Boeuf Bourguignon Fit for a King

.....or maybe a City Councilman......

Because I have such a busy day tomorrow, French class followed by lunch with friends, I decided I would make something today to have on hand for dinner when Rick arrives on Friday. And since the oven, like the washer/dryer is still a bit of a mystery to me, I decided to make Boeuf Bourguignon again, because it can be made on top of the stove, which is tempermental, but not a mystery.

Boeuf Bourguignon is a traditional peasant dish that originated in the Burgundy region of France. It's also known as Beef Stew (if you  leave out the Burgundy wine).  It's had a resurgence in popularity since the movie "Julie and Julia".  You may remember that Julie made it using Julia child's recipe.

I didn't use any one recipe, but incorporated ideas from several which didn't require any special equipment(like an oven) or any food products that I didn't know the name of in French. So it's pretty basic, but I've sneaked a little taste and it's quite delicious.

Here's my recipe!

Ingredients:

• Olive oil and butter
• 2 beef bouillon cubes
• 200 grams of lardons (7.5 ounces)  This is basically chopped bacon which comes pre-packaged - I love it.
• 1 1/2 kilograms of beef (that is 3.3069339328 pounds)  I used a cut here called "macreuse", similar to boneless beef chuck
• 1/2 cup of flour, seasoned with salt and pepper
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 5 carrots
• 1 medium onion
• 4 cloves, garlic
• 8 mushrooms
• 3 cups of hearty red wine
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

I placed 2 beef bouillon cubes into a cup of hot water and set it aside; and then combined the flour, salt and pepper in a medium bowl.

Next I placed the chopped bacon pieces in a large heavy pot and browned them over medium heat.
While the bacon is cooking, I sliced and diced the meat into bite-size pieces.

I removed the bacon from the pot when it was slightly brown and put it on a paper towel-lined plate, leaving the bacon grease in the pan to brown the beef.

Then I added the beef pieces to the flour mixture and stirred them around to coat.  I heated the left-over bacon grease and placed half the meat in the pan to brown.  When it was finished browning, I placed it on the plate with the bacon pieces, and added the rest of the beef to brown. If you need to, add a mixture of 1 tablespoon olive oil and 1 tablespoon butter to the pan to brown the second portion of the beef. I added that portion to the plate when it was completed browning.

I poured the hot water with bouillion cubes into the pan and scraped up the brown bits left from the meat.

Then I let it cook over medium high heat for about two minutes, and added 2 tablespoons tomato paste, before letting the mixture continue to cook for another couple of minutes, stirring constantly.

At last I poured in the wine and stirred it well.  (Three cups of wine from a bottle leaves about a glass left for the cook.) Obviously Burgundy wine is probably called for, but I had a Bordeaux here, so that's what I used.

I set the pan aside while I finished preparing the vegetables. That included:

 chopping one onion, (about this size)



 slicing the garlic cloves, (And since garlic is healthy, I used big cloves.)

and chopping the peeled carrots into rounds.

 I browned all of the vegetables, prior to adding them to the stew.  To do this, I poured about 1 tablespoon of olive oil and dolluped about 1 tablespoon of butter into a frying pan and added the vegetables, one type at a time.  This I did get from Julia Child.  When you're browning mushrooms, they must not be crowded. I did half of the mushrooms and placed them aside in a bowl, then added the rest of the mushrooms to cook, with more olive oil and butter.

I cooked the onions and garlic together until they were golden, in an additional 1 tablespoon olive oil and 1 tablespoon butter. When they were done, I added them to the bowl of mushrooms.

And then I did the same with the carrots... with an additional 1 tablespoon olive oil and 1 tablespoon butter.  I know that is a lot of oil and butter, but I think the health benefits of the garlic and red wine overpower the detriments of the oil and butter.

Finally I poured the meat and all of the vegetables, and the dried thyme,  into the wine mixture and placed the pan over medium heat bringing the ingredients to a boil.  I lowered the heat and let the stew simmer for 90 minutes. 

Now it's in the fridge, waiting for Friday.  And everybody knows this type of dish is better after the flavors have had the opportunity to blend.

I'll let you know, on Friday, what the "King" thinks .............