Boeuf Bourguignon

I have seen the movie Julie & Julia twice.  After the second time I knew I had to find the recipe for Julia Child's Boeuf Bourguignon (or here in America, Beef Burgundy).  I bought everything to make this a few days ago, but a violent attack of the stomach flu hit our house and the thought of cooking led me straight to la toilette.  Finally able to keep everything in, but my stomach still a little uneasy, I decided to use the meat that expired today because if it went in the freezer it wasn't coming out again.  So after half a day of cooking in my kitchen I completed the recipe!  The real test will be if my husband likes it when he gets home from work tonight, but queasy stomach and all I ate 3/4 of my bowl and it was dee-lish!  So in my sharing fashion I will post the recipe I found here and the pictures I took along the way.

Boeuf Bourguignon
Julia Child

Serves 6
  
Ingredients:

Stew:
One 6-ounce piece of chunk bacon with rind (gross, I know!)
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 pounds lean stewing beef, cut into 2-inch cubes
1 carrot, sliced
1 onion, sliced
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 tablespoons flour
3 cups red wine, young and full-bodied (like Beaujolais, Cotes du Rhone or Burgundy)
2 1/2 to 3 1/2 cups brown beef stock
1 tablespoon tomato paste
2 cloves mashed garlic (you may add more)
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
A crumbled bay leaf
  
Braised Onions:
18 to 24 small white onions, peeled (you can use thawed pearl onions from the freezer)
1 1/2 tablespoons butter
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
Herb bouquet (4 parsley sprigs, one-half bay leaf, one-quarter teaspoon thyme, tied in cheesecloth)
  
Mushrooms:
1 pound mushrooms, fresh and quartered
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon olive oil

Directions:
Remove bacon rind and cut into lardons (sticks 1/4-inch thick and 1 1/2 inches long).
Simmer rind and lardons for 10 minutes in 1 1/2 quarts water.
Drain and dry.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Sauté lardons in 1 tablespoon olive oil in a flameproof dutch oven or casserole over moderate heat for 2 to 3 minutes to brown lightly. Remove to a side dish with a slotted spoon.

Dry beef in paper towels; it will not brown if it is damp. Heat fat left in the dutch oven from the bacon until almost smoking. Add beef, a few pieces at a time, and sauté until nicely browned on all sides. Add it to the lardons on the plate.

In the same fat, brown the sliced vegetables. Pour out the excess fat.

Return the beef and bacon to the dutch oven with carrots and onions and toss with 1 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper.

Sprinkle on the flour and toss again to coat the beef lightly. Set dutch oven uncovered in middle position of preheated oven for 4 minutes.

Toss the meat again and return to oven for 4 minutes (this browns the flour and coves the meat with a light crust).  Remove dutch oven and turn oven down to 325 degrees.

Stir in wine and 2 to 3 cups stock, just enough so that the meat is barely covered.

 Add the tomato paste, garlic, herbs and bacon rind. Bring to a simmer on top of the stove.

Cover dutch oven and set in lower third of oven. Regulate heat so that liquid simmers very slowly for 3 to 4 hours (I ended up turning my oven down to 250 degrees over the course of an hour, you just have to watch to see how fast it's simmering). The meat is done when a fork pierces it easily.

While the beef is cooking, prepare the onions and mushrooms.

 (To remove the skins easily, boil them for 30 seconds and then drain.  The skins will peel right off.)

Heat 1 1/2 tablespoons butter with 1 1/2 tablespoons of the oil until bubbling in a skillet.

Add onions and sauté over moderate heat for about 10 minutes, rolling them so they will brown as evenly as possible. Be careful not to break their skins. You cannot expect them to brown uniformly.

Add 1/2 cup of the stock, salt and pepper to taste and the herb bouquet.

 Cover and simmer slowly for 40 to 50 minutes until the onions are perfectly tender but hold their shape, and the liquid has evaporated. Remove herb bouquet and set onions aside.

Wipe out skillet and heat 1 tablespoon oil and 2 tablespoons butter over high
heat. As soon as you see butter has begun to subside, indicating it is hot enough, add mushrooms.

Toss and shake pan for 4 to 5 minutes. As soon as they have begun to brown lightly, remove from heat.

When the meat is tender, pour the contents of the dutch oven into a sieve (or colander) set over a saucepan.

