Chic Cuisine: Boeuf Bourguignon

Hey everybody, this is my delicious, warming, sumptuous, decadent and best of all relatively cheap boeuf bourguignon recipe. Originating from France, it is a retro come back recipe for a beef stew with red wine, onions, mushrooms and bacon. I find this is best served with creamy mashed potato and steamed green beans, and an obligatory bottle of Beaujolais Villages of Saint Emilion wine. By the way, this dish is even more delicious the next day so why not make a double batch. Also it freezes really well.

Remember when home freezing make sure to label and date your dish, use an airtight container and it should be fine for up to three months. Also another handy tip if you are short on space in your freezer sit a zip lock freezer bag into a jug or bowl and pour in the bourguignon, seal and freeze.

Ingredients

• 400g stewing beef (diced into 2cm cubes)
• 1 white onion (10 shallots peeled and whole)
• 1 stick celery
• 6 cloves garlic
• 1 beef stock cube – made up to 500ml
• 170g mushrooms
• 4 smoked rashers
• ½ bottle red wine (burgundy if possible)
• 25g flour
• 25g butter
• 25ml olive oil
• Handful of thyme and parsley
• 2 bay leaves
• Salt and pepper

Method

• Preheat the oven to 150˚C.
• Finely dice the onion, slice the mushrooms, dice the bacon, crush the garlic and finely dice the celery.
• Season the flour with the salt and pepper and roll the beef in the flour.
• In a frying pan melt the half the butter and half the oil. By using the combination of both you will get the delicious flavour from the butter while the oil prevents it burning. Sweat off the onions, garlic, celery and bacon on a medium heat for 5 -10 mins.
• Remove from the pan and set aside. Place the remaining butter and oil in the pan and brown off the meat for 5 – 6 mins. By doing this we are just getting a nice golden colour on the outside of the beef and this also seals in the flavour.
• Remove the beef and put with the other cooked ingredients.
• Deglaze the pan. This is a fancy term for turning up the heat and adding the wine to the pan. It removes all the sediment (little brown bits) on the bottom of the pan. THIS IS THE FLAVOUR AND THIS IS ESSENTIAL.
• As the wine bubbles away continue to pour in the rest of the half the bottle again with the beef stock.
• Transfer all of the ingredients to a casserole dish. (Preferably one with a lid, if not just seal it well with tin foil).
• Add in the bay leaves, thyme and parsley. Season well. Keep a little parsley and thyme for garnish. Stir all the ingredients together, put on the lid and cook for 2hours and 30mins.
• Remove the Bourguignon after 1 hour 45 mins and add in the mushrooms. Cover and continue to cook for 30mins.
• Before serving remove the stalks of thyme and bay leaves. Spoon the bourguignon over the creamy mash potatoes and steamed green veggies.
• Garnish with a little chopped parsley and thyme, serve and enjoy.

This is Chic Cuisine. Every fortnight I post some of my delicious, tasty and economical recipes here on our very own OurKilcock.ie. Please feel free to post any questions or queries in relation to the recipes and I’ll be happy to answer them. Please use your own judgement on cooking times and measurements within reason as all of us do things a little different.