A Long and Messy Business. Rowley Leigh

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      DAUBE DE BOEUF

      I used beef cheek to great advantage. Shin would also work

      well, as would any stewing cut rich in collagen. This is best

      cooked overnight.

      Serves six to eight.

      150g (5½oz) unsmoked

      streaky bacon or pancetta,

      in a piece

      50ml (13⁄4fl oz) olive oil

      1 large carrot, peeled and

      thinly sliced

      1 large onion, peeled and

      thinly sliced

      1 strip of orange peel

      a few sprigs of thyme

      2 bay leaves

      1.5kg (3lb 5oz) beef cheek,

      trimmed and cut into large

      chunks (80–100g/3–3½oz)

      4 garlic cloves, halved

      750ml (11⁄4 pints) robust red

      wine, such as Côtes du

      Rhône or similar

      100g (3½oz) plain flour,

      plus extra for dusting

      a handful of black olives

      salt and black pepper

      Preheat the oven to 90°C (194°F, lowest Gas Mark).

      Remove the rind from the bacon and cut it into small

      squares. Cut the bacon itself into lardons 2cm (3⁄4in) long.

      Line the base of a heavy casserole dish with the olive oil,

      then scatter the lardons on top. Arrange the carrot, onion,

      orange peel and herbs on top of the lardons.

      Lay the meat chunks, nestling them together, on top

      of the vegetables and intersperse the garlic in any gaps

      between the meat. Season the meat well with salt and

      freshly ground black pepper, then distribute the pieces

      of bacon rind over the top.

      Bring the red wine to the boil in a saucepan, then pour

      over the meat in the casserole dish. Add 3 tablespoons of

      water to the flour in a bowl and work very well to form a

      strong dough. Roll this out, sausage fashion, on a lightly

      floured work surface to form a long coil that can be

      positioned around the rim of the casserole dish before

      pushing the lid down very firmly to form a really tight seal.

      Place the daube in the oven and cook for 12 hours.

      Break the seal by chipping away with a knife. Inside,

      the daube should be dark and deeply aromatic, the meat

      very yielding, and the sauce clear and rich in flavour.

      Sprinkle the olives on top and replace the lid. Serve with

      rice, large pasta shapes, such as penne or rigatoni, or with

      boiled or mashed potatoes.

      69

      February

      No Fool Like an Old Fool

      Rhubarb Fool

      Rhubarb comes ever earlier. The earliest rhubarb I have

      seen – the finest, slenderest, most elegant forced Yorkshire

      rhubarb – was at the River Café a week before Christmas.

      There is nothing we chefs hate more than a rival gaining

      an ingredient ahead of them in the season. Since we share

      the same greengrocer, I berated him for not telling me

      about the rhubarb. He cleverly argued that since I was

      such a stickler for seasonality, he didn’t think I would have

      thought it right to be serving rhubarb before Christmas.

      The River Café were right, of course. Forced rhubarb,

      far from being a product of the seasons, exists in defiance

      of them. Like radicchio tardivo and sea kale, it is produced

      by deceiving nature and encouraging the plants to grow

      just when nothing is supposed to grow, at least not in our

      latitudes. There is certainly nothing very ‘natural’ about

      Yorkshire rhubarb, nor anything particularly attractive

      about the triangle, a tiny pocket of land roughly СКАЧАТЬ