Light Pot-au-feu

📝 Ingredients

• 700 g braising beef (shin, chuck or blade), in 3–4 large pieces
• 3 leeks (about 150 g each once trimmed)
• 4 carrots (about 100 g each)
• 2 turnips (about 150 g each)
• 3 celery sticks, about 50 g each (1 for the broth, 2 for the vegetables)
• 600 g waxy potatoes
• 1 onion + 2 cloves
• 2 bay leaves + 1 tsp dried thyme + 10 black peppercorns
• 1 beef stock cube + 2.5 L cold water
• 4 tsp Dijon mustard (to serve)
• 12 cornichons (about 60 g)
• Salt

🍴 Utensils

• Large stockpot (about 6 L)
• Saucepan
• Slotted spoon
• Ladle
• Peeler
• Kitchen string

📖 Steps

1. Put the meat in the stockpot, cover with the cold water and bring slowly to the boil over a medium heat. For 10 minutes, skim off the grey foam that rises to the surface with a slotted spoon: this is what ensures a beautifully clear broth.
2. Add the crumbled stock cube, the peeled onion studded with the cloves, the bay leaves, thyme, peppercorns and 1 celery stick cut into three. Lower to a gentle heat, cover with the lid ajar and leave to simmer for 2 hours: the surface should barely move.
3. Meanwhile, peel the carrots and turnips and cut them in half. Cut the leeks into 8 cm lengths, rinse them carefully between the layers to remove any soil, then tie them into a bundle with string. Cut the 2 remaining celery sticks into 6 cm lengths.
4. After the 2 hours, add the carrots, turnips, leeks and celery to the stockpot. Continue simmering gently for 40 minutes, until the vegetables are tender when pierced with the tip of a knife and the meat pulls apart with a fork.
5. Meanwhile, peel the potatoes, halve the largest ones and cook them for about 25 minutes in a saucepan with 2 ladles of broth from the stockpot, topped up with water to just cover, until tender. Cooked in the stockpot, they would make the broth cloudy.
6. Skim the fat off the broth: remove the layer of fat from the surface with a ladle, or lay a sheet of kitchen paper on top for a few seconds. Taste and add salt if needed, then remove the onion, bay leaves, the celery pieces added at the start and the string from the leeks.
7. Cut the meat into thick slices. Serve in shallow bowls with the vegetables and potatoes, pour over a ladle of piping hot broth and serve with mustard and cornichons.