Boeuf Bourguignon

Good Golly, Miss Missing Malaysia Airlines, it has been a long time. I think I may have last posted on this blog more than two years ago. I just got bored with it -- especially since the visitors seem to just be a disparate bunch of web bums, from every possible corner of the globe. It's most puzzling why someone from Rawalpindi would be visiting this site, but, well, what can I say?

What I recently did was delete all posts that have nothing to do with food, which was about 95% of the blog. I no longer have an interest in posting my jokes, stories, opinions or anything else. The Internet has become rather a nasty place of late, not at all what it was like when I started this blog back in 2006.

And I've been cooking less -- a lot less. But that may or may not change; we shall see. In the meantime, I decided to make an old favorite of mine, Boeuf Bourguignon, or Burgundia loomaliha to all you Estonian-only speakers.

This is obviously one of those dishes that originated like most countries national stews -- and just about every country on earth has their version -- born of necessity using ingredients usually found lying around or in refrigerators.

Like spaghetti bolognese, there are probably hundreds of thousands of versions of this dish, so let's not take any of this particular recipe as scripture. In actual fact, I'm pulling the basics off of Cook's Illustrated, a very practical source that usually deals in Americanized versions of foreign dishes which don't usually include ingredients that are hard to find in America.

To reduce this recipe to its most essential elements, let's just look at what usually constitute parts of the standard recipe for Boeuf Bourguignon:

Obviously, we start with beef. It's always a hard call to decide what kind of beef to use in these long, slow-cooking dishes -- so very often one buys what is called "stewing beef" and it turns out that even 36 hours of "braising" is not going to rescue these tough, rubbery slabs of mystery meat -- you jut never know what you're actually getting.

That said, I probably would not use filet mignon or ribeye steak or a porterhouse steak; those might or might not produce an awesome stew, but it's just as likely that they would just disintegrate after a few hours of braising. In general, I'd aim for an upper scale of meat that is not just scrap trimmings but also not $27/lb. In other words, if you have a cut that you normally use for stews and such, use that.

Other traditional ingredients include but are not limited to: pearl onions, mushrooms, carrots and quite possible celery, but probably not potatoes or other things that lead you into ordinary stew-land.

The other main ingredient is, obviously, red wine. A general rule of thumb is, do NOT use a wine that you would not ordinarily drink, i.e. "Table wine" or generic burgundies or merlots or cabernets. I would go for a nice, robust burgundy or cabernet for this, and do not be cheap.

As for what to eat this on, usually a thicker type of pasta is preferable; fettucine would be my first choice, with penne or rotini or farfalle (butterfly) or even bucatini, which is the "spaghetti with the hole in the middle" -- which if you have never tried will come as an amazing surprise, as it does not resemble any other kind of pasta I've ever eaten.

I wanted to go with fresh and make it from scratch, but my energy levels aren't what they used to be and I'm pretty much cooking for one here, so I'm just not ready to go to that trouble.

So here is my version based on the Cook's recipe -- my take on it was improvise, improvise, improvise.

Ingredients

INGREDIENTS
2-3 lbs. good quality beef, not precut. In Montreal they call this upscale stew meat "Boston steak" but I have no idea what the equivalent is in the US or Britain. On one site this is described thus: "A Boston cut originally referred to a flavorful roast cut from the center of the sirloin. Today, the term is being applied to steaks cut from the center of the sirloin—a very tender cut."

Sounds good. I put the whole slab in the freezer for a couple of hours to make it easier to cut into neat, straight 1-inch cubes.

Freeze slightly for perfect cubes! You'll need a razor-sharp knife for this.

About a pound of white pearl onions, carefully peeled. It's easier if you let them soak in warm water for a while, then decapitate them at both ends and remove the peels. Try to get the whole peel, because biting down on one that has not been removed is rather unpleasant.
One package thick-cut bacon, preferably Black Forest if you can find it, Applewood-smoked if you can't, cut into half-inch pieces.
One large yellow onion, roughly chopped (will be discarded later)
4 or 5 large carrots, roughly chopped (will be discarded later)
About a pound of a mix of mushrooms; I used cremini and shiitake. These should be cleaned and quartered.
6-7 large cloves garlic, very small dice
Spring onions, coarsely chopped (to be discarded later)
Large bunch parsley, stems removed, half whole and half finely chopped for use later
Batch fresh thyme, whole in sprigs (to be discarded later)
4-5 tbsp fresh green peppercorns, whole (to be discarded later)
One 750 ml good red wine, preferably a burgundy or cabernet
1-2 cups demiglace or good veal stock
4-5 cups homemade chicken stock
Olive oil
Truffle oil (optional)
Butter
Flour
Pasta: Fettucine, penne, rotini, linguine, farfalle, papardelle, bucatini

METHOD
In a large nonstick pan on medium heat, sauté the cubes of beef in some olive oil mixed with a little truffle oil (if desired) in batches, taking care not to have more than one layer of beef cubes in the pan at a time. Carefully brown each side of the beef cubes and when browned, remove and do a further layer until the beef is done. DO NOT OVERCOOK; just brown the outsides of the beef cubes without cooking them through. About ten minutes before removing from heat, add about two tablespoons of flour and keep cooking, now stirring constantly. Set aside.

In same pan, sauté the bacon slices until cooked through but NOT CRISPY. Set aside with the beef.

In the same pan, sauté the pearl onions on medium heat in a little more oil until browned on all sides; 20-30 minutes. Set aside. Again in same pan on medium heat, add a little oil or butter and sauté chopped onions, carrots and peppercorns until thoroughly cooked -- about 20 minutes -- then add garlic and sauté an additional five-ten minutes.

Remove from pan, add more oil and sauté chopped mushrooms, stirring constantly, until they have given up their liquid and are thoroughly browned, 20-30 minutes.

In a dutch oven heat up the entire bottle of wine. Bring to a boil and then simmer until reduced by about a half; about 40 minutes. Add back in the chopped onions, carrots, spring onions, peppercorns, thyme and the whole parsley, then add the demiglace or veal stock and the chicken broth. Simmer an addition 30-40 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Now pour this mixture of liquids and vegetables through a medium-mesh sieve into a container, flattening the vegetable matter in order to get all the liquids out of them. Discard the vegetables and pour the resulting liquid back into the dutch oven. By now it should be smooth and slightly thickened, so that it adheres to the back of a spoon. If it is still too liquify, simmer another 10-15 minutes or add a small amount or cornstarch thoroughly mixed with cold water in order to thicken it.

When simmering, add back in the beef, bacon, mushrooms and pearl onions, combine thoroughly, add salt and pepper to taste and toss in several tablespoons of chopped parsley. Reduce to a slow simmer, covered, and serve over pasta when ready with remaining parsley and some fresh Parmigiano-reggiano for garnish.

Sautéeing the beef

Black Forest bacon

Pearl onions

Mushrooms

Sauce before removing vegetables

Farfalle

Done!