My Food 101 column on beef burgundy ran today in The Orange County Register (woo!), and I’m relieved that So Cal’s weather is finally cooling down. Two days ago, I was fretting mess, imagining faceless people reading the paper in shorts and big sunglasses, chuckling at the thought of attempting my recipe given the hot weather. I love sunny weather as much as the next person, but who wants to eat a winter braise when it’s 85 degrees out? Thank you Mother Nature, for sending rain and allowing me to appear relevant.

• Say ‘Oui’ to beef Burgundy
• By CYNTHIA FUREY
• Special to the Register

Boeuf Bourguignon is a classic French dish, both hearty and elegant when served over mashed potatoes, thick egg noodles or with a crusty baguette to sop up the flavorful sauce. Maybe you’ve shied away from making it the past because it sounds difficult (heaven only knows that I did), but fancy French dishes are often easier than they sound. “Boeuf Bourguignon” essentially translates to “Beef Burgundy,” or beef cooked with Burgundy wine. This French stew is a great intro to cooking with wine if you never have before.

Classically, the dish starts on the stove and finishes in the oven, but you can skip the oven and continue the braising process stovetop. Use a heavy-bottomed pot if you have one, and when in the home-stretch simmer, turn the burner on as low as you can go without the flame flickering. The stew will braise slowly, resulting in a home filled with the sweet aroma of wine, and a pot full of fork-tender chunks of beef.

Most braising recipes call for a sturdy cut of meat that can withstand the low and slow cooking without turning into mush. Cuts like beef chuck and stew meat work well because they contain a lot of collagen, a strong connective tissue that eventually melts down into a gelatin. The result is soft, buttery meat that you can pull apart with your hands (or fork). While you’re cooking, you can actually see this process for yourself: In its initial cooking stages, the meat cubes seem to seize up, and it becomes difficult jab with a fork. But as time passes on and the collagen melts away, the beef becomes softer, taking on the flavors of the wine, until finally you are left with meat that falls apart and is a delight to eat.

Before cutting beef into cubes, trim meat of excess fat, paying close attention to the silver skin, a silvery, thick membrane that may be present on top of the chuck roast. This is inedible. To remove, run your knife under the silver skin and peel it back from the roast.

There are differing opinions on what quality of wine to use while cooking. Some believe that you can use a bottle of Two-Buck Chuck and the stew will be just as flavorful as if you had used a Reserve or high-end wine. And then there are some that swear by cooking with the latter. I’ve always adhered to this rule: If it’s a wine you wouldn’t drink, don’t use it to cook. Which means, if you’ve been known to toss back a glass of Two-Buck Chuck and not even flinch (and there’s nothing wrong with that), then you will be fine using it in your dish. Always use a wine that you enjoy drinking. In this recipe, you can also substitute other dry red wines for Burgundy, like Pinot Noir, Bordeaux or Cabernet Sauvignon.

This recipe is simple: You finish the initial preparation, then dump everything into a pot and let the heat do all of the work. A bonus: Boeuf Bourguignon is more flavorful the following day (the sitting time allows for the flavors to meld) so it’s a great do-ahead dish for a dinner party. (Click on “Read the rest of this entry” for recipe)

BOEUF BOURGUIGNON/BEEF BURGUNDY

• Yield: 2 to 3 servings (can be doubled)
• 2 pounds beef chuck, cut into 1-1/2- to 2-inch cubes
• 1/4 cup flour
• 3 strips thick cut bacon, chopped
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/2 cup onion, minced
• 1/4 cup carrot, minced
• 1/4 cup celery, minced
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1/2 pound mushrooms, sliced
• 1-1/2 cups beef broth or stock
• 1-1/2 cups burgundy wine
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 cup (or more) frozen pearl onions
• Salt and pepper, to taste.

Procedure:
1. Place beef cubes and flour into a large Ziploc plastic bag. Shake bag to coat beef cubes with flour. Set aside.
2. In a 3- or 4-quart pot over medium-high heat, fry chopped bacon in olive oil until crispy. Remove bacon from pot with slotted spoon and set aside on a paper towel.
3. Remove beef cubes from plastic bag and shake off excess flour. Using the same pot as bacon, brown beef cubes in batches. Remove from pot and set aside with bacon.
4. Add onion, carrot, celery and garlic to pot. Cook for about a minute. Add mushrooms and cook for 4 to 5 minutes more, or until mushrooms begin to brown and shrink.
5. Slowly stir in beef broth and wine, using a wooden spoon to scrape fond (those brown bits) off of bottom of pan. Beef should be covered by liquid. If it isn’t, you can add a bit more wine. Add bay leaf, thyme, cooked bacon and browned beef to pot.
6. Bring pot to boil and reduce heat to low. Cover pot and simmer for 2 to 2-1/2 hours, stirring occasionally.
7. Remove lid from pot and add frozen pearl onions. Turn up heat to medium and cook for an additional 30 minutes uncovered, stirring occasionally, to heat pearl onions through and to thicken liquid.* Season with salt and pepper. Remove and discard bay leaf. Serve hot.

*Cook’s note: At this stage, you can cook the stew for longer than 30 minutes to achieve desired liquid thickness. Generally, the stew is done when the liquid is nappe, or when it leaves a thin coating on the back of a spoon.

– Cynthia Furey

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 22nd, 2009 at 12:58 pm and is filed under In the kitchen, Main dishes, Meat. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.