Beef Burgundy
Degree of Difficulty: Easy
Prep Time: 15 min
Total Cook Time: 2 1/2 hours
Beef Burgundy (aka Beef Bourguignon) is a classic French dish…a preparation of beef braised in red wine and beef stock and a few other flavorings. Traditionally, Burgundy wine is used in this dish but I’ve made this a few times and I’ve learned that the actual type of wine used doesn’t matter too much…I know, sacrilige. So long as the wine is red and it’s something you’d drink, that’s really all that matters. Here’s what you’ll need:
5 strips of bacon
1 1/2 lbs of beef stew meat (I like bottom round) – cut into appx 3/4 – 1 inch cubes
1 large onion – roughly chopped
1 10 oz package of whole mushrooms (white button mushrooms or brown crimini mushrooms, it doesn’t matter) – quartered
3 tbps all purpose flour
2 cups of red wine – I used Merlot
3 cups of beef broth – preferably home made (have I not posted my beef stock recipe yet?) or any low-sodium kind if using store bought
3 tbsp tomato paste
1/2 tsp dried rosemary (or a sprig of fresh rosemary if you have it)
2 bay leaves
1 cup baby carrots
1 cup peeled, white pearl onions
cracked black pepper, to taste
I recommend using a dutch oven when preparing this dish…since this dish is baked in the oven you’ll want to use something that is oven proof. I suppose you could also cook this dish over a low flame for an equal amount of time (about 2 hours) too if you don’t have anything oven-proof handy.
Set your oven to 350 degrees. Set your dutch oven over medium-high heat and let it get hot. Add the bacon and let it cook for about 8 minutes or so. In this step, you are rendering the fat out of the bacon. Keep stirring the bacon so that it browns a bit and crisps up, but make sure it doesn’t burn.
When the bacon is done, using a slotted spoon, remove the bacon from the pot and place it on a paper towel lined plate and set it aside for later. You want to leave all of the fat in the bottom of the pan. Once the bacon has been removed, immediately add the meat to the pan and let it brown on all sides. This shouldn’t take more than 10 minutes. Don’t move the meat around too much or else it won’t brown properly…I usually give it about 3 minutes before I even think about turning it over.
After the meat has browned a bit, add the mushrooms, onions, and about 1/4 tsp of black pepper, reduce the heat to medium, and cook for 5 minutes. Then add the flour and cook for another 3 minutes, stirring frequently so that the flour doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan and burn.
Next, add about half of the red wine and thoroughly scrape any browned and stuck bits from the bottom of the pan. Then add the rest of the wine, the beef broth, tomato paste, bay leaves, rosemary, and the bacon pieces.
Turn the heat up to high and bring this just to a boil. Once it comes to a boil, cover it, turn off the heat on the stove and place the covered dutch oven into the oven for 1 and a half hours. After that time, the meat should be pretty tender by this point. Add the onions to the stew and place back in the oven, uncovered. After 15 min, add the carrots and continue to cook uncovered in the oven for about another 15 min or until the carrots and onions are tender. Serve in a bowl over some buttered egg noodles and pat yourself on the back, you’ve mastered French cooking.
