Boeuf Bourguignon
Cold January weekends screams beef stew to me. I settled down on a Saturday and whipped up a classic French beef stew: Boeuf Bourguignon. The key ingredients in this recipe are about 4 pounds of stew meat( I prefer chuck for the fat content and the tenderness it brings with less time in the oven), and a red wine. There is an endless debate on what type of wine to cook with. I do agree that you need to use something that is decent, you definitely don’t have to spend alot of money on this. For this particular recipe a used a Syrah blend that I had drank a few glasses from but had been around a few days. Wine that was left out the night before or has been sealed for a few days but might be on its way out beseeches to be used in a recipe like this. In the past I have made similar recipes that were more complex, but recently I been trying to streamline my recipes.
Ingredients:
- 4 pounds beef boneless chuck(Bone in can be used but buy a 5 pound roast as the bones in chuck weigh quite a bit. Do not throw the bone out as it packs a great flavor punch) Cut into 1 inch pieces.
- 2 strips thick cut bacon
- 2 tablespoons flour
- 2 carrots, and sliced roughly
- 1 yellow sweet onion roughly sliced
- 4 garlic cloves pressed
- 3/4 cup chicken or beef stock(if you have a bone from your roast you can simmer in the stock)
- 1 1/2 cups of red wine
- 4 rolled anchovies chopped
- 2 sprigs of fresh thyme
- small amount of fresh rosemary
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 4 bay leaves
- orange zest
- Place your roast on a cutting board to warm up so searing can be done easier.
- Heat up oven to 300°
- Cook your bacon over medium heat in a large dutch oven. Meanwhile start to butcher roast and put in a glass bowl. Set aside bacon after bacon is browned.
- Place flour in bacon grease and lower heat to med low. Roux should be paste like add more oil or flour to make consistency correct.
- Cook stirring occasionally till roux is peanut butter brown. Remove with a spoon like spatula to a separate bowl for use later. Raise heat to above medium.
- Make sure pieces of beef are dry and not too cold. Liberally salt and pepper them. In my 7.5 qt dutch oven I could brown about half the beef at a time. Do not over crowd the pan. Brown meat on most sides. Put meat in another bowl till later. Lower heat to medium. Reduce any pan juices to a minimum.
- Place onions carrots and celery in pan and cook till lightly brown. Add garlic and cook 1 minute. Dutch oven if enameled will get dark. Do not let get too black. Deglaze pot with wine and scrape brown bits with a wooden spoon. Add chicken stock and roux.
- Raise heat and bring to simmer. Add herbs, orange zest, tomato paste and anchovies. Place in oven and stir ever 30 minutes four approximately 2 hours. I finished it with a bit of truffle salt and a red pepper dust. Serve over egg noodle, rice, or with French baguettes.