Friday, February 7, 2014

FFWD - Boeuf a la Ficelle




Et maintenant le voyage, a la supermarche.
Le pamplemousse!
Ananas!
Jus d'orange, boeuf, soup du jour,
Le camembert, Jacque Cousteau,
Baguette, mais oui!
 
Foux Du Fa Fa, Flight of the Conchords
 
The name of this week's French Fridays with Dorie dish made me automatically think of Foux Du Fa Fa by Flight of the Conchords.  You can see the video clip of this song, featuring random French words thrown together as the Conchords try to impress two girls,  here.  Take a look, it's really cute.  And yes, in the supermarket, they throw some boeuf into the trolley.

The English translation of this week's dish is beef on a string - as with most of the French language, the English translation is far more prosaic.  And as you can see, it is literally beef on a string:


 
I lucked in because my beef roast was already strung together, so I just had to add a string going the other way to lift it out of the pot with.  The beef was also surprisingly not as expensive as I had thought - it was $16 for a 700g roast, which is not exactly cheap, but it won't break the bank either.   
 
On the other hand, if I had made the bullion, the oxtail would have cost a fortune.  Oxtail has crossed over from scraps to gourmet food here,  with a price to match.  I didn't have the time to make the bullion anyway, and Campbell's beef stock served me well.
 
There was lots of vege preparation for this recipe - potatoes, turnips, carrots, shallots, celery and - that's right, there was supposed to be leeks, but in my excitement, I bought fennel instead by accident, so that is what I used.  
 
The finished dish was really delicious - poached beef doesn't sound appetising, but it was really good.  I poached mine more to the "well done" end of the spectrum.  I also topped my beef with some homemade pepper sauce.
 
To see what the other Doristas thought of beef on a string, visit the LYL section of the FFwD website.   

21 comments:

yummychunklet said...

This looks great! Unfortunately, I'm having to skip this week's assignment. Maybe I'll come back to this one as a make-up.

Mardi Michels said...

This was much better than I thought it would be. I don't get the whole "string part". Mine had string on it but I just used tongs to lift it out of the broth...

Lorraine @ Not Quite Nigella said...

A lot of those secondary cuts are so expensive here aren't they? Lamb shanks and oxtail are a good example/

EmilyC said...

First time poaching beef - agree with you that this was rather good!

Lucky for me to have found a new gourmet supply outlet without a price to match!

Ei said...

Lucky you that your meat was reasonably priced! Mine was $35 for a pound!!

Liz That Skinny Chick Can Bake said...

I'm glad you enjoyed this...we did,too, but I think it will be a one timer recipe :)

Cher Rockwell said...

Yes - this was way better than I thought it would be - although it probably won't be my go to for those pricey loin cuts.

Gracie ~ Food Fascination said...

I am going to make this when I have more people to feed. Thank you for sharing your version!

Welcome to our crazy blessed life said...

Glad you liked this and that it wasn't as expensive as you thought it would be! Love Flight of the Concords! :)

Betsy said...

It's amazing how expensive scraps have become, now that they are fashionable. When I saw the price of oxtails at the first store, I was going to go the route of premade beef stock, but at the last store I tried, the oxtail and beef marrow bones were reasonable priced, not too much more than purchasing broth would have been. A lucky break.

Poached beef was much tastier than I expected too.

Choc Chip Uru @ Go Bake Yourself said...

It looks like a difficult recipe but worth it when executed well :D
Delicious job!

Cheers
Choc Chip Uru

Susan said...

I agree - so much better than it sounds! Wouldn't it be great if we could share the smell, too? I was starving by the time this dish was ready to eat!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Mary Hirsch said...

Everyone seems to be quite surprised and quite unanimous in thinking this was a delicious way to cook beef. I intend to make it next week along with the salad and will be very happy for the leftovers. I don't think your meat is well-done, sorta rare. Love that pink-tinged center. How did the fennel taste? Bet it was good. Glad you liked it, Gaye. I am looking forward to making it.

Blond Duck said...

That sounds great!

Nana said...

A lovely presentation, that piece of meat is cooked perfectly.
This was a bit too rare for us so I added more time,
but we enjoyed it all the same.

Diane Balch said...

Wise woman not spending your money on oxtail for a broth.. maybe if it was the centerpiece of the dish I might splurge… lovely piece of meat. Glad you enjoyed it.

Arisuchan said...

you probably got the best price on the cut! ;)

Glad you loved this one! :)

Kathy said...

This was much better than it sounded…we really enjoyed it! I bought one oxtail and it was just over 3 dollars...which is not a lot, but it really is just scrap meat. This surprised me! My grandfather and mother were butchers and they used to give cuts like that away!

tricia s. said...

Yours looks just perfect. We also enjoyed it ( I really never heard of this concept of poaching meat before ) and my hubby who likes rare meat adored it. Cute video ;)

Renee said...

Pepper sauce sounds really good. Oxtails and bones thankfully, are still pretty cheap by me. But I did get a whole filet and just cut it down to the size for dinner and made some additional steaks for the freezer. Glad you liked this- and love the video! Funny!

Christy said...

Wow, who knew oxtails would be so pricey! Great dish, and cute videos!