One of my favourite french recipes is beef bourguignon. I know I’ve blogged it before, but its such a delicious dish, and one that you can prepare early in the day (or even the day before) and leave cooking, bubbling away in the oven, whilst you do other things. It’s super easy to finish it off an hour before your guests arrive. So I thought I’d share it again.
This is my version of the dish, which I’ve maybe developed a little over the time we have lived in France. This recipe serves four, but if you need to serve more people, just upping the quantity of beef is all you need to do, although a little more wine is always good.
Ingredients
1.2 kg of paleron or stewing beef, cut into 2cm cubes
2 tsp of salt and fresh ground black pepper
60g unsalted butter
250g smoked lardons or 5-6 slices bacon, cut into fine strips
4 sprigs thyme
3 bay leaves
3 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
10 small onions, or shallots peeled ( if the shallots are large, I cut them in half)
4-5 medium carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
2 cups (500ml) red wine
2 tbsp (30ml) brandy
2 cups (500ml) beef broth
2 tbsp (50g) tomato paste
30g flour
45 minutes before serving add the mushrooms:
30g unsalted butter
500g cremini or brown chestnut mushrooms, quartered
Salt & freshly ground black pepper
Remove the meat from the fridge about an hour before cooking, pat it dry and season it well all over. Whilst it’s coming up to room temperature prepare all the rest of your ingredients.
Fry off the lardons or bacon in some of the butter. Remove from the pan and set aside, leaving any excess butter in the pan.
Now start browning off the beef. First add in the rest of the butter, then brown the beef cubes in batches, so as not to overcrowd the pan, and set aside once browned.
In the same pot, fry off the onions and garlic until glossy, then add the carrots, thyme, and bay leaves. Cook for another 5 minutes, then add the beef back in. Stir in the flour so it coats everything, and no dry flour can be seen.
Now add the cooked lardons, or bacon back, into the pan, and stir in the tomato paste until it’s nicely incorporated.
Finally, pour in the brandy and red wine, stirring the pot to try and release some of those gorgeous flavours on the bottom of the pan. Top the pan up with the beef broth until it just covers all the meat. I used a Bordeaux, for a deep flavour, but a light côté de Rhone is good for a less intense dish.
Cover the pan, and cook at 160°c (fan oven) for 2.5 hours.
After 2.5 hours, fry off the mushrooms in the remaining 30g of butter and season. Add these to the bourguignon, and cook for a further 30 minutes.
Remove from the oven, and rest it for 15-20 minutes. It will stay hot for 30-40 minutes in the pan if covered. I normally pop a tea towel over it to keep it warm. Go and enjoy a glass of champagne with your guests, then serve with some buttery mashed potatoes.
Such a warming, delicious dinner.