Around My French Table (50 page)

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Have a heavy 4- to 5-quart Dutch oven or casserole with a cover at the ready.

Using paper towels, pat the beef dry as best you can. Put a heavy skillet over medium-high heat and pour in 2 tablespoons of the grapeseed, canola, or peanut oil. When it's hot, put the roast in the pan and sear it on all sides, making sure you get good color and a little crust on it. Transfer the roast to the Dutch oven and season it with salt and pepper; discard the oil.

Return the skillet to medium heat, pour in the last tablespoon of oil, and toss in the drained vegetables. Cook, stirring, until the vegetables are softened, about 10 minutes. (Because the vegetables won't be perfectly dry, you might not be able to brown them, but pan-cooking will give them a roasted flavor.) Season with salt and pepper, pour in the Cognac, and stir and scrape to loosen any bits that may have stuck to the bottom of the pan. Transfer everything to the Dutch oven.

Once again, put the skillet over medium heat. Pour in about ½ cup of the wine-broth mixture and stir in the anchovies and tomato paste. Cook, stirring, until the anchovies "melt," a matter of minutes. Pour in the rest of the wine-broth mixture and stir to blend, then toss in the reserved bouquet garni, season with salt and pepper, and transfer to the Dutch oven.

Put the Dutch oven over medium-high heat, and when the liquid comes to a boil, cover the pot tightly with a piece of aluminum foil and the lid. Slide the beef into the oven and allow it to braise undisturbed for 1 hour.

Pull the pot out of the oven, remove the lid and foil, and turn the meat over. (This step really isn't necessary, so if you're not around to do it, don't worry about it.) Re-cover the pot with the foil and lid, slip it back into the oven, and cook for another 1½ to 2 hours (total time is 2½ to 3 hours), or until the meat is fork-tender.

Taste the sauce, and if you'd like it a little more concentrated (usually I think it's fine as is), pour it into a saucepan, put it over high heat, and boil the sauce down until it's just the way you like it. (If you're going to reduce the sauce, don't salt it until it's reduced.) Using a large serving spoon, skim off the surface fat and taste for salt and pepper.

Strain the sauce (if you haven't already done this to boil it down) and discard the cooked vegetables (something my husband never lets me do, because he loves the mushy carrots).

You can serve the roast now or cool it (if you cool it, leave the fat and skim it off when it's cold—it's much easier to do it then) and serve it later (see Storing).

Slice the beef and, if necessary, rewarm it in the sauce.

MAKES 6 SERVINGS

SERVING
The roast is good with steamed carrots, simply cooked rice, buttered noodles, steamed potatoes, or mashed potatoes (everyone's favorite).

STORING
Like most braises, this one is good (actually even better) a day or two later. Keep the
boeuf à la mode
well covered in the refrigerator and, before serving, spoon off the fat and heat the sauce through (with the vegetables, if you haven't discarded them) either on the stovetop or in the oven. You can also pack the dish airtight and freeze it for up to 2 months.

U
NTIL A FEW YEARS AGO,
when American super-chefs decided that short ribs were cool and turned them into a trendy cut of meat, the richly marbled rectangles of beef-on-the-bone were cheaper than a box of Cheerios. That their price increased a bit is the downside of their fame; the upside is that they're now available just about everywhere, including supermarkets.

Short ribs are a homey cut of beef and, like other homey cuts, made to braise. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen them cooked any other way. Certainly it's how my friends in Paris make them. I follow their lead and braise the short ribs for a long time, at a low temperature and in leisure—I don't shake, stir, or disturb them in any other way while they simmer gently in their big casserole. But I take liberties with the seasonings, adding ginger and star anise to the brew, and instead of the usual shower of chopped parsley, I finish the dish with a play on gremolata: chopped garlic, cilantro, and clementine, tangerine, or orange zest. I like the freshness these ingredients add to the long-cooked meat.

BE PREPARED:
If you can, make the short ribs a day ahead and refrigerate them.

TO MAKE THE SHORT RIBS:
Position a rack in the top third of the oven and preheat the broiler. (If you've got a broiler that's below the oven, arrange the rack so that it's as far from the broiler as your setup allows; 6 inches would be good.) Line a baking sheet with foil. Dampen a piece of cheesecloth and use it and some kitchen twine to bundle up the parsley, thyme, bay, rosemary, star anise, and celery leaves; set the bouquet garni aside.

