As House Andrews has taught us, sometimes fictional food refuses to stay on the page.
Virginia Woolf’s boeuf en daube has been haunting my kitchen recently. In To the Lighthouse, the dish drifts through Mrs Ramsay’s stream of consciousness:
“… an exquisite scent of olives and oil and juice rose from the great brown dish as Marthe, with a little flourish, took the cover off. The cook had spent three days over that dish. And she must take great care, Mrs. Ramsay thought, diving into the soft mass, to choose a specially tender piece for William Bankes. And she peered into the dish, with its shiny walls and its confusion of savoury brown and yellow meats, and its bay leaves and its wine, and thought, This will celebrate the occasion.”
Woolf, Virginia. To the Lighthouse. The Hogarth Press, London 1927, p. 151. Featured image: AS Photo Family stock.adobe.com
I’m not dedicated enough to go to three-day lengths, so I brought it into 2026 with a one-pot recipe that’s ready in three hours.
Ginny (Ms Woolf if you’re nasty) doesn’t provide full details, so this is my noncanonical Provençal-Balkan version. Those in possession of delicate French sensibilities, please avert your gaze.
Boeuf en daube(ish)
- 500 g chuck, shin or other braising beef with a lot of connective tissue that can break down during long, slow cooking. Cut into 1.5-inch chunks.
- 200–250 ml red wine. A full-bodied French would be appropriately Provençal, but use any tasty red that isn’t too astringent. Don’t cook with wine you wouldn’t drink.
- 3 white onions, sliced
- 1 carrot, sliced
- 4 cloves garlic
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 teaspoon of umami paste we won’t tell the French about (optional, it oomphed both the meatiness and the oliviness)
- 1 sprig of thyme
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 100 g olives. I used chargrilled Turkish olives, because I love their smoky, almost cured-bacon flavour, and this is my daube. You do what you will with your daube.
- Beef stock, as needed
- Salt and black pepper
Traditionally, daube is cooked slowly in a lidded terracotta daubière; mine went into an enamelled cast-iron casserole, though I imagine a slow cooker would be very happy with it too.
Brown the beef in batches in the casserole, then remove it. Soften the onions and carrot in the same pot, then add the garlic, tomato paste (and umami paste, if using). Cook until the tomato paste darkens and starts to stick, then deglaze with the wine. Return the beef and add the herbs and seasoning. Add stock if needed; the liquid should come most of the way up the ingredients without turning everything into beef soup. We’re braising here, not boiling.
Lid on, into a low 150°C (300°F in freedom units) oven, and leave it alone until the beef is completely tender, around 2½–3 hours. Check after 2 hours and take the lid off if you want to reduce the liquid more efficiently. This is also the point where you add the olives.
Crucially, judge by the beef, not the clock! I actually cooked mine for 3½ hours, because I’m still getting used to my new oven. I don’t have pictures because we fell upon it in a very stream-of-stomach-consciousness way.
Fig Tarte Tatin with Chèvre
French grand-mères can take a little respite from rolling in their graves: this one is considerably less blasphemous, and one of the most delicious things I’ve eaten in months.
- 12 fresh figs, cut into halves
- 70 grams sugar
- 30 grams of butter
- 50-60 ml of water – only if you need caramel training wheels
- 1 tsp of vanilla paste
- 1 pinch of salt
- 1 sheet of puff pastry, cut about 3 cm/1 inch wider than the size of your tarte tray (shop-bought & ready-rolled, because ain’t nobody got time)
- 60 g fresh soft goat’s cheese
Make a caramel, each according to their skill.
I make wet caramel because I burnt so many pots attempting the dry method as a child that I once buried one in the garden so my mother wouldn’t discover it. Thirty years later, my parents have a tall saucepan tree, and I still start with the 70 grams of sugar in enough water to cover it. Bring it to a boil and let the water evaporate until the syrup begins to colour, then watch it closely and do not stir it as it turns golden brown. The distance between not caramel and oh fuck is surprisingly short – take it from me.
Once the bubbles are deep amber, add the butter, figs, vanilla paste and salt, and cook them on high heat for about 5 minutes. Turn the figs about half-way through, if they haven’t collapsed into glorious jamminess already. Carefully pour it all in a parchment-lined 20 cm tart pan, or ovenproof dish of choice. For a prettier finish, arrange them all cut-side down; otherwise, let the figs fall where they may.
Drape the pastry over the figs and tuck the excess around the edges, poke it with a fork all over, and bake for about half an hour at 200C (392F).
