Böfflamott – Beef à la mode

Ingredients for 6 servings:

• 2 kg beef (flat shoulder, shovel shoulder)
• rapeseed oil
• 2 ½ tbsp powdered sugar
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 2 cl cognac
• ½ liter red wine, good quality
• 200 g celeriac, diced
• 1 m.-sized carrot(s), sliced
• 2 medium-sized onions, roughly diced
• ½ liter chicken stock, or light chicken broth
• 1 tbsp juniper berries
• 1 tbsp allspice, whole
• 1 tbsp black peppercorns
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 stalk(s) cinnamon
• 1 orange(s) (untreated)
• 1 lemon(s) (untreated)
• 50 ml red wine vinegar
• 1 tbsp butter, cold
• cornstarch
• 1 carrot(s), orange, blanched
• 1 carrot(s), yellow, blanched
• 2 stalk(s) Celery, threads removed, blanched
• ½ bunch parsley, flat, coarsely chopped
• Salt
• pepper
• Cayenne pepper

Instructions

Working time approx. 45 minutes; Cooking/baking time approx. 3 hours; Total time approx. 3 hours 45 minutes

traditional Bavarian dish from the Napoleonic era

Preheat oven to 150°C (top/bottom heat). Add a small amount of rapeseed oil to the casserole dish, heat until hot, and then sear the beef in one piece, allowing it to brown slightly all over. Remove the meat from the pot and reduce the heat (to about half). Sieve 1 1/2 tablespoons of powdered sugar into the hot pot and allow it to caramelize slightly. Add the tomato paste and roast it. The roasted residue from the tomato paste should settle on the bottom of the pot, but be careful not to blacken it. Deglaze with the cognac and bring to a boil briefly. Immediately add the wine and reduce the heat to 1/3 over low heat (just simmer). Meanwhile, in a separate pan with a very small amount (!!) of rapeseed oil, lightly sauté the sauce vegetables (roughly diced celery, carrots, and onions) over low heat. Now add the vegetables to the sauce reduction and place the meat on top, pour in the chicken stock, and then place it in the oven with the lid closed to braise for about 3 hours. The whole thing should not boil in the pot, just simmer! Then remove the meat from the pot and set aside, wrapped in aluminum foil, to rest. Now add the juniper berries, allspice berries, cinnamon stick, and peppercorns to the sauce. You can also put all of them, except for the cinnamon stick and bay leaf, in a tea strainer. The whole thing is now rounded off with three strips of orange peel and four strips of lemon peel. This can be easily peeled off the fruit with a vegetable peeler. Be careful not to leave too much of the white part under the peel. Now let the sauce steep with the spices for a while. In the meantime, make the vinegar mixture in a pan. To do this, use a sieve to dust the remaining tablespoon of powdered sugar into the pan, let it caramelize, and then deglaze with the red wine vinegar. Once the vinegar has simmered for a short time (about 1 minute), add a ladleful of the sauce at a time until the sauce has the right level of acidity. Now add the cold butter and, if necessary, thicken it a little with cornstarch. Be careful, because the sauce shouldn’t be too thick. Serve with pre-blanched vegetables (carrots, celery, yellow carrots), which are briefly tossed in butter and a little vegetable stock and then refined with the flat-leaf, roughly chopped parsley. Season the vegetables with salt, pepper, and a pinch of cayenne pepper. Now cut off the cut end of the meat (because that’s for the cook anyway), and then fan out three not-too-thick slices (about 5mm thick) per portion in the middle of the plate, then pour four tablespoons of sauce over them and place the vegetables on top. Potato gratin, for example, is a good side dish.