Braised beef ragout from Provence

Ingredients for 6 servings:

• 1 ½ kg beef for braising
• 40 ml olive oil
• 1 onion(s)
• 1 bunch of soup vegetables
• 1 orange(s)
• 700 ml red wine, dry
• 500 ml beef stock
• 3 tomatoes, dried
• 1 clove(s) garlic
• 1 bouquet garni
• 1 tbsp orange marmalade
• salt and pepper
• some cornstarch

Instructions

Working time approx. 40 minutes; Rest period approx. 1 day; Cooking/baking time approx. 5 hours; Total time approx. 1 day 5 hours 40 minutes

Provençal stave

Trim the beef, cut into large cubes, and sear on all sides in a large pot in hot olive oil. Then set aside. Dice the onion and vegetables and sear them in the remaining oil. Deglaze with red wine, add the beef stock, the diced meat, the bouquet garni, the crushed garlic clove, the sun-dried tomatoes, the juice and zest of the orange, and let everything sit in the refrigerator for a day. Then heat up and simmer covered over low heat for four hours. The lid should be slightly ajar. Alternatively, the pot can be placed in the oven at 160°C for four hours. The meat should be wonderfully tender after this time. Strain the dish through a sieve, and reduce the collected stock to half a liter. Sort out the pieces of meat from the sieve. Discard the vegetables or blend some of them into the sauce using an immersion blender. Season the reduced sauce with a spoonful of orange marmalade, salt, pepper, and a dash of red wine. If it’s too thin, dissolve a little more starch in water, stir in, and bring to a boil. Let the meat pieces warm up in the hot sauce for a few minutes before serving. A risotto pairs very well with this sauce.