Once out of the oven, let it settle for a few minutes, then place a plate wider than the pan on top and flip the whole thing over in the traditional Tatin manner. At this point, I added a restrained scatter of dainty chèvre crumbs, befitting my delicate fairy princess nature.
Psych. Heavy is the hand that crumbles the cheese in this house, I obviously went for a boulder aesthetic. The balance between lush jammy figs and the tangy, yogurt-fresh goat cheese was ridiculously good. Ten out of ten, would risk the caramel again!
So that’s what’s been yummy in the Mod R kitchen. What have you been cooking lately?
Hahaha, Mod R, you are hilarious. And this sounds de-lish. Thank you!
Yummy First! 🍽️😋
Woohoo!
First?
Yes, I am, woohoo!
first?
I was so close! 😂
I made a ham and potato soup in my crockpot. This is significant for me, because I usually dont enjoy soups, I dislike potatoes and we had a grocery mix up where I got 3, 20lb hams I didnt order and the store refused to take it back.
I basically diced potaotes, left over ham and threw it into the crockpot with chopped celery, carrots and corn. Seasoned with garlic, ginger onion powder, thyme, rosemary and basil. I used chicken broth instead of water. Set on low for 8 hrs. I used a bit of cornstarch at the end to thicken it. Served with dinner rolls on a windy and coldish NJ night.
The family loved it. I liked it too despite the potatoes 😃
I will probably make it again.
I am harvesting the last of my summer squash and zucchini – it has been a bumper crop this year and I have hidden zucchini and squash into everything I possibly could.
I did make double chocolate zucchini bread and lemon lime zucchini bread for the first time this year and they were both *chefs kiss.
Lemon lime zucchini bread sounds so yum!
Oooo those both sound good!
We had two Jurassic-sized zucchini plants this year and made several batches of Disappearing Zucchini Orzo from Barbara Kingsolver’s, “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle”. It’s one of our summer staples and is a delicious way to use a lot of zucchini.
Tacos…..tacos is what I made this week….because leftovers & diners can create their own by adding toppings of their choice….
My people hate it. They always passively comment “dinner, some assembly required”. Lazy sods 🤣
“say that again and you’ll be the chef for the next two weeks!”
Precisely!
You should make them do the cooking. (No take-aways allowed!) Maybe once they know the labor involved, they won’t feel so inclined to comment on your choices.
BDH response: It’s good enough for the Baylors. Or do you want to explain yourself to Grandma Frida, Mom (Penelope) with her sniper rifle, and Alessandro (aka the Artisan)?
I recently subscribed to Cozy Magazine and I made their cheddar sage biscuits with apple butter.
Your recipes sound so good! The olives are especially interesting. I found a yummy seasoning packet at a store in Ohio called Guinness Ale and Steak Pie Mix. I must get more when we visit my kid again. I used the slow cooker instead of the oven. I made the puff pastry a day earlier in the oven after cutting it into Napolean sized servings. I also used a whole chopped sweet onion and about 5 cups of sliced mushrooms. I also added meat and Guinness! I served it in bowls with a piece of plain puff pastry on top. The leftover pastry got made into dessert another day. Thank- you all for sharing recipes. The ham and potato soup is non dairy so my family can have it. There is always leftover ham during the holidays!
Something similar to daube, actually – it’s beef, pork and lamb stewed in red wine with bacon, onions, garlic, olives and corinths. Toward the end, add cognac, cream and green pepper corns. Very yummy!
I don’t know where to send this info… did you see that Dina is half off at GA the rest of Sept?
yes, thank you! it was shared on all IA social media platforms 🙂
Love the saucepan tree comment! Does it blossom in tiny, shiny saucepans? That was my immediate vision 🤣. All sounds yummy, Mod R, but won’t being doing any of it. No one likes olives except me and I don’t own (gasp) a tart pan. This was fun, thanks!
Hopefully HA is seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. Keeping fingers crossed.
The PG version of this medieval classic 😀 https://oldenglishwordhord.com/2024/03/10/pintel/
You know, we had to read Roman de la Rose in French at my all-girl Roman Catholic HS, but I don’t recall that particular picture. Of course that was roughly half a century ago, and there’s not much about it that I do recall, tbh.
