My Mom’s birthday comes in perfecting timing with spring cleaning. As I’ve mentioned before, my Mom is not the type to relax. Somehow she finds pleasure is getting things done around my house – from working in the yard, cleaning out my laundry room and putting up blinds in my windows. And on top of it all, she even cooked her own birthday dinner (don’t worry, I made the cake).
On Sunday I was with my friend Beth in Raleigh at the Crate and Barrel. She picked up Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking and said “I want this for Christmas.” And I laughed and said, really? My mom has a orginal copy that she let me borrow over the holidays and while I flipped through the pages I couldn’t identify too many things that I actually wanted to make. I can only imagine myself slaving in the kitchen over something I would never order on a menu.
But with all the popularity around Julia Child these days we thought it would be fun to make her Beef Bourguignon recipe for my Mom’s birthday dinner in NC. And with all the hoopla, I have to admit – it was delicious. We served it with smashed potatoes with a little butter and garlic. We skipped the step where she sieves – it sounded like way too much work.
Julia Child’s Beef Bourguignon
Ingredients
One 6-ounce piece of chunk bacon
3 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
3 pounds lean stewing beef, cut into 2-inch cubes
1 carrot, sliced
1 onion, sliced
Salt and 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
1/2 teaspoon thyme
A crumbled bay leaf
18 to 24 white onions, small
3 1/2 tablespoons butter
Herb bouquet (4 parsley sprigs, one-half bay leaf, one-quarter teaspoon thyme, tied in cheesecloth)
1 pound mushrooms, fresh and quartered
Cooking 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 of the olive oil in a flameproof 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 in casserole until almost smoking. Add beef, a few pieces at a time, and sauté until nicely browned on all sides. Add it to the lardons.
In the same fat, brown the sliced vegetables. Pour out the excess fat.
Return the beef and bacon to the casserole and toss with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper.
Then sprinkle on the flour and toss again to coat the beef lightly. Set casserole 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 casserole 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 casserole and set in lower third of oven. Regulate heat so that liquid simmers very slowly for 3 to 4 hours. The meat is done when a fork pierces it easily.
While the beef is cooking, prepare the onions and mushrooms.
Heat 1 1/2 tablespoons butter with one and one-half 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 remaining oil and 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 casserole into a sieve set over a saucepan.
Wash out the casserole 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 casserole, or arrange stew on a platter surrounded with potatoes, noodles or rice, and decorated with parsley.
PS: On a funnier note, my sister shared these photos with me the other week. On the left is my dad – Captain Tommy Thompson. How similar are those smiles?
The idea for this recipe came from a Tyler Florence dish in which he grills chicken, bay leaves, sausages and chunks of french bread and tosses them into a big ceaser salad. What could be wrong with that? Nothing! But I thought I could expand on the idea and tailor the recipe for a more tasty and easier experience. For starters, I was a bit worried about grilling the bread on the grill and didn’t need that considering I made Lemon and Sea Salt Foccacia bread. I also thought that the chicken should be marinated before grilling to add some extra flavor. I added lemon slices to the skewers for additional flavor and color on the plate! With grilling season approaching, this is a great option for a different kind of BBQ.
