Pot Au Feu (boiled beef)
Yield: approximately 4 servings, easily scaled upward
preparation time: 1-2 days if you presalt the meat, optional, 2-4 hours cooking time in the oven
One 2-3 pound chuck steak
2 pints unsalted chicken broth (optional, see note)
1 medium onion, peeled and halved
2 carrots, peeled and chunked
2 bay leaves
2-6 garlic cloves, left whole and unpeeled, to taste
1 sprig fresh thyme
a few peppercorns, lightly cracked
a few cloves (I go lightly here)
2-3 medium turnips, peeled and chunked
1 rutabaga, peeled and chunked (optional; this is a love or hate vegetable)
1 medium celery root, peeled and chunked (optional; like rutabaga, it’s love or hate)
salt and pepper
water to cover
at the table:
Dijon and/or Amora mustard
Cornichons
crusty bread
Presalting the meat: optional but flavor-boosting
1-2 days ahead, season the meat with about two teaspoons sea salt. I use Maldon, a large-crystal salt. If you are using a smaller crystal salt, like Diamond Kosher, use less, about 1 1/2 teaspoons. Salt both sides of the meat, cover it loosely, and refrigerate up to three days. Pre-salting does not dry the meat out; it gently seasons. You will use less, if any, salt at table. Judy Rodgers speaks eloquently about the practice; I direct you to The Zuni Cafe Cookbook.
The day you plan to cook, about one hour before cooking, bring meat to room temperature.
Blanch the meat:
Fill a large stockpot about halfway with cool water. Heat to just warm. Submerge the beef; add a teaspoon of salt (Rodgers advises this to avoid desalting meat). Bring water to low simmer for 2 minutes. Crud will rise to the surface along with lots of gray scum. Remove the meat and rinse well in cool water. Set aside.
Either rinse this stock pot or use a clean, heavy stockpot. While Rodgers advises a tall, narrow stockpot for making pot au feu, my stockpot is cheap, so I use a deep Staub 6-quart braiser.
Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.
Place the beef in your selected pot and set on medium heat. Add chicken broth, if using; the beef should rise above the surface by about an inch. Cover remainder with cold water to cover by about three inches, or use all cold water.
Add the onion, carrots, garlic, bay leaves, thyme, peppercorns, and cloves.
Add the remaining vegetables and bring pot to a simmer. Cover and place in oven 2-3 hours. Pot au feu is ready when beef is fork tender.
Pot au feu is traditionally served in courses, with the broth first and beef second; it is accompanied by cornichons,small dishes of sea salt, mustard vinaigrette.
Lacking a dishwasher, I serve everything at once, on a platter. Being too lazy to make vinaigrette, I plunk jars of mustard down on the table with spoons.
As noted above, the vegetables were overcooked when I made this. Discarding the spent onion, I mashed the remaining vegetables with two potatoes. Should you wish to go this route–not at all traditional–peel two large Russet potatoes and boil them in lightly salted water until soft. Drain the pot-au-feu vegetables and mash with potatoes. I added 1/4 cup heavy cream. Salt and pepper to taste.
Pot au feu will improve with time, but I wouldn’t keep it in the refrigerator more than five days. Leftover beef is wonderful in a sandwhich with horseradish. Leftover broth may be frozen up to three months. Use for soup or with pasta.
Notes: There are countless recipes for pot au feu, most calling for mixed bony cuts of beef and poultry. This recipe is radically–inauthentically–pared down. For excellent authentic recipes, see Elizabeth David’s French Provincial Cooking, Paula Wolfert’s Cooking Of Southwest France, Judy Rodgers’s Zuni Cafe Cookbook, and Alice Waters’s Art Of Simple Cooking (Volume I)
You can skip the chicken broth if you prefer and use all water.