Sunday Braises

Put 800 g beef chuck, 300 g large carrots, 16 pearl onions, 1 leaf bay leaf, 3 sprigs thyme and 750 ml Pinot Noir or other dry red wine in a large non-reactive dish or a zip-lock bag, making sure the meat is covered. Refrigerate overnight.

Tip everything into a colander set over a bowl to catch the wine. Pick out the beef, the carrots and the onions into three separate bowls; keep the bay leaf and thyme.

Bring the wine to the boil in a saucepan over medium-high heat and let it bubble hard, skimming off the grey scum that rises, until it has reduced by half. Set aside.

Heat the oven to 180 °C (180 °C fan).

Spread the marinated beef on a tray lined with paper towels and pat it thoroughly dry, then sprinkle with 4 ml salt and 2.5 ml black pepper.

Heat 30 ml olive, canola or vegetable oil (two thirds) in the pot over high heat. Brown a third of the beef hard on every side, lift it into a bowl and repeat with the rest, adding a little more oil if the pot looks dry.

Add 150 g slab bacon to the pot and fry for 3 min, until golden, then add it to the beef.

Fry 200 g mushrooms in the bacon fat for 5 min, until golden, then scoop them into a new bowl.

Add a splash of 15 ml olive, canola or vegetable oil (the rest) if needed and fry the marinated onions for 5 min, until they have golden patches. Add them to the mushrooms.

Melt 50 g unsalted butter in the pot, add the marinated carrots and cook for 3 min to 4 min, until patched with gold. Add 3 cloves garlic and cook 1 min more.

Stir in 30 ml tomato paste and cook for 2 min, then sprinkle over 90 ml plain flour and cook, stirring, for another 2 min.

Pour in 750 ml beef stock slowly while stirring, so the flour dissolves without lumps, then add the reduced wine and stir until smooth.

Return the beef and bacon with any juices, add the thyme and bay leaf from the marinade, 1.5 ml salt and a grind of pepper, and stir well.

Bring to a simmer on the stove, cover and transfer to the oven for 1 h.

Take the pot out and stir in the browned mushrooms and onions.

Cover and return to the oven for 1 h 30 min, until the beef is falling-apart tender.

Taste the sauce and add salt only if it needs it. Fish out the thyme stalks and bay leaf.

Ideally cool, refrigerate overnight and reheat gently on a low flame. Serve over mashed potato, scattered with 30 ml flat leaf parsley.

Cut the rind off 85 to 115 g chunk of lean bacon and slice the bacon into sticks about 2.5 cm (1 in) long and 6 mm (¼ in) thick.

Simmer the bacon sticks in 1.89 l water for blanching for 10 min. Drain, rinse in cold water and dry well.

Sauté the bacon slowly in 30 ml cooking oil in the casserole over moderate heat (an electric skillet set to 127 °C). When it is very lightly browned, lift it out to a side dish and leave the fat in the pan.

Dry 1130 to 1360 g cut-up frying chicken thoroughly in a towel. Raise the heat (182 °C in an electric skillet) and brown the pieces on all sides in the hot fat.

Season the chicken with 2.5 ml salt and 0.6 ml black pepper, return the bacon, cover and cook slowly (149 °C) for 10 min, turning the chicken once.

Uncover, pour in 59 ml cognac and light it with a match. Shake the pan back and forth for several seconds until the flames die down.

Pour 710 ml young red wine, such as Burgundy, Mâcon or Chianti over the chicken and add just enough 235 to 475 ml beef stock to cover it. Stir in 15 ml tomato paste, 2 cloves garlic, 1 ml dried thyme and 1 leaf bay leaf.

Bring to a simmer, cover and simmer slowly for about 30 min, until the chicken is tender. Start the onions and mushrooms meanwhile.

Drop 12 to 24 small white onions into a pan of boiling water, bring it back to the boil and boil for 1 min. Drain.

Shave off the ends, slip off the skins and cut a deep cross into each root end with a small knife, so the onions stay whole as they cook.

Heat 15 to 30 ml cooking oil in a frying pan, add the onions and toss them for several minutes until lightly browned.

Pour in water to come halfway up the onions, add 1 to 2.5 ml salt, cover and simmer slowly for 25 min to 30 min, until tender.

Trim the base of the stems from 225 g fresh mushrooms, wash caps and stems quickly in cold water and dry them in a towel. Quarter the caps and cut the stems on the bias into chunks of a similar size.

Heat 15 ml butter and 7.5 ml cooking oil in a frying pan. When the foam is bubbling hot, add the mushrooms and sauté over high heat for 4 min to 5 min, until lightly browned.

When the chicken is tender, pour the cooking liquid into a saucepan. Skim off the fat and, if the flavour needs concentrating, boil the liquid down.

Take the pan off the heat. Blend 30 ml butter and 44 ml flour to a smooth paste in a saucer and beat it into the liquid with a wire whisk.

Bring back to the simmer, stirring, and simmer for 1 min to 2 min until the sauce has thickened.

Scrape in the onions and mushrooms and simmer for 1 min to blend the flavours. Taste carefully, adding salt and pepper if needed, then pour the sauce over the chicken.

Shortly before serving, bring to a simmer while basting the chicken with the sauce, then cover and simmer slowly for 4 min to 5 min, just until the chicken is hot through. Do not overcook it now.

Serve from the casserole, or arrange on a hot platter and decorate with parsley sprigs.

Rinse 900 g dried Tarbais, cannellini or other runner-type white beans and pick them over for grit. Cover with cold water by at least 5 cm (2 in) and leave to soak in the fridge overnight.

