Let's Make. . . Beef Bourguignonne

I have long planned on making this on the day that I go see the new Julie and Julia movie - little did I know what a big part this dish plays in the movie! Julia Child has always been an icon to me. There is a thread on Chowhound asking about people's "favorite Julia Child" moment and this is what I wrote, I wrote it off the cuff without thinking too much about it - it is straight from the heart:

"I know many, many people talk about how Julia influenced them and it's true for me as well. Julia came on PBS in the afternoon when I awoke from my nap and I loved her. . my mom would sit me in front of the television and I would watch, mesmerized by her - I loved her voice. When I was 14 years old I started to cook my way through Mastering the Art of French Cooking. To me, it was the greatest form of self-expression. It built my confidence and taught me what a pleasure it is to feed people food that your hands have created. When I wanted to go to cooking school after high school, I was told that I was "too smart" to be a cook. So I shelved those dreams for a while, all the while cooking out of Julia's books - Baking with Julia and Julia's Master Chef series. She was always so close to my heart. I finally went to cooking school later in life and actually met Julia Child once. She was doing a book signing with Jacques for their new book and I swear to god, for me, it was like meeting the Beatles! I was shaking and teary-eyed and as sweet and charming as Jacques was, I only had eyes for Julia. She looked me in the eye, asked my name, signed my book and then took my hand and it was electric. . . it's as though she instinctively knew how much she meant to me and she smiled. I tell you now, I almost fainted. I was working as an executive pastry chef at a vineyard in the middle of nowhere on August 13th 2004 - 18 hour day in an off-site kitchen that was very isolated. As I got in my car to drive home, I had many hang ups on my cellphone voice-mail. Weird. I was heading home - my commute was an hour. I turned on NPR and there was the dulcet tones of my beloved Julia. I was so happy and thought that they were doing a show about her since her birthday was coming up. Then they announced her death. I had to pull over and cry. And cry. And cry. The hang ups were loved ones trying to reach me to tell me about her death - not wanting to leave it on voice-mail to upset me. She left an indelible mark on my life and I just adored her."

As with almost every recipe I have ever made, I make the recipe as it is written and once I've made the recipe once, I kind of do my own thing from then on. As much as I adore Ms. Child I will say that the recipe layout of Mastering the Art of French Cooking is clunky and hard to follow. You have to keep in mind that when the book was published, it was groundbreaking and the layout best guides a cook new to a cuisine through the steps necessary to accomplish the correct results. There are points in some recipes where I actually question why I would have to do them. . . in the end, trust Julia. . .she was thorough and the recipes are meticulously tested and if you follow them, you will get good results. The following recipe is 75% Julia and 25% me. Two points that I have found imperative to perfect results are drying the meat well and roasting the meat/vegetables/flour to achieve the proper depth of flavor.


Boeuf a la Bourguignonne Julia/Lainie

1 lb. thick sliced bacon, cut into 1/2 inch lardons
4 lbs. beef stew meat, cut into 2-inch cubes
2 carrots, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
2 yellow onions, diced
1/4 cup flour
1 750ml bottle red wine, Burgundy or any other robust red
4 cups beef stock (avoid canned if at all possible, if not, use low sodium)
1 T. tomato paste
4 garlic cloves, chopped finely
bouquet garni consisting of two bay leaves, one sprig of rosemary, 1 sprig of thyme, 1 teaspoon of black peppercorns and 2 sprigs of fresh parsley

2 lbs. mushrooms, quartered

Preheat the oven to 450F.

Prepare a bouquet garni by wrapping the herbs and peppercorns in cheesecloth and tying it with butcher's twine.Roll it up into a tight bundle.

Pretty!

Heat a large dutch oven, add bacon and cook until the bacon is fairly crispy.
Mmmmm, bacon!

Remove the bacon from the pan and ladle out about 3 tablespoons of the bacon fat. Set aside. And by aside, I mean move the bacon out of your reach or it's entirely possible to end up with less bacon then you need due to cook consumption. Ahem.

Dry the meat thoroughly - you can use paper towels but I have had great results with the lint-less bar mops I use in my kitchen.

Place a few pieces on a cutting board and season well - you want to do this step right before you add the meat to the pot - this is important. Add a small amount of olive oil to the bacon fat and heat until the the fat is almost smoking.

Add seasoned pieces of meat to the pot, being very careful not to crowd the meat. Leave it alone.

Let it brown well and when little dots of blood start to rise to the surface of the meat, turn the pieces and thoroughly brown the other side. Remove meat to a sheet pan and repeat the process until all the meat is browned. properly caramelized meat - lots of flavor up in there!

Add the onion and carrot to the hot pan and saute until the pan is deglazed of all the lovely brown bits.

Pour out any extra fat, leaving the vegetables in the pot. Take half the bacon and add that and the browned beef to the pot. Season with salt and pepper and sprinkle the flour over the meat and toss until all the meat is coated with flour.

Place in the oven and roast for 5 minutes. Remove from the oven, toss the meat around to expose new pieces to the direct heat and roast again for 5 more minutes.crusty!

Remove the pot from the oven and reduce the heat for 325F.

Stir the wine, stock, tomato paste, garlic, and bouquet garni.send the bouquet garni to it's winy grave.

Bring to a simmer atop the stove, cover and place in the oven. Regulate the heat so that the liquid barely simmers and cook for 2 1/2 to three hours until the meat is very tender when poked with a fork.* done!

Towards the end of the cooking time, prepare the mushrooms: Heat up the reserved bacon fat in a very large, heavy pan. When it's almost smoking, add butter and quickly add the mushrooms - doing it in batches if necessary to prevent overcrowding - maintain the heat on high and saute, the mushrooms should be sizzling. Season with salt and pepper. The mushrooms will give off liquid but the pan should be hot enough to reduce the liquid almost immediately - cook until the mushrooms are well browned and dry.no liquid left!

Add the remaining bacon and a handful of parsley. mmmmm bacon and mushrooms!


When the stew is done, remove the bouquet garni. thanks for all that flavor!

Pour the stew into a sieve set over a bowl.First time I did this, I forgot the bowl. :(

Pick out the pieces of carrot and discard (Julia does not do this, but I cannot stand mushy carrots so I pick them out - they've done their job flavoring the sauce). Put the meat aside and pour the sauce into the pot, skim any visible fat and reduce until you achieve a thick sauce so that when you run your finger across a wooden spoon your finger leaves a trail that does not close.Nappe!


Season the sauce and add the meat back to it, delicately napping the sauce over the meat. Place on a large serving platter and top with mushroom/bacon mixture. I am taking this to a friend's house so it stays in this and can be heated in the oven as is.

*if you can stand it, this stew is better the next day so you can cook it to that step and refrigerate overnight and finish the remaining steps the next day.

I like to serve this with pan roasted baby potatoes:

Pan Roasted Potatoes

1 lb. small red potatoes
1 lb. small yellow potatoes
1 stick butter
salt & pepper
handful parsley, chopped

Cook the each kind of potatoes seperately in highly salted water until they are tender. Remove from water and let cool on a sheet pan.


In a heavy pan, melt the butter until it's bubbling. Add potatoes to butter and turn heat to high. Shake the pan to roll the potatoes in butter and season well with salt and pepper.

Do this in batches if necessary so the potatoes are always in contact with the pan and wipe pan between batches, starting with fresh butter each time - cook until they are sizzling hot and the skins are crispy. When all the potatoes are cooked, toss with parsley.