Beef Bourguignon

[QSis]

Well, Beef BOURGUIGNON (I can never spell it, so I have to copy and paste) is very impressive and delicious, and goes a long way, if you serve it over wide noodles, or rice, or in bowls with a great "sopping bread" and a tossed salad on the side.

Here's a simple, but long-cooking, recipe I've made. You cook it so long that the inexpensive cut of meat turns out to melt in your mouth.

Lee

Title: BEOUF BOURGUIGNON (RED WINE BEEF STEW)
Categories: Main dish, Beverages
Yield: 5 servings

2 lb Beef rolled rump roast*
1/4 c All-purpose flour
2 tb Olive oil
2 tb Vegetable oil
1 Clove garlic
1 1/4 c Dry red wine
1 1/2 c Water
1/2 Small bay leaf
1 1/4 ts Salt
2 Sprigs parsley
3 Slices bacon,diced
18 Small white onions
3 tb Tomato paste
1/2 ts Dried thyme leaves 1
/4 ts Ground pepper
2 tb Butter or margarine
18 Small mushroom caps

Heat oven to 325'. Coat beef cubes with flour. Heat oil in Dutch oven. Brown beef cubes in hot oil. Add garlic; cook 1 minute. Remove garlic and fat. Add wine and enough water to just cover the meat. Stir in bay leaf, salt and parsley. Cover and bake 2 hours.

Fry bacon just until lump. Add onions; cook until light brown. Stir bacon and onions into beef cube mixture. Cover and bake until beef cubes are tender, about 40 minutes.

 

[Alix]

Going to give this a go tonight I think. I decided we needed beef not chicken tonight. So here goes!

Is the bacon a necessity or can I use something else? I've got some ham I'd like to use up.

 

[QSis]

Hi Alix! Even though I'm a bacon fanatic, I consider it optional for this dish. I've made other recipes that don't include bacon.

Not sure I'd put in the ham, though. I'd make ham-pickle-onion salad out of it instead! Or mac and cheese with ham. Tough choice.

Lee

 

[Andy M.]

Going to give this a go tonight I think. I decided we needed beef not chicken tonight. So here goes!

Is the bacon a necessity or can I use something else? I've got some ham I'd like to use up.

I think earlier versions of this classic called for salt pork to render fat to brown the meat in. You can get by with no pork fat at all. Just use oil.

 

[Alix]

Gotcha. I'm going to give it a go. Thanks!

 

[Bigjim68]

Going to give this a go tonight I think. I decided we needed beef not chicken tonight. So here goes!

Is the bacon a necessity or can I use something else? I've got some ham I'd like to use up.

I would leave the ham out of the stew and serve this dish with a simple salad and use the ham there. These, along with a good crusty bread, makes a meal. Rolled rump roast is pretty lean, the bacon is probably there to add a little fat.

 

[AllenOK]

About this time last year, we had A LOT of mushrooms that needed to be used up before they went bad on us. I just popped "Bourguinon" off the top of my head to my Chef. He told me to run with it.

I didn't flour the beef (I never do). I just browned well, added some diced onions and the mushrooms along with some garlic, fresh thyme, and fresh rosemary. Once those were smelling wonderful, I deglazed with red wine, then added beef stock. I simmered for about an hour, then tightened with roux.

It was a hit! I ended up selling out. It started as an appetizer, but after the first day, members were ordering a slightly larger portion, with a healthy scoop of mashed potatoes straight into the center of the stew.

Three weeks later, it went on the menu for the winter.

I'm half expecting it to show up again, now that the weather is turning cruddy.

I've got half a mind to make some here at the house for my family. They'd go nuts over it.

 

[RobsanX]

That garlic barely makes a cameo appearance... Does he even have a speaking role?

 

[QSis]

LOL! Good point, Robsonx!

I copied the recipe as I found it, but as far as I'm concerned, there is no such thing as adding ONE clove of garlic.

Lee

 

[AllenOK]

I hear ya there! The more the merrier!

 

[pdswife]

I have a roast thawing and would love to use it for this recipe.. but I want to leave it whole instead of cutting it up into cubes. If I brown the meat first ... how long do you think I should cook it in all those wonderful juices for? It's about 3 pounds.

