Where's the Beef? (Boeuf Bourguignon)

Let me just start off by pointing out that, at least in the movie, Julie didn't make Boeuf Bourguignon until months into her quest to cook all of the recipes in "Mastering the Art of French Cooking." Of course, she did cook a bunch of other things but that's beside the point. Then again, you may recall that she did burn it during her first attempt...

Be warned, if you happen to join us when I'm making dinner, I'd suggest you bring along a book to read (something small like "War and Peace") or a board game (like Monopoly). I started preparing this meal at 5pm and had it served at 9:11pm. French food, I'm learning, is apparently something that is not rushed. Either that or I'm just verrrrrrrry slow. Please notice, however, that I said this was a "meal." In addition to the Boeuf Bourguignon, I also prepared glazed carrots and a wonderfully refreshing dessert of glazed oranges -- both of which will be the subject of separate posts because they turned out to be adventures by themselves! Additionally, Julia was a bit sneaky with this recipe and included two additional recipes inside the recipe for Boef Bourguignon. Once the beef dish was in the oven I finally realized that it also needed a preparation of braised white onions and another of sauteed mushrooms! What's up with that Julia? I've learned that Julia used a clever trick to make her recipes seem nice and simple and draw an unsuspecting neophyte like me into her web -- she'll puts a recipe in that has only four or five lines but hidden in those lines will be instructions like, "prepare braised onions using the recipe on page 538" or "simply debone a duck as explained in the previous 40 pages." I may be exaggerating a little but that's certainly the way it felt when I realized I'd be braising these silly onions for 40 minutes! **sigh** We'll see where this post ends up heading, I may include the onions and mushrooms or I might turn them into posts of their own as well.

Let me tell you about this Boef Bourguigon because it was delicious. The photo doesn't make it look anywhere near as tasty as it really was -- I suppose it's the purple grapes giving everything the dark color - the carrots and onions all end up the same color but the taste was spot on! I did a closeup view at the bottom of the post showing a closeup of the dish - you can see the petit onions and mushrooms layered on top when it was served. Julia also instructed me to take everything out of the casserole dish that it was baked in, clean the dish to make it nice and clean and pretty, and put it back in the dish for serving. Ummmmmm, did I mention that it was 9:11pm? Here's my personal serving suggestion for dinners that are finished after 9pm -- nobody cares about the pretty dish at this point, they're starving and want to eat. If they care about the appearance, then turn out all the lights and have a romantic candlelit dinner!

This meal preparation actually began at the grocery store and ended up with a compromise to Julia's high standards. In "Mastering the Art of French Cooking," Julia gives an explanation regarding the difference in American bacon (cured and smoked) compared to what she'd get in France - "bland" unsmoked bacon sold in a chunk with the rind attached. Three different grocery stores and I still didn't come across bacon matching her description. Actually, all I came across (even in our local old-fashioned Oregon Dairy market) was dozens of types of smoked and sliced bacon. Not to worry, Julia also had a solution for that -- just boil the bacon for ten minutes to get rid of the bacon's smokey cured flavor. What?!?! Get rid of the wonderful flavor of bacon? Even I have standards when it comes to bacon - keep the flavor! I simply refused to boil my bacon. Sorry Julia, deal with it.

The basic preparation of Boeuf Bourguigon is actually pretty simple -- slightly brown and remove the bacon (cut to about 2" slices), cut a roast (I used chuck roast) into 2-inch cubes and quickly brown on a high heat in the fat from the bacon with a little olive oil and remove with the bacon, brown sliced onions and carrots in the remaining fat (which wasn't much). Add the beef and bacon and toss in a couple of tablespoons of flour. This all goes into a large casserole dish with 3 cups of purple grape juice (sorry Julia, I'm not using wine) and enough beef broth to barely cover the meat. That all went into the oven and was left to simmer in the casserole for about 2 1/2-3 hours. While that sat there bubbling away the house started smelling realllllllly good and I had a couple hours to do the braised onions, glazed carrots, and glazed oranges.

