Traditional French Beef Bourguignon
Ingredients:
1 Tbs olive oil
8 ounces bacon diced up
2 and 1/2 pounds chuck beef cut into one inch cubes
Kosher Salt to taste
Freshly ground Black pepper to taste
1 pound carrots, sliced diagonally into one inch chunks
2 yellow onions diced
2 teaspoons ( I use very hefty teaspoons) chopped garlic
1 bottle dry red wine (yes the whole bottle)
2 cups beef broth
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves or 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
4 tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature
3 tablespoons all purpose flour.
1 pound fresh mushrooms thickly sliced
-- For Serving---
Country Bread or Sour Dough toasted or grilled and then rubbed with a garlic clove.
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
Directions:
-Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
-Heat olive oil in a Dutch oven. Add bacon and cook over medium heat for about 10 min. Stirring a bit until it is brown.
-Remove with a slotted spoon to a large plate but leave the bacon grease in the pot.
-Dry the beef cubes with a paper towel and give them a hefty douse of salt and pepper.
-In single layer batches, sear the beef cubes on all four sides in the hot oil/bacon grease (about 3 to 5 minutes).
-Remove the cubes to the plate with the bacon and keep this up until all the beef is browned. Don't skip this step and do not rush! You'll want all those good drippings in the bottom of the pan. But you just want to brown the meat not fully cook it.
-Into all that good juice and drippings toss in the carrots, onions, a teaspoon of salt and a teaspoon of pepper.
-Cook for ten to fifteen minutes, stirring occasionally.
-Add the garlic and cook for another minute. (At this point you will literally want to die because the aroma is so good! Its freaking amazing!)
-Put the meat and bacon back into the pot.
-Add the whole bottle of red wine (yes the whole entire bottle, come on people you should know how much I love wine by now)
-Add just enough beef broth to cover the meat.
-Add the tomato paste and thyme.
-Bring to a simmer, cover the pot, and put it in the oven for about two hours until the meat and veggies are fork tender. (Which basically means if you pull at them with a fork they will start to kind of fall apart)
---When it is out of the oven---
-Back on the stove top, in a separate, bowl combine two tablespoons of butter and the flour with a fork. stir the product into the stew. (this will thicken it a tad)
-Sautè the mushrooms in two more tablespoons of butter until lightly browned and add to the stew, bring to a boil then lower the heat and simmer for fifteen minutes.
-Season to taste.
-To serve, toast the thick slices of bread. Scrape the bread with garlic. Top with fresh parsley and serve over egg noodles or mash potatoes.
If you really want to take it up a notch add a little Garlic Rondelè cheese to your mash potatoes. LIFE CHANGING!!