 

[Andy M.]

A three pound roast should be done is 3-4 hours.

 

[pdswife]

Thank you Andy!

 

[Bigjim68]

If I were making this recipe, I would tweak it a little by:
Increasing the garlic to 3 or 4 cloves and add it to the liquid instead of to the browning.
Increase the bay from 1/2 small to 3 or 4 average leaves.
Increase the tomato paste to a small can or slightly less.
Recipe calls for 18 small white onions. I assume we are talking pearl onions here. A reasonable substitute would be 2 or 3 quartered white or sweet onions. 18 small onions is a lot.

All these ingredients add a depth of flavor, but in the small quantities I think that they would get lost.

All are my opinions. Dissenting opinions encouraged. I'm here to learn.

 

[tzakiel]

Here's another way

Here's another way:

Beef Bourguignon


Notes:
A traditional french stew cooked with red wine. A bit of demi-glace or brown sauce adds depth to the flavor. Adapted from Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles Cookbook.

Ingredients:

• 2lb beef shoulder or neck cut into 1 1/2"cubes
• Salt and pepper
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 4 onions, thinly sliced
• 2 tbsp all purpose flour
• 1 cup red Burgundy
• 6 carrots, cut into 1" pieces
• 2 garlic cloves
• Bouquet garni (1 sprig parsley, 2 sprigs thyme, 2 bay leaf wrapped in cheesecloth)
  
• Chopped flat parsley
  
  

Equipment:

• Dutch oven or large heavy pot
• Wooden spoon
• Ladle

Directions:

1. Season the meat with salt and pepper. Heat the oil in the Dutch oven until almost smoking.
2. Add the meat in batches and sear on all sides. Do not overcrowd the pot.
3. Remove last batch of meat and add onions to pot. Lower heat slightly and cook for about 10 minutes, until golden brown. Sprinkle flour and stir for 4 more minutes.
4. Add the red wine. Scrape up bits in bottom of pot.
5. Return the meat to the pot and add carrots, garlic, bouquet garni.
6. Add enough water (and demi glace if you have it) to cover the meat by one third.
7. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cook for 2 hours or until meat is very tender. Stir gently during cooking. Skim off any scum.
8. Remove bouquet garni, add chopped parsley and serve.
   
   

 

[Chopstix]

I tasted Beef Bourguingon for the first and only time many years ago at the Bellagio buffet in Las Vegas. I wasn't too impressed with the dish. That's why even after I seriously got into cooking these last 6-7 years, I've never felt tempted to make this stew.

But after watching Julie & Julia, I made it for the first time last week. I used Julia's recipe from her excellent book The Way to Cook. I used beef shank. I followed her recipe to the letter because I wanted the authentic taste so as to understand the big deal with Beef Bourguingon.

I'm sorry to say that I still wasn't impressed. The taste was very similar to what I had tasted in Las Vegas that first time. The meat was indeed meltingly tender and the sauce was certainly rich enough. But the flavor was very basic, very beefy, with the added depth of the red wine reduction. I guess I keep expecting a more unique, complex flavor which in my mind would warrant the attention given to this dish.

 

[tzakiel]

Try adding a spoonful of real demi-glace... and use quality red wine. If that doesn't do it, then you're right, you just don't like bourguignon. No matter. Plenty of other goodness out there.

 

[mexican mama]

Beef Bourguignon reminds me of Julia Child, hence the movie Julie & Juliahaven't tried making it though but my aunts swear by Julia Child's recipe

 

[missd0]

Hie everyone
I'm French and I live ... In Bourgogne !

so "Boeuf Bourguignon" is a recipe that I really know


in my home, we have a different recipe.
there is no bacon (and no ham), and there isn't a lot of carotts (I think that's a pitty because I love it, but now it's just to add some flavour)
and we eat this with potatoes that come from Auvergne. It is wonderfull

 

[oneoffour]

Well I'll be .... Had two pounds or lamb cubes and was just making dinner on the fly but it seems what I did was pretty much this reciepe except lamb instead of beef.