The Little Paris Kitchen (22 page)

I've made countless
boeufs en croûte
with the traditional mushroom filling and puff pastry, but I've found the recipe is equally good with venison, red onions, and Armagnac, whose caramel notes work particularly well with the natural sweetness in the onions.

SERVES 4 AS A MAIN COURSE

• 4 venison (or beef) steaks, each about 6 oz and ¾ inch thick • salt and pepper • 3 large red onions, finely sliced • 4 tbsp butter • a pinch of sugar • a generous pinch of salt • 2 tbsp Armagnac • 1 lb puff pastry or croissant dough,
*
cut into quarters • 3 tbsp Dijon mustard • 1 egg mixed with 2 tbsp water, for the egg wash

Place a large nonstick frying pan over the highest possible heat. Season the meat all over with salt and pepper. When the pan is smoking hot, put in the steaks and sear for 30 seconds on each side. Remove and set aside for later. In the same pan over a medium heat, gently cook the onions with the butter, sugar, and salt for 20 minutes until caramelized and soft. Add the Armagnac and cook, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes until the onions become drier. Leave to cool for 10 minutes before blending to a smooth paste. Refrigerate for about an hour until cold (or freeze for speed).

Between two sheets of parchment paper, roll out one-quarter of the pastry to a ¼-inch-thick rectangle. Cut in half widthwise to make two squares slightly larger than the steaks. Repeat with the remaining pastry to make eight squares. Preheat the oven to 400°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Brush some mustard all over a piece of steak, then place the steak in the middle of a square of pastry. Top the steak with a heaped tablespoon of the onion mix, brush egg wash around the pastry edges, and cover with another pastry square. Press the edges to seal, then trim the excess pastry to leave a
⅜
-inch border and crimp with a fork. Repeat with the other pieces of pastry and the remaining 3 steaks. Cut a little cross in the top of each parcel and brush the pastry with egg wash. Place the parcels on the prepared sheet and bake for 12 minutes for medium-rare meat.
**
Remove from the oven, cover with aluminum foil, and leave to rest for 5 minutes before serving.

Preparation time: 30 minutes
Resting time: 1 hour
Cooking time: 45 minutes

Almost every cuisine has a famous one-pot dish that benefits from sitting on the stove for several hours. The French are pretty clever with their pot-au-feu, making a simple one pot work as two courses. The broth makes a dark and delicious consommé starter, then the meat and vegetables are served as a main course with the traditional condiments of mustard, cornichons, and salt, plus bowls of Spicy Green Sauce and Cream Sauce (
page 200
).

Pop the pot on the stove mid-morning and it'll be perfect for dinner. It's actually even better made a day in advance and gently warmed up just before serving. Who said you had to slave away in the kitchen to be a French domestic goddess?

SERVES 4–6 AS A MAIN COURSE

• 2–3 beef cheeks
*
(total weight 3 lb), fat removed and each cheek cut in half • 2 lb oxtail or veal knuckles, chopped • 1 bouquet garni (2 bay leaves, 2 sprigs of thyme, 6 sprigs of parsley, 10 peppercorns, 5 cloves) • 2 onions, quartered with skin left on • 2 sticks of celery • 6 carrots, 4 quartered • 4 turnips, 1 halved, 3 quartered • 10 button onions, peeled and left whole (or 2 regular onions, quartered) • salt and pepper • 1 bay leaf, to garnish

Put the meat and bones into a large pot, cover with cold water, and bring slowly to a simmer. Drain and discard the water, then rinse the bones, meat, and pot with cold water to remove the impurities.

Place the bones and meat back in the clean pot, cover with cold water again, and bring slowly to a “barely there” simmer. Skim off any foam that comes to the surface and then add the bouquet garni, quartered onions, celery, 2 carrots, and the halved turnip. Continue to simmer very gently (around 175°F), uncovered, until the meat is tender and almost falling apart. This can take 6–8 hours. Make sure the meat is always submerged, topping up with cold water if necessary.

Once the meat is cooked, remove it from the broth and pour the contents of the pan into a fine sieve or coffee filter set over a bowl. Discard the vegetables and anything else that doesn't filter through.

To finish, pour the broth into a clean pot and add the meat and fresh vegetables (the quartered carrots and turnips and button onions). Simmer for 30 minutes or until the vegetables are cooked. Taste for seasoning and garnish with a bay leaf.

At the table, spoon the meat and vegetables into bowls with a little of the broth and hand round any condiments.

After cooking and separating the broth and meat, refrigerate them in separate airtight containers overnight. The next day, the broth will have set as a jelly with the impurities settled as a dark layer at the bottom. Put the top, clear part of the jelly into a pot with the meat and fresh vegetables and heat gently until the jelly has melted. Top up with a little water if needed to cover everything and simmer gently for 30 minutes or until the vegetables are cooked. Taste for seasoning. This technique will make a clearer broth.

*
If you want to use the traditional cuts of beef, such as rib, shoulder, or leg, ask the butcher to tie the meat with a string (to stop it from falling apart). Poultry, game, or lamb on the bone can be used instead of the beef cheeks and oxtail. Cooking time will vary depending on the size and type of meat; e.g., a whole chicken, cut into 8–10 pieces, will take 1½ hours (plus 30 minutes for the fresh vegetables). Lamb shanks will take 3–4 hours, depending on their size (plus 30 minutes for the fresh vegetables)
.

Preparation time: 30 minutes Cooking time: 6½
–
8½ hours

• ½ long red chile, seeded • 1 clove of garlic • ½ bunch of curly parsley (stalks included) • 5 tbsp red wine vinegar • 5 tbsp olive oil • 1 tsp sugar • salt (optional)

Blend all the ingredients together (except salt) until you have a thick paste. Taste and season with salt, if necessary. Refrigerate until needed (can be kept in an airtight container in the fridge for several days).

• 1 cup crème fraîche • 10 cornichons, finely chopped • 1 tsp Dijon mustard • 1 tsp sugar • 2 tbsp lemon juice • salt (optional)

Mix all the ingredients together (except salt). Taste and season with salt, if necessary. Refrigerate until needed (can be kept in an airtight container in the fridge for several days).

Fajitas de pot-au-feu
may not sound like a French recipe, but in essence it is—
pot-au-feu
leftovers are wrapped in tortillas with the addition of some crunchy vegetables. I make my own tortillas, but you can buy them ready-made at the supermarket.

SERVES 4–6 AS A LIGHT LUNCH

For the tortillas:
1
⅔
cups all-purpose flour • 1 tsp baking powder • 1 tsp salt • ¾ cup plus 1 tbsp milk, lukewarm • 2 tbsp vegetable oil

• 3 tbsp olive oil • 7 oz leftover meat from
Pot-au-feu
(
page 199
) or leftover roast meat, shredded with a fork • 2 carrots, shaved into thin strips or grated • ¼ red cabbage, shredded

To serve:
Cream Sauce and Spicy Green Sauce (
page 200
)

TO MAKE THE TORTILLAS:
Mix the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a bowl. Add the milk and oil and use your fingertips to mix the ingredients together. Once the dough has formed a sticky ball, turn it out onto a floured surface and knead for 5 minutes. It will become less sticky the more you knead it, so don't use too much flour at the beginning. Grease a bowl with some oil before placing the dough into it and covering. Leave to rest for 20 minutes.

Put a large nonstick frying pan over a medium to high heat. Divide the dough into six small balls, and dust your work surface and rolling pin with a little flour. Roll out a ball of dough into a small, thin disk (roughly 6 inches in diameter and
inch thick).