Friday, November 30, 2012

French Fridays with Dorie: Beef Cheek Daube with Carrots and Elbow Macaroni

THIS BEEF DAUBE IS DELISH!
I've been away for about 6 months and am so happy to be back...trying to adjust back to my previous schedule which included cooking with friends and blogging.  Missed you all and all your great ideas and suggestions!

I admit that when I read about cooking beef cheeks for dinner I was ready to skip another recipe.  I probably could have found them...the Mexican store meat department sells everything...nothing wasted.  But, I struggle to walk through their meat cases where they often have cow or pig's whole heads and other scary items...gives me nightmares.  But as my adopted Russian daughter once told me, Americans are the only ones in the world who don't use EVERYTHING...so I guess Beef cheeks are just ordinary fare for some...and might even be tasty, but........

So I purchased a small chuck roast, as suggested by Dorie, and I must say today's challenge recipe makes a delicious roast.  I cut the roast into  pieces about 2" X 3" which I figured would fit well onto my plated dish.  And the other change I made was to use up some potatoes.

Hubby thought he was helping when at Thanksgiving he brought home several bags of cheap potatoes...after I had done all the shopping and had our potatoes.  They were only 79 cents for a 20 pound bag so he thought I'd need a few.  And they are rather gross potatoes.  Not uniform in size and a little gnarly looking.  So I use them at every opportunity in some kind of disguise.  For today I cooked and seasoned and mashed up a bunch for the bottom of our bowls.  Then I topped the potatoes with the braised roast chunks and then added the carrot-pasta mixture.  It is delicious and hearty, and a nice change from all the turkey leftover cooking.

I've had Mexican  dishes where chocolate is used as a seasoning and I love these foods, however, I've never added chocolate to my "daubes."  This chocolate addition is a great idea.  We love it!  It adds a rich and sweet flavor to this dish.

I'm excited to see what you all have done.  Happy Holidays to everyone.  I can't believe that December begins tomorrow.

9 comments:

  1. Happy holidays to you too!! Glad to see youre back and loved this one too!

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  2. Yea! Glad to see you back w/ FFwD :-)
    When I take the drive to Albany, there is an Asian market I go to stock up on misc. stuff. There are certain parts of the store I can't spend too much time in - its tough to see my food in some of its more natural forms...

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  3. Kris, So glad to see you back! It has been a long time!
    Your beef daube looks wonderfully delicious! I think if I could have gotten the beef cheeks I would have…just to give them a try! However, in my neck of the woods, they were not to be had!! Have a great weekend!

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  4. Welcome back, Kris! Your daube looks delicious. This was a nice recipe to rejoin on.

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  5. Welcome back Kris. Had to laugh at the extra potatoes as I'm still working through a big bag here myself.

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  6. Welcome back Kris. We missed you. To funny that you are struggling to use up your Thanksgiving potatoes because we are in the same situation. I put two pounds of potatoes on the grocery list and my husband came back with two kilograms (4.5 pounds!), which was way too much for our party of 8.

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  7. Welcome back - nice to see that you are posting again! I love the way you piled your delicious looking Daube on top of some mashed potatoes - the dinner looks fabulous in that pretty plate of yours!
    Have a wonderful weekend!

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  8. Kris, I am so glad you are back with us. I e-mailed you a time or time, was a bit worried so I am glad to see you back on line with us. Aren't husbands the greatest - always can spot a bargain. LOL After sourcing beef cheeks at two local butchers and Whole Foods, with no luck, I also went the beef chuck route. I did learn that I could find them in an Hispanic/Latino grocery store but I knew of none. So when I have time to explore, I will definitely, well, maybe, buy beef cheeks and make this again. It was delicious. Again, so glad to hear from you. Six months is a long time for you to be away.

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  9. Lovely to meet you and your blog Kris! I am glad you likes this wonderful recipe! The addition of chocolate at the end was really heavenly!!

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