Boeuf Bourguignon (Beef Burgundy)

FreshTartSteph — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 13:15:17 PDT

Ah, turns out that winter has arrived in Minnesota more than a month early. Not good news for those of us who dislike living in cold, colorless darkness for half the year, sigh. But we make the best of it, hearty souls and all that, blah, blah, blah. Please bear with me while I use a warm kitchen and cozy soups and stews to prevent myself from losing my mind. (Hot yoga and long baths help too...)

At least someone likes the snow. (Puppy Louis is so cute in it that he almost has me liking it too. Almost.)

So, boeuf bourguignon, on my radar not just because of the weather, but also because it's gotten a lot of buzz post-Julie & Julia (the movie). And deservedly so - beef braised in wine with bacon, mushrooms, and onions, rich and decadent and deeply beefy, is perfect on a snowy October's day. The French may not eat it much these days, but we Americans do and how lucky for us. As Julia writes it, it's a somewhat complicated recipe, but I've pared it down by a few steps and lost none of the delicious flavor. For one, there's really no need to boil the bacon before browning it. And coating the sauteed beef in flour, then roasting it for a few minutes before plunging it into the wine, is unnecessary - the flour is there to thicken the sauce a bit, and can quite easily just be sprinkled into the pan before whisking in the liquid. I also cut the meat into larger pieces than called for - I find braising meat in pieces smaller than 4-inches square tends to dry it out (I carve/pull the meat into bite-size pieces to serve). Nothing major, just little tweaks here and there that streamline things a bit and make the recipe very nice for a relaxed, Sunday afternoon's braise.

Recipe here. (Gratuitous puppy in the snow pics below.)

Politically Correct Beef Burgundy

FreshTartSteph — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 14:17:00 PST

Hey friends, how's it going? I've actually had a couple of kind inquiries about my health due to my two-week bloggy absence - rest assured, everything's fine here, in fact great. My excuse? Um...total and complete obsession with the presidential election. I confess, I got bit hard by the political bug this cycle. I just love absorbing it, the strategies, the moves, the ins and outs, ups and downs. I have a limited amount of time each day I can allocate to being online and well, er, the election won over my blog. So not moderate, I know. But I'm back now, my guy won and since he seems to be moving on pretty well without my strategic advice, I'll let it go now. (In my next life I'll have to be a political operative, though, yeah...)

I wasn't all politics, all the time, however - I did actually feed my family. Even my extended family, when my cousin Peter, his wife Kristin, and their adorable twin daughters Erin and Emily came for a visit from Sheboygan, Wisconsin. My aunts Mary and Marge drove in too, and my cousin Kim, and we had a grand time last Saturday night catching up. Erin and Emily are two - yes, twin two-year olds, busy and clever and everywhere all at once, just as you might imagine. They both love to sing, especially Erin, and the stereo effect of twin toddler song is beyond cute. They regaled us with song and chat for more than a couple of hours at the dinner table, an impressive feat for two busy two-year olds. It was a complete blast.

I made beef burgundy, inspired by a lovely coq qu vin that John and I split at Salut Bar Americain last week (I believe it's their Monday night chicken special - I recommend it very highly). Great do-ahead dish, beef burgundy, although lengthy to prepare - split it into two days of prep and you'll be sitting pretty for your next dinner party. We opened with a simple salad, with parsleyed potatoes alongside the beef, and my aunt Marge's apple crisp for dessert. Uff da that was a meal. (Recipe posted in comments, below.)

John and I in fact hit Salut twice in three days, no lie. Somewhere between Politico and Pollster, we fit in a lovely lunch at Salut's bar - steak frites with a glass of burgundy. Romantic, delicious, just lovely all 'round. I've had a French thing ever since - beef burgundy on Saturday, followed by a simple cheese souffle on Monday night. So airy and pretty, souffle, and so easy too. Tres bien.

Moderate it: if I'm serving potatoes, I don't also serve bread, although I did bend that rule a bit and put croutons in the salad I served as a first course.

Fresh Tart

Boeuf Bourguignon (Beef Burgundy)

Politically Correct Beef Burgundy