The day before...

La mise en place:

1. Chop your beef into cubes, about 2 inches thick.
2. Chop the carrots, celery and garlic for the marinade.
3. In a dutch oven, place the beef, carrots, celery, garlic, herbes de Provence, star ainse and bay leaves. 
4. Top with a half bottle of robust red wine. We are looking for a wine with lots of tannins like a cabernet franc, syrah, mourvèdre or grenache. I like to use a French Pinot Noir too that has light fruit but lots of body.
5. Using a big spoon, fold the ingredients over eachother so it is nicely mixed.
6. Cover your dutch oven with plastic wrap (so it is air tight) and set in the fridge for 24 hours.

Cooking La Daube Provençale:

1. Set a pasta strainer inside a big bowl. Transfer the contents of your dutch oven into the strainer - making sure to keep all the juice in the bowl! You will use this later.
2. Remove the chunks of marinated beef from the strainer and pat dry with paper towels. You must dry the meat! If you skip this step it will not sear.
3. Lay the dried pieces of meat flat on a cutting board and lightly dust with flour. I like to use a sieve for this - you don't want too much flour.
4. There is no cutting corners with a Beef Bourguignon, but I promise you it will be worth it!
5. Make sure to keep the carrots and celery from the marinade as well. Do however, discard the star anise.
6. Wipe down your dutch oven and put it back on the burner at medium high heat with a drizzle of olive oil.
7. In small batches, sear the meat so that there is a light crust on each piece. Allow the meat to brown and remove the pieces once the meat begins to render liquid in the dish. You don't want the meat to boil!
8. Use tongs , not a spoon, to place the meat in the dutch oven because you want to make sure you are not adding extra liquid.
9. **Careful not to add more pieces of meat than can fit in one layer in your dutch oven - you want each piece to brown. This may take several batches to sear all of the meat.
10. Repeat until all the meat has been seared, making sure to continuously scrape the bottom of your dish with a rubber spatula - this is where all the flavor is! Set the meat aside.
11. **Le Chef's tip - use a marinade brush to wipe the sides of the dutch oven every so often to keep the sides clean
12. In the bottom of your dutch oven on medium heat, add the bacon. Allow to brown and then add the mushrooms. Sprinkle 2 tsps of sugar on top and sautée until slightly caramelized on medium heat, stirring frequently. Add the veal demi glace and the beef stock.
13. Add the seared meat & marinated vegetables back into the dutch oven as well as the bay leaf.
14. Add the remaining half bottle of wine and the marinade liquid that you kept in the bowl. Careful not to fill the dutch oven too full.
15. Stir a few times, folding the ingredients over each other so that it is all well mixed
16. Set your dutch oven on the middle rack of your oven, uncovered, at 350 degrees for 2.5 hours.
17. Stir every half hour or so.

How to serve Beef Bourguignon

About thirty minutes before the beef is done you can start the potatoes.

Peel and quarter the potatoes, length wise. If you want to get fancy you can shape the potato quarters into lozenges - also known as Potatoes "Tournées" - a shape that every young apprentice learns to master in France.

Place the potatoes into a large pot of cold water and bring to a boil.

Le Chef's Tip - Always start your potatoes in cold water - the starch holds up better when cooking this way and the potatoes keep their shape and consistency.

Keep at a low boil for about 15 minutes - until the potatoes are tender and you can stick a fork in them easily. (If they break in half when you stick the fork in, they are overdone.)

I like to ladle portion of the Beef Bourguignon into a shallow dish ( I love my Le Creuset Pasta bowls for this)then top with a few potatoes before spooning more Beef Bourguignon over the top for more sauce. The sauce is sooo good!

Top with a small pinch of French Sea Salt.

The fragrance from this dish is absolutely delectable!