Beef and Pumpkin Daube

[rainbow]

Preheat oven to 300F.

This works for a lb of meat up to as large of a tightly sealed baking dish you have, just adjust quantities. I don't measure anything and just eyeball quantities depending on what I have and what I want.

Beef chuck or any tough cut, cut in 1-2" cubes
1-2" chunks of raw pumpkin
slices or chunks of raw onion
1" pieces of celery
any other hearty veg you like that sounds good -- sweet potatoes, yam, celeriac, etc, are all lovely -- in 1-2" chunks
garlic (anywhere from a whiff to many cloves depending on what you like)
some red wine/raw acv/kombucha or other acidy type liquid
any herbs you like that sound good
salt and pepper
If you want to add a tart note and some antioxidents, add some blueberries, as many as you like. You can stir in some sweetened cranberry or cranberry-orange sauce if you like (I like fresh cranberries mixed in, but they're too tart for everyone else so far *g*)

Mix everything well and put it in a heavy cast iron baking dish with a tightly fitted lid. Put in oven. After 30 minutes turn the oven down to 200-250F and bake until tender, 4-8 hours (depends on how much; smaller amounts and meat in smaller pieces takes less time; larger chunks and larger quantities take significantly longer).

Excellent on day one, even better reheated (in a very low oven) the next day.

Comments

[zdashamber]

I was all mm-hm, mm-hm, until I hit the blueberries and then I was like OMG, this DOES sound good! Like something to make, even! Now I'm thinking about the odds I can find a cast iron baking dish with lid at the Goodwill. Maybe a pyrex casserole with a bigger pyrex casserole on top as a lid?

Also I like recipes broken down into opinion-y globs, like "meat: chuck or something; veggies: celeriac, turnip, whatever; herbs: man go wild" as you've done. Sometimes I'm like, man, do I really need fresh thyme, and brown rice, and all? What's it all about? ;)

[rainbow]

*grin* attack of the blueberries!

The important thing is to have a good seal. Soem folks tie on heavy duty foil with twine, others just crimp the foil. There are heavy cast iron skillets with glass lids, but mine have never sealed well, so I've put a sheet of heavy duty foil, THEN the lid, and that's helped seal it better. You want those juices to stay inside. Some pyrex does hve pretty snug lids, so that might work without foil.

I learned cooking from my grandmother, and she learned on the farm in the 1910s/20s, when you cooked what you had, so she taught me to use what was there and not be bound to a printed recipe.

I love to sniff my spice and herb bottles when I'm not sure what something needs. I can usually tell I've got the right thing as soon as the smell gets in my brain.

Daube is endlessly changeable. I've changed seasonings, changed fruits (both apricots and prunes are wonderful mixed in with onions, but I leave out the garlic when I use them since it overpowers them [imo, ymmv]). And I add a bit of cinnamon with both apricot and prune.