Cooking Live with Slashfood: gardiane with Sarah Gilbert, the ingredients

by Sarah Gilbert, Posted Jan 12th 2006 @ 1:55AM

gardiane la camargue We all miss Sara Moulton's Cooking Live like crazy. But instead of continuing to whine and complain about it, we're taking measures. Until we launch the Slashfood Network, we're just gonna bring the live cooking to you via blog.

Each Friday evening one of your lovely hosts or hostesses will be making a new or favorite dish with you. This week, I'll be hosting gardiane La Camargue, La Camargue's Beef Stew with Black Olives, from Patricia Wells' Bistro Cooking. As Patricia says, the gardiane is from France's "cowboy country" and is a stew of beef, black olives and red wine.

This recipe requires some advance prep so we'll be starting the dish on Thursday evening. In the meantime, you'll need to head to the grocery store for the following ingredients:

4-5 pounds stewing beef (like round and chuck)
garlic
2-3 medium yellow onions
4 carrots
1 bottle red wine such as Côtes-du-Rhône
4 ounces oil-cured black olives

You should have olive oil, thyme and bay leaves in your pantry, but if you don't, add those to your list. You'll need a large, non-reactive bowl (like glass or stoneware) and a large, non-reactive casserole or pot that can go on the stovetop and in the oven (cast iron would work great). OK, see you tomorrow evening! larger scan after the jump

gardiane la camargue beef stew
bigger version
Thursday we cut the meat into 3- or 4-ounce pieces and prepped the carrots, onions and garlic before mixing it all together for an overnight marinade. On Friday, we drained the beef, reserving the marinade, and heated up oil in a pan. Then, I started browning the beef. Finally, I added in herbs and (whoops) the wrong kind of olives. Then I started to simmer.