Beef Stew Recipe – French Pot-au-feu

Photo credit: © Eatwell101.comThe pot-au-feu is a very popular traditional french dish. Mainly appreciated during the cold months of winter, the pot-au-feu is a classic from french cuisine. Easy to make, the pot-au-feu is a dish that only requires a few basic ingredients including beef, vegetables and herbs. Then it is up to each person to add ingredients to taste as desired. For a tastypot-au-feu, cooking must be done slowly over low heat in a pot. Natural cast iron pots are the best suitable as they allow very slow cooking and a great heat repartition.

Ingredients for the preparation of a pot-au-feu are:

1. Beef
2. Broth
3. Vegetables

The ideal is to combine the beef meat as the noble bed like coast or playing with a bottom piece as the tail or the collar. The most appropriate meat to meet the taste of the broth is beef shank with the handle and the joint. It is better to use seasonal vegetables for freshness. One can opt for leeks, turnips, carrots and potatoes.

The preparation of the pot-au-feu

For a pot-au-feu for 6, the ingredients are:

• 4 1/2 lbs (2 kg) of meat
• 10 Carrots
• 10 Leek
• 8 potatoes
• 4 turnips
• 2 onions
• 4 cloves garlic
• few cloves

To taste, you can add herbs such as green branches of celery or a sprig of parsley.

Fill a stewpot of 5 liters of cold water and immerse the meat and green herbs. Cook over low heat for 2 hours, taking care to skim from time to time and adding pepper and salt. Remove meat ¾ hour before the end of cooking and add the vegetables. To enhance the flavor of the broth, you can add cloves and herbs such as rosemary or bay leaf.

Photo credit: © Eatwell101.com

The pot-au-feu, a traditional dish incomparably tasty

If you want a clear broth, use potatoes without removing the skin. Be sure to wash them before. The broth can be kept cooled to prepare soups.

Tips to enhance the flavor of the pot-au-feu

If you want to try a more tasty dish, you can vary the taste with marrow bones to cook with the pot-au-feu or small vegetable side dish or kale. You can find marrow bones from your butcher, the ideal is to provide a section for each person around the table. It is recommended to prick a few cloves to prevent its contents is based in the broth. Moreover, it is advisable to use the pot-au-feu with vegetables such as accompanying pickles, or fresh withes onions.

Precautions to achieve your own pot-au-feu

The use of certain vegetables such as celery, potatoes and leeks, turnips and carrots should be careful that your pot-au-feu is a success. Indeed, excessive use of celery can mask the flavor of other ingredients. Also, it is recommended to add only a small part in the preparation to keep the taste of meat. In addition, cooking the potatoes can be done separately before being added to the pot-au-feu. Leeks, turnips and carrots are cut with the same size to ensure even cooking. If you prefer a pot-au-feu low-fat, use an apple provided with its skin will absorb the excess fat. Using onion skins at the beginning of cooking allows for example to have a stock with a beautiful amber color.

Cooking pot-au-feu

The success of the pot-au-feu is dependent on the cooking method used. Cooking meat may be cold, to extract flavor or heat to concentrate the flavor.

Cold or hot start

The cold start has the advantage of spreading the taste of meat for a tasty broth. Otherwise, the flavor remains in concentration in the meat. It is your responsibility to choose the best method of cooking for you. Know that there is a middle ground by starting with a cold cooked with chunks of tasty meat, incorporating the following other pieces of meat and continue cooking

“bon appetit”

Photo credit: © Eatwell101.com