Wash out the dutch oven and return the beef and lardons to it. Distribute the cooked onions and mushrooms on top.

Skim fat off sauce in saucepan. Simmer sauce for a minute or 2, skimming off additional fat as it rises. You should have about 2 1/2 cups of sauce thick enough to coat a spoon lightly.

If too thin, boil it down rapidly. If too thick, mix in a few tablespoons stock. Taste carefully for seasoning.

Pour sauce over meat and vegetables. Cover and simmer 2 to 3 minutes, basting the meat and vegetables with the sauce several times.

 Serve in dutch oven, or arrange stew on a platter surrounded with potatoes, noodles or rice, and decorated with parsley.

Bon Appetit!

Best French Onion Soup

I have been wanting an enamel glazed, cast iron dutch oven ever since I first found this recipe!  I finally got one for Christmas (thanks, Mom!).  I can now make this soup the way it's meant to be made and have found some more recipes I can't wait to try :).

Best French Onion Soup
from America's Test Kitchen

Serves 6

Ingredients: 

Soup

• 3 T. unsalted butter, cut into 3 pieces
• 6 large yellow onions (about 4 pounds), halved and cut pole to pole into 1/4-inch-thick slices
• 1 t. table salt
• 2 c. water, plus extra for deglazing
• 1/2 c. dry sherry
• 4 c. low-sodium chicken broth
• 2 c. beef broth
• 6 sprigs fresh thyme, tied with kitchen twine
• 1 bay leaf
• Ground black pepper

Cheese Croutons

• 1 small baguette, cut into 1/2-inch slices
• 8 oz. shredded Gruyere cheese (swiss cheese can be substituted if you can't find gruyere) 

Instructions

1. For the soup: Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 400 degrees. Generously spray inside of heavy-bottomed large (at least 7-quart) Dutch oven with nonstick cooking spray. Place butter in pot and add onions and 1 teaspoon salt. Cook, covered, 1 hour (onions will be moist and slightly reduced in volume). Remove pot from oven and stir onions, scraping bottom and sides of pot. Return pot to oven with lid slightly ajar and continue to cook until onions are very soft and golden brown, 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 hours longer, stirring onions and scraping bottom and sides of pot after 1 hour.  If you want to stop at this point, cool your onions in the pot at room temperature and then store them in the refrigerator for up to 3 days before proceeding with the recipe or move onto the next step.

 before going into the oven

 after 2 1/2 hours in the oven

2. Carefully remove pot from oven and place over medium-high heat. Using oven mitts to handle pot, cook onions, stirring frequently and scraping bottom and sides of pot, until liquid evaporates and onions brown, 15 to 20 minutes, reducing heat to medium if onions are browning too quickly. Continue to cook, stirring frequently, until pot bottom is coated with dark crust, 6 to 8 minutes, adjusting heat as necessary. (Scrape any fond that collects on spoon back into onions.) Stir in 1/4 cup water, scraping pot bottom to loosen crust, and cook until water evaporates and pot bottom has formed another dark crust, 6 to 8 minutes. Repeat process of deglazing 2 or 3 more times, until onions are very dark brown. Stir in sherry and cook, stirring frequently, until sherry evaporates, about 5 minutes.

 ready for deglazing

 after 3 deglazings and the dry sherry

3. Stir in broths, 2 cups water, thyme, bay leaf, and 1/2 teaspoon salt, scraping up any final bits of browned crust on bottom and sides of pot. Increase heat to high and bring to simmer. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer 30 minutes. Remove and discard herbs, then season with salt and pepper.

 after putting in the broths, water, thyme, and bay leaf

 boiling and ready to cover and simmer on low for 30 minutes

4. For the croutons: While soup simmers, arrange baguette slices in single layer on baking sheet and bake in 400-degree oven until bread is dry, crisp, and golden at edges, about 10 minutes. Set aside.

5. To serve: Adjust oven rack 6 inches from broiler element and heat broiler. Set individual broiler-safe crocks on baking sheet and fill each with about 1 3/4 cups soup. Top each bowl with 1 or 2 baguette slices (do not overlap slices) and sprinkle evenly with Gruyère. Broil until cheese is melted and bubbly around edges, 3 to 5 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes before serving.  If you don't have broiler safe bowls, just broil the cheese on top of the toasted baguette slices until bubbly (that's what I did!). 

 Ready to eat :)