Boeuf Bourguignon
Bring some classic French flavors to your table without spending days in your kitchen preparing this wonderful dish.- Prep Time 45 minutes
- Cook Time 4 hours
Ingredients
For the wine reduction:
- 1 750 ml bottle of dry and light red wine (I like Pinot Noir)
- 1 large onion, peeled and cut into 8 wedges
- 2 large carrots, peeled and cut 1” pieces
- 3 garlic cloves, peeled and flattened
- ½ bunch Italian (flat) parsley
- Few sprigs fresh thyme
For the rest of the dish:
- 3 T olive oil (extra-virgin not necessary)
- 4T high fat butter (i.e. Plugra)
- ½ lb either slab uncured bacon or salt pork, cut into 1” cubes
- 18-24 pearl onions (to prepare the onions for this dish, cook them in a pan of boiling water for 3 minutes. Strain and cool before peeling)
- 4 med carrots, peeled and cut into 1” diagonal slices
- ½ lb small button mushrooms
- 3T flour, all-purpose
- 3 lbs AMERICAN WAGYU KOBE BEEF STYLE FLAT IRON, cut into 2-3” chunks
- ½ cup brandy (optional, but adds another dimension)
- One Tub of glace de veau mixed with one cup of water
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
Directions
Heat oven to 325F
For the Wine Reduction:
- Into a pan, put wine, onion, carrot, garlic, all herbs and simmer for about 30 minutes until liquid is reduced by half.
- Remove from the heat and set aside.
- When cooled, strain wine and discard vegetables
For the rest of the dish:
- To a large oven-proof pan/pot that will fit into your oven, heat the oil and butter and when melted, add the bacon or salt pork. Saute until golden and remove with a slotted spoon to paper towels to drain.
- Reduce the heat a bit and add carrots and mushrooms, saute until slightly golden and remove to a clean bowl.
- To the same pot, add the onions and brown them, but don’t burn them; put the onions into the bowl with the other vegetables.
- While you are sauteing the vegetables, put the flour onto a flat plate and toss the beef in it, shaking off the excess.
- Into the pan you have been cooking the vegetables, turn up the heat and brown the beef in batches. You are aiming for deeply browned, not burnt, so keep the batches small. (Add more oil if needed.) Remove the meat as it’s done to another bowl.
- Add brandy to the pan (or some beef broth) and over high heat, scrape up what you can of the bits; lower the heat to a simmer.
- Add wine reduction, beef stock and meat to the pan.
- Cover and bake for 2.5 hours.
- Uncover the pan and add the pearl onions, mushrooms, and bacon or salt pork.
- Bake 30 minutes.
- Add Kosher salt and Freshly ground pepper to taste.
- Serve with warm, crusty french bread.