat 1 T oil over medium-high heat. Brown beef in batches on all sides; remove beef and set aside. Add remaining 2 T oil to pan. Reduce heat to medium and saute onions and garlic for 5 minutes. Stir in carrots, tomatoes, olives, mushrooms, sage, thyme, cloves, orange peel, bay leaf, salt, and pepper. Add browned beef and red wine. Add water, if necessary, to cover. Stir and heat to a gentle simmer.

Meanwhile, preheat oven to 250 degrees (that's right, 250. Not a typo!). When mixture begins to simmer, remove from heat, cover, and place in oven for two hours, stirring occasionally. Uncover and bake two more hours, or until beef is very tender and stew thickens. Serve immediately over cooked noodles, or cool and serve next day, when it will be even better. This also freezes very well.

HOW I DO IT: I make this in my large crockpot. I use a good cut of meat with lower fat, and skip the browning. Into the crockpot goes everything at once (not the noodles, of course). I cook it on low for ten hours. We can whittle away at this for most of a week. It's J.'s favorite dinner.

With fall on the horizon, I'll be making this fairly often.