Classic French Recipes | Beef with carrots

This heart-warming one-pot dish has no clear regional origins – everyone in France seems to have their own version – but it sits firmly in the “cuisine bourgeoise” corner. Namely, food of ‘simple and good taste’ as Larousse would have you call it.
It was once called ‘boeuf mode’ but simple ‘beef with carrots’ is now the accepted, more obvious name.

You can experiment with cuts of beef – rolled brisket is a good one but any cut that stands up to a long, slow cook should do the trick. And you will find that the braised carrots will impart a lovely creaminess to the sauce. As for the stock, again you can experiment with vegetable or beef stock and white or red wine.

Sevres 4-6

Ingredients

1.5kg beef (rolled brisket)
2 tbsp olive oil
1.5 kg carrots, sliced
150g bacon lardoons
1 onion, sliced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
bay leaf and a few sprigs of thyme
500 ml wine (dry white or red)
500ml vegetable stock

Heat 1 tbsp the oil in a large casserole and brown the meat joint on all sides. Sprinkle with salt and leave to one side.

Heat the remaining oil, add the carrots and some salt and stir until brown. Remove and put to one side.

Put the lardons and onion in the casserole and brown. Add the garlic, bay leaf and thyme, then the beef and carrots. Add the wine and stock so that the beef is almost covered.

Cook in a preheated oven on Gas Mark 2 for 3 hours.

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