I am not sure why but over the past year Le Boeuf Bourguignon has become my signature dish. I guest it has always been one of my favorite dish of the French cuisine. Easy to make, hearty, full of flavor. It’s a simple dish with complex flavors.

I wouldn’t recommend to cook it in less than 3 hours. I always cook mine for about 8 hours, and the trick is to make it the day before, cook it for about 5 hours and then 3 hours the next day before you’re ready to serve it.

I usually served it with linguine, boiled potatoes or even a shallot pilaf rice.

Ingredients:

2 carrots

2 stalk of celery

5 cups button mushrooms

5 lb. of stew meat

6 slice of thick cut bacon, lardon are better if you can put your hand on a whole piece of bacon.

1 onion

2 cups of pearl onion

1 bottle of red wine

2 tablespoon of tomato paste

2 bay leaf

2 tablespoon of flour

spring of fresh thyme, parsley

I usually use one cast-iron pan and my French oven Le Creuset (like a dutch oven but round) if you don’t have one, don’t panic and big pot will do. But if you want to invest in something I would highly recommend this one. This is the perfect size for a lot of thing. I use it at least 2-3 times a week!

I usually start by rending my bacon in the cast-iron pan until  nice and crisp. I set a side the extra fat because I will use it as my cooking oil for the rest of this dish.

As I sweat in a big pot my onion finely chopped, I start searing my meat in small batches. You want the meat to get a nice brown color and more important you want the bottom of the pan to collect the yummy sticky things that I will use later. Maybe you have noticed that my recipe does not required any broth, I leave that to the American chefs!

Add the celery finely diced to your onions as well as a chopped clove of garlic, and the fresh thyme (please feel free to throw in some Herbes de Provence, or rosemary). Before your ingredients start browning, just add the 2 spoon of flour and work it like a roux, let the flour cook for a minute and deglaze with 1/4 of the bottle of wine. Then add all your meat pre-seared, your mushrooms cut in quarters, the bay leaf, carrots sliced, bacon, tomato paste and small amount of salt and pepper.

And cover with the rest of the wine.

Important: when you are searing your last batch of meat, make sure you keep your pan hot and deglaze it with some water making sure your grabbing all the brown stuff from the bottom, these are some amazing flavors and pour it in to your pot with everything else.

You want to cover your pot and let simmer for about 5 hours, checking on it once in while and stirring gently. On the third hour I usually let the cover open a bit to let the steam out and allowing the stew to reduce.

You will see on the first hour your meet will harden don’t be panic it’s normal. It will tenderize again usually around the 3 hour of cooking.

After set aside to cool off and refrigerate over-night.

On the second day, warm up the stew slowly, you don’t want to burn the bottom. Blanche your pearl onion in boiled water, it will make the peeling easier. And add them to the pot after a quick sauté in a pan to give them a nice golden brown. Use a hight heat, you want to give them some color but not cook them. I add them late because I don’t want them to fall apart.

About 1 hour before I am ready to serve I will check on the seasoning and readjust. By now your stew should have reduce to about half the amount you started with. You can skim the fat on the surface, I usually don’t. A gentle stir and now your Boeuf Bourguignon should be ready, the sauce thickened and the meat falling apart.

Garnish with chopped parsley.

Bon Appétit!

Note: I have people who have asked me what type of meat do I use. I just use simple stew beef meat. Ask your butcher. If I was Bocuse and selling the plate for $60 maybe I would use a better one but my theory is: after 8 hours of cooking it doesn’t matter what meat you start with, you’ll end up with a very tender meat. Remember this is the type of dish that was set on top of the stove for the day waiting for everyone to come back for the field. It’s suppose to be a cheap dish that can feed a big family.  Though a lot of chef have turned it into a almost untouchable recipe, remember this is peasant food made to stick to the body and warm up the cold winters. This is not meant to be fancy, but meant to be so flavorful!