The brown-braised onions (Oignons Glaces A Brun) were actually pretty straightforward and tasted pretty darn good. First a word about braising -- Julia explains that braising is browning foods in fat and then cooking them in a covered pan with a small amount of liquid. She often calls for vegetables to be braised but explains that for vegetables she is referring to cooking the vegetables in butter (using butter, really?) in a covered pan -- she said she uses the term "braising" for both because there is no English word equivalent to the French word "etuver." Ah, but I digress... The onions were kind of fun to cook though -- hot butter and oil in the pan and roll the onions around for 10 minutes while sauteing them until evenly brown. Then they are braised with broth and spices for about 45 minutes.

I need to end with what was absolutely the most fun thing I cooked during this meal - Champignons Sautes Au Beurre (Sauteed Mushrooms -- don't they sound a lot more fancy in French?). I'm not a huge mushroom fan but I can't wait to cook these again, mainly because they were so fun to do. Pretty straightforward to start -- a pound of fresh mushrooms (but its important to only cook 8 oz. at a time, otherwise the moisture from the mushrooms will end up steaming them instead of browning them), washed and sliced evenly. Here's the fun part -- use a 10-inch skillet on high heat with 2 tablespoons of butter and 1 tablespoon of oil. Okay, that wasn't the fun part, what happens when you put the mushrooms (remember, only 8 oz. of them) in the pan is what was so amazing.

Right after the mushrooms went in the pan, and I did some truly chef-like tossing with the pan (I didn't spill a single slice all night!), the liquid disappeared completely in just a few seconds as the mushrooms absorbed all of the oil and butter. Then, with more tossing over the high heat, in another 45 seconds or so the pan suddenly filled with a bunch of liquid. This was all of the water in the mushrooms saying, "Hey, there's no more room for me in here with all you butter and oil droplets and its getting really hot -- I'm outta here!" The pan filled with the liquid that used to be inside the mushrooms, boiled, and fairly quickly evaporated from the pan. All the while my masterful tossing was making the mushrooms gain a lovely brownish color. Poof, just like that they were done. I'm thinking I'm going to be using a lot of freshly sauteed mushrooms in the future -- on steak, in omelettes, on cereal...

Ding! Finished!

The Boeuf Bourguigon finished after 2 1/2 hours in the oven, I added the freshly sauteed mushrooms in a layer on top and then added the brown braised onions and it was ready to go! Before adding the layers on top, the juice was poured into a saucepan to skim off the liquid fat from the top. Then it was boiled on high heat for a couple of minutes to reduce (that's cooking talk for boiling of some liquid to make it thicker) the liquid until it was more saucelike and then poured back over the entire casserole dish.

Julia suggest having boiled potatoes, rice, or noodles served with Boeuf Bourguigon and my plan was to have boiled potatoes. Kathryn was my helpful sous chef and ran a bunch of errands finding pots, pans, and spices for me (the rule is she can't do things the first time I try them or it wouldn't officially be my adventure, but she is my first taste tester and is really good at making things the second time around - she's great at eggs!). Kathryn did have one cooking assignment for this meal - she was going to make the boiled potatoes. Guess what we, errrrrrr, I mean she, forgot until we were ready to serve dinner. There are those that would say she mainly forgot because all 4 burners, the oven, and the warming spot on the stove were all in use and there was no place to boil potatoes much less peel them. I will stick to my story, however, and say that she was forgetful because of her advanced age of 15 years. She saved the day, though, by making instant (instant is probably a French word meaning "made from scratch") mashed potatoes that were done at exactly the right time.

In spite of the time it took to prepare, and the late hour when finished, this was realllllly good and is definitely something I'll make again. I'm pretty sure I can speed up the process next time and I'm actually looking forward to trying to make this in a crock pot. I think all of the same basic steps would work up to the point it was placed in the oven. Then, instead of the oven, I'll just put it into a crockpot for a couple of hours. Who knows, maybe Julia will learn something from me? Add this one to your list of things to try, you won't regret it!

Bon Appetit!