As I've mentioned (whined about) before I pretty much hate winter. Why I continue to live in New England is a mystery to me--well, I guess there's James, my friends, my family, and my commitment to pale skin. But other than those things, there's no real reason why I continue to stay here.
However, one of the few benefits of living in a cold place is it encourages (ne:forces) me to stay inside and try new things, like sewing curtains or making recipes that take hours and hours.
As soon as I got my dutch oven for Christmas I knew I wanted to make Beouf Bourguignon, that classic French stew. I looked over a bunch of recipes before deciding on an amalgamation of Julia Child's take and Ina Garten's interpretation.
Two culinary powerhouses. One classic dish. The battle of the beouf!
Ok, not really. Ina's is designed to be made in around 2 hours while Julia's takes about 4. What I liked about Ina's was her inclusion of Cognac to the carrots and onions. It also provided me with my first opportunity to flambe something, which was scary but fun. You can watch a video of her here but mine in no way flamed that much. I'm calling shenanigans on Ina.
For the most part though I followed Julia's instructions for the first half of the recipe, up until it comes out of the oven. I did include the onions with the carrots but made sure to braise them first. Seriously, brown braised onions are amazing. Tossing the beef in flour and then putting it in the oven to crisp up is a really important step, but I also loved the flavor the cognac added to the stew. For some reason we had an unopened bottle of Remy Martin in the freezer, so I made good use of that.
I cooked the stew for about 3 hours but then didn't bother with the skimming and sieving of the fat from the gravy as Julia's recipe instructs. I
just simmered it for a bit on the stove top and then served it over mashed
potatoes. I made Ina Garden's fool-proof roasted Brussels sprouts as an accompaniment, but be warned, this is quite a hearty dish. The beef was super tender, but the sauce is the real star here. Somewhere on the internet someone commented that this whole recipe is basically an exercise in making the best sauce ever, and I concur.
Voila! Maybe wintertime has its perks after all.
1 comment:
The only thing actually good thing about the cold long winter is the food. Thanks for your recipe to help warm up the family tummies.
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