Pat the short ribs dry with paper towels and arrange them bone side up on the foil-lined baking sheet. Broil for about 5 minutes. Carefully, using tongs, flip the ribs over and return them to the broiler for another 10 minutes, or until they are browned and sizzling. If any of the pieces look uncooked on any side, turn them around and broil until browned. Transfer the ribs to a large bowl and season with salt and pepper. Center a rack in the oven and turn the oven down to 350 degrees F.

Pour the oil into a casserole large enough to hold all the ingredients (I use an enameled cast-iron Dutch oven) and place over medium heat. Toss the vegetables, ginger, and garlic into the pot, season lightly with salt and pepper, and cook, stirring, until softened and just a little browned, about 10 minutes. Add the tomato paste, lower the heat, and cook, stirring constantly, for another 2 minutes. Pour in the wine and port, add the bouquet garni, increase the heat to high, bring to a boil, and boil until the liquid is reduced by about one third.

Return the meat to the casserole—I like to put it in bone side up—and pour in 4 cups beef broth. The meat should be almost covered; if it's not, pour in some more broth. Cover tightly with foil and then with the lid and slide it into the oven. Cook, undisturbed, for 2 hours.

Remove the lid and rearrange the foil so that it covers the casserole loosely—you want some steam to escape. Return to the oven and cook for 1 hour more, then pull the casserole from the oven.

If you've got the time, cool and then chill the ribs overnight; the next day, spoon off the congealed fat and transfer the ribs bone side down to a shallow roasting pan that will hold them snugly. (If the bones fall off the meat, as they usually do, discard them.) Strain the sauce, pressing on the solids to get all the liquid from them, and discard the solids.

Or, if you're continuing with the recipe sans refrigerating, transfer the ribs, bone side down, to a shallow roasting pan. Pour the sauce through a strainer into a large measuring cup or bowl; press on the solids to get all the liquid from them, then discard them. Skim off as much fat from the sauce as you can.

Preheat the broiler, positioning a rack as you did before. Pour some of the sauce over the ribs to moisten and coat them, then broil the ribs for 5 to 8 minutes, turning once or twice, until they are glazed.

Meanwhile, return the remaining sauce to the casserole or pour into a saucepan and bring to a boil. If you think the sauce needs to intensify a bit, boil it for a few minutes to reduce it. It is very thin, and unless you reduce it to a few spoonfuls, boiling it won't thicken it much. Taste and season with salt and pepper if needed.

TO MAKE THE GREMOLATA:
Mix together the zest, garlic, and cilantro.

Transfer the ribs to a serving platter and spoon over some sauce; pass the rest of the sauce at the table. Top the ribs with the gremolata, or let your guests serve themselves.

MAKES 6 SERVINGS

SERVING
Braised short ribs are a natural with mashed potatoes (always my first choice), noodles, rice, or celery root puree (
[>]
).

STORING
You can make the short ribs 2 to 3 days ahead and keep them covered in the refrigerator (don't strain the sauce or broil the cooked ribs until just before serving). Leftovers can be covered and refrigerated for up to 2 days.

M
ANY, MANY YEARS AGO,
I was lucky enough to have Daniel Boulud, a chef from Lyon who's made his life in New York City, cook a meal especially for me and my husband. It was luxurious, and at the end of it, after thanking Daniel endlessly, I asked him what
he
was going to have for dinner. "Hachis Parmentier," he said with the kind of anticipatory delight usually seen only in children who've been told they can have ice cream. We had just had lobster and truffles, but Daniel was about to have the French version of shepherd's pie, and you could tell that he was going to love it.

Hachis Parmentier is a well-seasoned meat-and-mashed-potato pie that is customarily made with leftovers from a boiled beef dinner, like pot-au-feu. If you have leftover beef and broth from anything you've made, go ahead and use it. Or, if you'd like to shortcut the process, make Quick Hachis Parmentier; see Bonne Idée. But if you start from scratch and make your own bouillon, and if you add tasty sausage (not completely traditional), you'll have the kind of hachis Parmentier that would delight even Daniel Boulud.

You can use chuck, as you would for a stew, but one day my stateside butcher suggested I use cube steak, a cut I'd never cooked with. It's an inexpensive, thin, tenderized cut (its surface is scored, almost as though it's been run through a grinder) that cooks quickly and works perfectly here. If you use it, just cut it into 2-inch pieces before boiling it; if you use another type of beef, you should cut it into smaller pieces and you might want to cook it for another 30 minutes.