No one expects the
Spanish Inquisitionmedieval marginalia 🤣🤣😂🤣
I’ve made my famous soup stew which has no exact set recipe because it varies but has a lot of vegetables (frozen or fresh depending) and pulse of choice and sometimes a bit of chicken or rarely beef. It has a fair mix of spices (with a strong Bengali flavour thanks to my early school upbringing) leaning heavy on chilli and cayenne if no kids are eating it. And apparently I am strong on garlic but I don’t notice this myself. Sometimes I chuck a handful of rice in or break some spaghetti in too. I like it thick, hence stew. Always some sort of sofrito base, I like green pepper in it. I tend to make too much but it tastes better the next day so always good 😊
Yes, I did just drool all over my keyboard.
What time do we show up?
Sounds wonderful!
Thank you for the thoroughly detailed recipe and its humor!
I have been rereading/relistening to the Hidden Legacy books. I realized how much meal description there is, yet not enough to make the recipes. I suspect they are staples in HA’s kitchen.
Would it be possible to create an Ilona Andrews cookbook? I already have some recipes from the blog, but maybe they could be collected and added to?
That is in the plans!
You are the bringer of joy today! I was hopeful, but didn’t realize it was actually in the works.
Please, please, pretty please tell me that passion cones will be in there? 🤞🏻🤗
In the plans, not in the works exactly! Maggie 2 before all!
Ok! I’ll wait p@tiently. 🤗
I pulled up Silent Blade to refresh my memory of passion cones (and see again if there was enough detail to try to make them) and it was already right at that spot! 😄
I no longer tackle such strenuous recipes. In my youth, I would have. Now I only cook recipes with a short list of ingredients and minimal prep. It works for me. Your energy for cooking is admirable. I’m sure it was delicious.
I seem to be on a nursery or soft white food kick, maybe for comfort?It has been a stressful time lately… I’ve been making lemon-mint possets for dessert whenever we have company, and tried an amaretto syllabub for people who’d already had my posset (wouldn’t do again—just too soft). For food, I’ve been on a cream cheese ramen kick (NYT recipe) and Jackie Kennedy’s marie blanche casserole. These are all very few ingredient recipes, and mostly quite elegant and not what you expect.
I recently made sweet potato gnocchi from Preppy Kitchen’s recipe. Mine tasted amazing, but looked more like orange chicken nuggets than it did gnocchi. I figured I could just grate more Parmesan on top to hide the appearance and it worked.
Love the recipe -a nice way to avoid kitchen wars
I picked the first harvest of beans -borlotti like type, made them with onion-garlic-rosemary a bit off guancale and garden sugotomatoes, this is special since in Scandinavia a good tomatoharvest is not a sure thing 😋
Served with homemade pesto (basil lives with the tomatoes in the greenhouse)
And stale sourdough bread -the best for toasting
oh! I didnt know what it was called but I’ve made a baked fig puff pastry with goat cheese, basil and honey
pretty much this method but doesn’t require making caramel, just melting honey
Currently making a batch of chicken and wild rice soup. Nothing too unusual or thrilling, but my home state of North Carolina has been experiencing Faux Fall lately, so of course it’s put me in the mind for soup.
Oooo, fig tarte tatin! What a brilliant idea.
Side note: I once stayed at Sissinghurst with friends (one of whom was the National Trust manager of the site) and got to poke around places not normally accessible to the public. One of these was Vita Sackville-West’s study in tbe tower. Among the many interesting items there is a book given her by Virginia Wolfe—a copy of To the Ligjthouse, with a note that it was the best thing she had written. When you open it, all the pages are blank.
If Authorlandia had dad jokes, this would be the most established 😀
I played with an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie recipe yesterday – whole wheat flour for half of the flour, dark brown sugar, and chopped craisins and nuts for the chocolate chips. I thought they were tasty and slightly healthier. Spouse wanted to know where the chocolate chips were.
I haven’t been able to cook much because we’ve not had an oven for several months (don’t ask). However, drum roll please, a new LG range was delivered this morning! Debates about what is to be cooked/baked first have started. The 9 year old is voting for brownies. Also in NC’s faux fall, so I’m leaning toward a nice pot roast and some crusty sourdough.
It’s been far too hot to cook much here until the past couple days. Mainly fish or chicken with tomatoes and basil out of the garden, diced potatoes, and green beans or spinach, dressed in olive oil with capers. Yours looks inspiring now the weather has cooled off a bit.
Last week, I made macaroni and cheese casserole (baked) with seasoned breadcrumbs on top and blistered cherry tomatoes as a side dish. I sneaked 1/2 cup of mashed sweet potato into the sauce and only used 1 cup of cheddar cheese. My family couldn’t tell the difference.
