Today, since I couldn't be in North Carolina to celebrate my oldest sister Mande's birthday, I decided to honor her in a different way. I'm not talking about sending her a card or posting a "Happy Birthday!" on her Facebook wall (which I did), but I did make a dinner in her honor.
Earlier last week, while grocery shopping I bought all the ingredients for a recipe that I had never made before:
Earlier last week, while grocery shopping I bought all the ingredients for a recipe that I had never made before:Julia Child's Boeuf Bourguignon
Yep, JC's timeless Beef Burgundy. One of Mande's favorite dishes that she likes to make is her own version of Rachael Ray's Beef Burgundy. She has since then been inspired to one day make Julia's version, but I beat her to it. (Sorry Sis!)
Let me say that the aroma that has filled the house all day while this has been cooking is amazing. It's a deep, earthy smell of root veggies, wine, thyme and bay leaves.
Almost as enticing as Christmas Scent, which is a slow simmered pot of cinnamon sticks, cloves, bay leaves and citrus. Mmmm...heaven. Cloves have that homey smell and reminds me of my Grandma Strick's kitchen. Ah, memories.
I didn't have the bacon rind as called for and used Merlot. I was limited in my choice of wines this time, but next time I will be swinging by the Oz Winery in Wamego, Kansas for a bottle of "Ding Dong the Wine is Red" next time I prepare this wonderful dish.
This dish is simple enough, ingredient-wise, but is labor intensive. I used too many pots and pans. I had a hard time making the Beef Burgundy in my small 2 1/2 quart stoneware casserole dish that I got a Pier One long ago, which is further proof I want a Le Creuset Dutch Oven! A cast iron casserole dish or dutch oven would have saved me from washing several pots & pans, since I couldn't put my stoneware directly on the stovetop. Then again, a $200 price tag on a 3 1/2 qt. cast iron dutch oven makes me a bit sick and doing a few extra dishes isn't so bad. But, I would love to have an Ikea Senior 3 quart Casserole for $39.99 (as pictured above) in the same color blue as the fancy overpriced one.
I browned the bacon and beef in my small cast iron frying pan, transferred it to my smallish stoneware casserole dish for part of the cooking process, transferred into my large pasta pot to simmer the wine and broth in, then bravely poured the contents back into my stoneware casserole dish & prayed it didn't overflow on the counter. It didn't, but I'll be the first to tell you this fills up an entire 2 1/2 quart dish. I set it back in the lower 3rd of my oven as instructed by Child and put a baking sheet underneath the dish to eliminate my worries of a bubbling mess on the bottom of my oven. Fears aside I went ahead and sautéed my Baby Bella mushrooms in butter and did the same with my frozen pearl onions in lieu of brown-braising them in stock. The Boeuf Bourguignon cooked for 2 hours and 45 minutes and finished up around 12:30. I took it out of the oven and let it cool....
Let me say that the aroma that has filled the house all day while this has been cooking is amazing. It's a deep, earthy smell of root veggies, wine, thyme and bay leaves.
Almost as enticing as Christmas Scent, which is a slow simmered pot of cinnamon sticks, cloves, bay leaves and citrus. Mmmm...heaven. Cloves have that homey smell and reminds me of my Grandma Strick's kitchen. Ah, memories.
I didn't have the bacon rind as called for and used Merlot. I was limited in my choice of wines this time, but next time I will be swinging by the Oz Winery in Wamego, Kansas for a bottle of "Ding Dong the Wine is Red" next time I prepare this wonderful dish.
This dish is simple enough, ingredient-wise, but is labor intensive. I used too many pots and pans. I had a hard time making the Beef Burgundy in my small 2 1/2 quart stoneware casserole dish that I got a Pier One long ago, which is further proof I want a Le Creuset Dutch Oven! A cast iron casserole dish or dutch oven would have saved me from washing several pots & pans, since I couldn't put my stoneware directly on the stovetop. Then again, a $200 price tag on a 3 1/2 qt. cast iron dutch oven makes me a bit sick and doing a few extra dishes isn't so bad. But, I would love to have an Ikea Senior 3 quart Casserole for $39.99 (as pictured above) in the same color blue as the fancy overpriced one.
I browned the bacon and beef in my small cast iron frying pan, transferred it to my smallish stoneware casserole dish for part of the cooking process, transferred into my large pasta pot to simmer the wine and broth in, then bravely poured the contents back into my stoneware casserole dish & prayed it didn't overflow on the counter. It didn't, but I'll be the first to tell you this fills up an entire 2 1/2 quart dish. I set it back in the lower 3rd of my oven as instructed by Child and put a baking sheet underneath the dish to eliminate my worries of a bubbling mess on the bottom of my oven. Fears aside I went ahead and sautéed my Baby Bella mushrooms in butter and did the same with my frozen pearl onions in lieu of brown-braising them in stock. The Boeuf Bourguignon cooked for 2 hours and 45 minutes and finished up around 12:30. I took it out of the oven and let it cool....
......had a bowl for lunch......and then put it into the refrigerator. When we were ready for dinner I set it back in the oven to warm up while I got the egg noodles ready. It took a good 20 minutes to heat through after a quick 5 minutes in the microwave. I served it over buttered egg noodles and alongside a salad with French dressing and a crusty loaf of French bread.
Delicious ~ is all I can say.
There's a bit of disappointment I have to share and it's that I'm not posting the full recipe on our blog. This is one cookbook that I believe that everyone sho
uld have or borrow and read through. Here's a real treat, Barnes & Noble just released the Nook e-book version of Mastering the Art of French Cooking Vol. 1 for $19.99, so there's no excuse why you don't have a copy. If you're real desperate here's a link to the recipe on food.com. I have learned so much from reading through the different recipes in Volumes 1 & 2, My Life in France and reading one of my favorite books, Julie & Julia which I read back in 2009. I even did a review of Powell's book on my personal blog. I hope that this post has given some of you a bit of inspiration to attempt this timeless dish. Bon appétit!
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