When I lived in the UK, eating out came in one of two styles.
The first style was British, which was essentially pub food: meat pies, bangers and mash, pork pies, deep-fried fish and chips, Sunday Roast, gammon steak, and ploughman’s platter. While British cuisine doesn’t usually top the list of culinary experiences. It was (depending on the pub) a good time, a great pretense-free meal for close friends, and a good pairing for bitter British beer.
The second style was Everything Else, widely regarded as the superior of the two options. Everything Else was the choice for special occasions dates, and business meetings, and featured both Asian (i.e. Indian) and Continental (i.e. European) cuisine. Accompanied more often by red wine than bitter beer. Even chain restaurants in the Everything Else category were ranked well ahead of pub food, and given the quality, were indistinguishable from local restaurants, at least to the local Brits and similarly palate-challenged Americans like me.
One of these chain restaurants, Cafe Rouge, was a small French place close to where I worked, tucked away on a small side street in downtown Oxford. And it was the first restaurant where I tried Beef Bourguignon. Maybe it was the weeks of British food before it, or the wine pairing, or just the pretentiousness of a dish with such intensely French spelling. But I found the dish addictive and totally satisfying. And had it again nearly every time we wandered over to Cafe Rouge after work.
Learning to make Beef Bourguignon was not easy. While there are a lot of little points that can improve the experience, most are covered in the link below. The only recommendation I would make is about the sauce: especially if you are making this in a crock pot, you may need to cook down the sauce – a lot – before eating. This helps to thicken the sauce and remove the astringent taste of the red wine, to ensure it does not overpower the dish. Patience is needed here – but it is well worth the wait!
This recipe comes from our inspiration: https://www.bingingwithbabish.com/recipes/2017/8/29/boeufbourguignon
Beef Bourguignon
Ingredients
- 3 pounds of chuck roast cut into 2-inch cubes
- Salt and pepper to season
- 6 strips of bacon
- 1 Tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 sliced sliced
- 5 peeled and chopped carrots
- 3 cups burgundy wine
- ¼ cup all purpose flour
- 3 crushed cloves of garlic
- 1 Tbsp of chopped thyme
- 1 bay leaf
- 2-3 Tbsp tomato paste
- 16 oz pearl onions
- 1 Tbsp of vegetable oil
- 1 cup beef stock
- 2 Tbsp butter
- 8 ounces mushrooms halved
- 1 tsp chopped thyme
- Chopped parsley
Instructions
- Season chuck roast with salt and pepper and set aside.
- In a large saucepan, bring 3 cups of water to a simmer. Cut bacon into 1 inch pieces and place in water to parboil for about 10 minutes. Strain bacon and set aside.
- In a frying pan over medium heat, heat a tablespoon of vegetable oil and saute the bacon for 2-3 minutes or until brown. Place on a paper towel to absorb excess grease.
- Place seasoned chuck roast cubes into the pan used to fry the bacon. Make sure not to overcrowd in the pan. Cook meat with the bacon grease until it is golden brown on all sides. Then set aside on a plate covered with a paper towel. To cool.
- Preheat oven to 400°F.
- Add the onion and carrots to the same frying pan. Saute in the remaining bacon grease until softened. Remove from the pan and set aside.
- Pour the burgundy wine into the pan to deglaze the pan. Set aside.
- Coat the beef cubes in flour and place into a dutch oven or oven safe container. Bake for 10 mins or until toasty.
- Remove from the oven, flip and return to the oven for another 10 mins.
- Remove the pan from the oven. Add beef cubes into a medium-large sized slow cooker. Then add vegetables, bacon, wine from the deglazed pan, beef stock, garlic, thyme, bay leaf, and tomato paste. Mix and make sure everything is well incorporated.
- Place in the slow cooker and allow to braise for about 3 hours. Stir occasionally.
- While the other ingredients cook in the slow cooker, prepare your mushrooms and onions.
- Place unpeeled pearl onions in a small bowl. Cover in boiling water and then transfer onions to a bath of icy water to stop cooking. Pinch onion at stem to slip the onion out of the skin.
- In a large skillet, add vegetable oil and peeled onions around until onions are browned. Once onions are browned add beef stock to deglaze the pan.
- Cover skillet with lid and allow the onions and beef stock to simmer for 45 minutes or until the onions are soft .
- In a separate small skillet, on high heat, add in butter until melted. Add in mushrooms and let cook for 5 minutes. When the mushrooms have shrunk, add thyme, salt and pepper. Continue to sauté for 10 more minutes. Set aside.
- Once the slow cooker is done cooking, remove the meat and vegetables and set aside. Strain the liquid remaining into a saucepan. Over medium heat, reduce liquid until it is thick enough to coat a spoon.
- Plate the food with a few pieces of beef, vegetables, carrots, onions, mushrooms.
- Top with some sauce and freshly chopped parsley.