Awesome! Thank you! I made carrot cake today. Fiddling with the recipe. Added some fresh minced ginger and a spoonful of molasses!
I like to grow my own tomatoes, peppers, and herbs, so this is the time of year that I look for recipes based on what I have ripe that I need to use up. Last week I made Sonoran-style potato, cheese, and tomato soup (Caldo de Queso). I love making bone broth in my instapot and the recipe utilizes tomatoes, peppers, oregano, and zucchini or summer squash from the garden. I go rogue and crumble some tortilla chips on top for crunchies.
It’s been to hot to do a lot of cooking. Plus, the majority of my pots and pans are packed. I’m about to move into a new apartment, so not a lot of cooking for me.
I get the joyous task of moving 13 Le Cruset cast iron enamel pots to my new apartment. I wouldn’t give up those pots for anything. C’est la vie! 🙂
We seriously considered whether our LC casserole would make the cut in the recent move. Mr Mod R was willing to defenestrate, but it really had its shining moment this week going from hob, to oven to table 😀
I’m glad we went through the trouble now, even though it weights about the same as a small child.
Glad the pot made your move. I had more pots, but gave the ones I didn’t use to a friend. I told her that if she didn’t want them to give to others.
My favorite pot is the Chef’s Pot. It looks like a wok but a little wider. I have 3 of them.
Upper body workout here I come! 🤣
this time of year big on one pot meals: chili, lentil soup, chicken soup, spaghetti sauce, and absolutely love eggroll in a bowl….google it you will NOT be disappointed.
I get an annual fruit box and they’ve had a bumper crop of figs so lots of fig puddings and some savoury. While I like eating them raw, baked figs are always delicious.
Made a simple puff pastry fig tart with maple syrup and it was so good. Also since still good for plums baked some with figs and had it on top of my porridge yum. Now I know what to make next week when I get more figs in the fruit box. Thanks Mod R for the recipes
It’s officially Fall in California but were having a last gasp of summer heat outside. It’s been upper 80F to low 9o’s in the afternoons all week. I did make baked chicken with potatoes and yams covered in garlic powder and poultry seasoning last night. If I get the time, I’ll make pumpkin bread on Sunday.
I made Madeleines and then a friend was making cheese cake filling…and that was quickly injected into them.
I baked those boring but reliable chocolate chip cookies a few days ago. Except, my butter was cold and I was out of vanilla, so I grabbed the duck tallow leftover from a short-lived foray into dairy alternatives, and serendipitously there was exactly the amount I needed in the jar; and I subbed in almond extract for vanilla. Hubs and baby both snarfed em, so I count them a win.
Also made “the freezer is too crowded” soup. Did not go over as well as the cookies, mostly due to me not knowing to peel zucchini before freezing (I now know better).
Made a sausage and cabbage soup the other day. Browned home-made turkey sausage, sautéed a sweet onion, added some minced garlic and juice, then put in the chicken broth, chopped potatoes, carrot chips and chopped (not shredded) cabbage. Cooked until the veggies were soft enough to enjoy (and the potatoes fully cooked).
I have a boneless leg of lamb stuffed with roasted garlic cloves, minced onion, oregano, thyme, and rosemary cooking over a bed of potato and onion wedges as I type. It’s a “special” treat for the turn of the season (because the lamb was on “special” at the store. But also because lamb.)
There may be a blended squash soup in the offing, too.
Next week: white bean soup with ham and copious celery, onion, and herbs. The sourdough starter needs some time to wake up properly for the bread.
starting to get into (slightly) colder weather so made a big batch of broccoli cheddar soup. then made some baked potatoes, hollowed them partially out and used that as the bowls.
also made a batch of homemade rocky road fudge to take into work.
My favorite comfort food is potato soup. But my latest baking is a cheese and onion biscuit dough loaf. I bake in cast iron skillet because I love crunchy crusts.
Side note: while waiting for floor to dry, Beau decided to leave “gift” in middle of floor; nothing worse than doggy diarrhea, was reading an AI story on Facebook. HA books are being scraped; since a couple of lines I have only read in HA books.
This isn’t something I’ve made but something I wish to make/eat. I’m on my seventy-eleventh reread of TKWNKM and Shana’s sambocades haunt me. The recipe I saw had ingredients I don’t have and it just intimidated me for whatever reason.
I will be making the mushroom handpies though because those seem less daunting.