Beef Bourguignon is one of those recipes that I associate with dinner parties in films. Or the 60s. I have the same paperback copy of Julia Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” that I have owned since I began being highly interested in cooking about 8 years ago. In fact it was the first cookbook that I ever bought for myself, and her coq au vin was the first “complicated” recipe that I felt I ever mastered.
There’s just nothing like setting aside a rainy day to slow cook something over low heat all day long and just letting flavours develop to the max, whilst your whole flat fills with the heady but hearty aromas of herbs and wine and butter.
Beef Bourguignon
Ingredients:
1 pack of streaky bacon
2 onions, diced
1 carrot, sliced
1.4 kg of stewing beef
28 g of flour
1 1/4 pints of red wine
1 pint of beef stock
1 tablespoon of tomato paste
2 cloves of garlic
1/2 teaspoon of thyme
1 crumbled bay leaf
1 lb mushrooms, chopped
salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon of rapeseed oil
Instructions:
Cut the bacon up into small chunks and saute it in in 1 tablespoon of oil in your casserole dish. Remove it from the dish once it’s lightly cooked and set it aside.
Then cut your steak up into chunks and saute in the bacon oil until nicely browned and then set that aside on the same plate as the bacon.
In the same oils, brown your sliced vegetables. Pour out the fat when you’ve done this. Return the beef and the bacon to the casserole and add in the flour. Toss everything together so that all the beef is lightly coated. Place your casserole in the oven at 230 C (450 F) uncovered for about 10 minutes.
Then remove your casserole dish, and pour in the win and beef stock until the meat has just been covered. Then add the chopped mushrooms, tomato paste, garlic and herbs. Turn the oven down to 162 C (350 F) and simmer your dish (covered) for 3 to 4 hours. Stir occasionally.
Notes:
I served it with lightly roasted potatoes and buttered peas with thick sliced sourdough to mop up the sauce. For the leftovers the following day, I served it over rice with peas.
What’s your favourite recipe to tackle that takes loads of time, but the results are just so satisfying?