Lay 675 g fresh ham hock with its skin, 450 g boneless pork shoulder and 350 g fresh pork skin with a 6 mm layer of hard fat in a shallow dish and sprinkle with 3.5 ml flaky sea salt and black pepper, about ten grinds. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

Put the pork skin in a saucepan, cover with water by 2.5 cm (1 in) and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Cook for about 15 min, until plump and supple. Drain and cool.

Roll the skin up with the skin side outwards and tie it securely with kitchen string. Tie 4 sprigs flat leaf parsley, 3 stalks small celery ribs, 2 sprigs thyme and 1 leaf Turkish bay leaf into a bouquet.

Pat the ham hock and shoulder dry. Heat 75 g rendered duck fat in the large casserole over medium-high heat, add the shoulder and cook, turning now and then, for about 7 min, until lightly browned on all sides.

Add 450 g yellow onions and 350 g small carrots and sauté, stirring, for about 5 min, until the onions are soft and golden.

Nestle in the ham hock and 225 g piece of ventrèche or pancetta and cook, turning occasionally, for about 5 min, until they are a little browned at the edges.

Add 1 head head of garlic and 1 large plum tomato and cook, stirring, for 1 min.

Add the rolled pork skin and the herb bouquet and pour in 2 l lightly salted chicken stock. Bring to the boil, skimming off the scum, then turn the heat to low, cover and simmer gently for 1 h 30 min.

Once the ragout has had its first hour, drain the beans, put them in a large saucepan and cover with fresh tepid water by 2.5 cm (1 in) to 5 cm (2 in). Bring slowly to the boil, skimming, then simmer for 3 min and drain immediately.

Add the beans to the simmering pork, cover again and simmer until the beans are fully tender, at least 30 min and up to 2 h depending on their age and type.

Take off the heat, let cool, cover and refrigerate overnight.

Heat the oven to 163 °C.

Lift off the fat that has set on top of the chilled ragout, keeping two tablespoons of it aside. Set the ragout over low heat and warm it to room temperature.

Warm 6 confit duck legs, homemade or store-bought to soften the fat: sealed pouches go into a bowl of hot water for about 10 min; homemade legs go on a foil-lined sheet in the oven. Pull the meat off in large chunks, discarding the skin, bones and any large dark veins.

Pick out the head of garlic, squeeze the soft pulp from each clove back into the ragout and discard the herb bouquet. Lift out the ham hock and ventrèche, discard the bone, large fatty pieces and skin, and cut the meat into 2.5 cm (1 in) cubes.

Untie the pork skin, cut it into 5 cm (2 in) pieces and lay them fat side down over the bottom of the earthenware cassole.

Purée 115 g pork fatback with 4 cloves small garlic cloves in a food processor. Stir the purée into the ragout, bring to a simmer over low heat and cook for 30 min. Take off the heat and fold in the cubed hock and ventrèche.

With a slotted spoon, spread half the ragout over the pork skin, letting the liquid drain back into the pot. Scatter over the duck, then cover with the rest of the ragout.

Taste the cooking liquid (it rarely needs salt) and ladle in just enough to cover the beans, leaving at least 2.5 cm (1 in) of space below the rim. Dot the top with the reserved fat.

Bake for 1 h 30 min.

Meanwhile prick 450 g Toulouse sausages, or other mild, fresh garlicky pork sausages in several places and brown them in a frying pan over medium-high heat, turning a few times, for about 10 min. Cut long ones into 7.5 cm (3 in) to 10 cm (4 in) pieces.

Take the cassoulet out and lower the oven to 135 °C. Gently break the skin on the surface without disturbing the layers underneath, push the sausages partway down into the beans, evenly spaced, and dust with 30 ml fresh bread crumbs.

Bake for 1 h more. For a darker crust, raise the heat to 204 °C after the first 30 min, and if it is still pale at the end, run it under the broiler for 2 min to 5 min with the rim about 18 cm (7 ⅛ in) from the element.

Let the cassoulet rest for 20 min, on a cloth if the dish is earthenware. Drizzle with 30 ml walnut oil just before serving and ladle onto warm plates.

Melt 44 ml unsalted butter in the pot over medium heat. Add 1360 g yellow onions, toss to coat them in butter and cover. Turn the heat down to medium-low and leave them to steep, untouched, for 15 min.

Uncover, raise the heat slightly and stir in 5 to 10 ml fine sea salt. Cook, stirring every five minutes or so, for 40 to 90 min longer, until the onions are an even, deep golden brown. Turn the heat down if they colour too fast.

Add 59 ml dry sherry, vermouth or white wine, if using, and scrape up any onion stuck to the pot. Cook until the liquid disappears.

Add 1.89 l beef stock, or chicken or mushroom stock, 1 leaf bay leaf or a few sprigs of thyme and plenty of freshly ground black pepper. Bring to a simmer, partly cover and simmer for 15 min to 20 min. Taste for salt and fish out the bay leaf or thyme.

While the soup simmers, heat the broiler, or heat the oven as hot as it will go if you have no broiler.

Unless 8 slices slices of country bread or baguette is already stale, toast the slices lightly until firm. Rub each one lightly with the cut 1 clove garlic.

Set the bowls on a foil-lined baking sheet and ladle in the hot soup. Fit a toast on top of each, trimming it if needed, and cover with 475 ml Gruyère, Comté, or Gruyère mixed with Parmesan.

Slide the sheet under the broiler until the cheese is melted and browned at the edges. Serve straight away; the soup stays hot for a good 10 min.