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About This Recipe

This is a straightforward recipe though, as with a number of classical French dishes, the secret to making it wonderful is to allow your dish to cook for a long, long time. They must teach classes in patience at Le Cordon Bleu since it’s something that I, and a number of other cooks, struggle with.

 Something that I particularly like about this recipe is that it helps you to learn some classic techniques almost accidentally. The one that sticks out is the process of making a mother-sauce-style sauce for the beef to cook in.

There are five French mother sauces, and they’re all made in a similar way – melt butter, add flour and allow the roux to cook into a toasted paste, and then add liquid little by little to prevent lumps from forming.

In this dish, we’re making something similar to a velouté or Espagnole sauce. These are made by adding different types of stock to the roux. A velouté uses stock made from unroasted bones, which is light in color. An Espagnole uses stock made from roasted bones, which creates a dark, thick stock. This second type of stock is what people tend to mean when they speak about stock in their recipes – beef, chicken, or pork stock cubes create a facsimile of brown stock.

This all adds up to mean that, through the addition of the ingredients according to the steps, you learn how to make a simple Espagnole sauce. You can then transfer this skill to other elements of your kitchen, which expands your recipe repertoire.

Hints & Tips

I want to help make sure that you get this recipe right the first time – it’s a spectacular recipe, and it would be a shame to make a small mistake that puts you off the dish after you first make it.

A small change you could make to the recipe to enhance the final flavor could be to add the wine before you start making the roux. This would be helpful as the acidic liquid will help to deglaze the pan, removing any burned brown bits from the base.

Immediately after adding the wine to the pan, in this case, scrape along the base of the pan to dislodge the brown bits. They will come off easily but may need a bit of a helping hand. Stirring with a wooden spoon will allow you to easily dissolve the brown bits, leading to greater final flavor in the pan.

With all that said, I hope you really enjoy this recipe! It’s one of our absolute favorites, and it’s both simple and utterly delicious. Try it soon, and make sure that you’ve got some crusty bread on hand to soak up the delicious sauce from the meal!

Boeuf Bourguignon

Recipe by morcayneCourse: BeefDifficulty: Medium

Servings

6

servings

Prep time

50

minutes

Cooking time

4

hours 

Total time

4

hours 

50

minutes

This recipe for boeuf bourguignon is a wonderful one and, not to toot my own horn, it’s one of my own creations! I’m really proud of the final dish, and I can’t wait for you to try this recipe in your kitchen.

Ingredients

• 3 Pounds stew Beef (cut into 1-inch chunks)

• 8 Slices Bacon (cut into thin strips)

• 1 Pound Baby Carrots (cut in half)

• 1 Pound Pearl Onions

• 1 Tsp Salt

• 1 Tsp Pepper

• 3 Tbsp Flour

• 3 Cups Red Wine (pinot noir)

• 3 Cups Beef Broth

• 1 Tbsp Tomato Paste

• 3 Garlic Cloves (smashed)

• 1 Tsp Thyme

• 1 Tsp Bay Leaf

• 4 Tbsp Butter

• 4 Sprigs Of Parsley

• 2 Sprigs Of Thyme

• 1 Whole Bay Leaf

• 1 Pound Baby Bel Mushrooms

Directions

• Using kitchen string tie together your sprigs of thyme, parsley, and bay leaf, set aside.
• Pat dry your stew beef with a paper towel and season with salt and pepper.
• Heat your Dutch oven on the stove over medium-high heat.
• Once the pot is heated add in the bacon and cook till crispy.
• Remove bacon with slotted spoon and set aside.
• In small batches start searing your meat on all side until well browned, then set aside.
• Using what is left of the bacon grease sauté the pearl onions and carrots until tender.
• Add in the butter and stir until fully melted.
• Once melted stir in the flour until thickened.
• Add in the wine, broth, and tied up herbs and bring to a boil.
• Once boiling remove the herbs.
• Add in the tsp of thyme, tsp of bay leaf, garlic, bacon strips and stew beef along with any juices that accumulated.
• Reduce heat to medium-low allowing stew to simmer for about three hours.
• Stir about every 15-20 minutes making sure to scrap the bottom of the pot to prevent scorching. If your stew starts to thicken too much add in a little more of the broth, if you need more you can use water.

Recipe Video