Pot-au-feu [poh-toh-FEUH]

Illustration: Atsuhiro Saisho

“A dish symbolic of French cuisine and a meal in itself. Pieces of meat are cooked lengthily and gently in water with certain vegetables and a bouquet garni.”—The Penguin Companion to Food

Pot-au-feu, a home-cooking staple from Lyon to Toulouse, may be France’s most understated—and beloved—winter warmer. Essentially boiled beef and vegetables, the dish’s simple charms may elude you if you didn’t grow up with a French parent in the kitchen. Which might explain why New York Gallic menus featuring iconic fare like coq au vin and beef bourguignonne so rarely include it. Lucky for us, L’Absinthe (227 E 67th St between Second and Third Aves, 212-794-4950), the Upper East Side bistro, serves pot-au-feu daily during the winter months. For the uninitiated, chef Jean-Michel Bergougnoux offers the finest introduction to the dish this side of the Seine. He begins, as per tradition, with fatty cuts of beef—including the brisketlike paleron—slowly simmered in water with root vegetables and bones. It’s served with the customary accompaniments of Dijon mustard, sea salt and cornichons. A similarly iconic version draws homesick Parisians on Saturday nights to the year-old Parigot (155 Grand St between Centre and Lafayette Sts, 212-274-8859), where the once-a-week pot-au-feu—an enormous portion with a huge marrow bone—appears among the blackboard specials. Meanwhile, at Brasserie 44 (44 W 44th St between Fifth and Sixth Aves, 212-944-8844) in the Royalton Hotel, you’ll find Scott Ekstrom’s haute-American short-rib pot-au-feu—only on the $48 pretheater prix-fixe menu—featuring a caramelized hunk of meat topped with marrow coins. Cipollini onions, radishes and salsify are among the nontraditional vegetables surrounding the meat in an extra-rich broth, made not with water but with veal stock.

—Jay Cheshes

See previous The dish