Ingredients
Beef* - 800 grams
(cut into about 1.5 inch cubes, taking off any big fatty parts)
Lardons* - 150 grams
Onions* - 5
(average/large yellow onions, cut into 6 parts)
Carrots - 5
(peeled and cut into 1 inch parts)
Mushrooms* - 200 grams
1 Bouquet garni*
1 garlic clove, slightly crushed
1 bottle of decent red wine
(don’t waste your money on anything fancy)
1 Beef bouillon cube (optional)
Chopped parsley
100 gr of butter
Tbsp of cooking oil
3 rounded Tbsp flour
Salt and pepper
Instructions
- Brown onions in a large frying pan with the butter and oil.
- When nicely browned, put into cooking pot, reserving the butter to brown the meat.
- Brown meat very well on all sides, adding more butter if needed.
- When the meat is well browned and cooked, sprinkle with flour and let cook another couple of minutes, mixing from time to time to get the flour cooked.
- Put into pot with onions and deglaze frying pan with a glass of water, bringing it to a simmer and scraping all the residue from the pan, and add to pot.
- Fry lardons until browned and add to pot, deglazing again the frying pan.
- Add carrots to pot and then pour wine in until the meat is just barely covered.
- (1/2 wine - 1/2 water also works)
- If you add too much wine, your dish will be too liquid.
- I add a cube of beef bouillon for extra taste.
- Let simmer for at least 2 1/2 hours and add mushrooms. cook at least 30 minutes more.
- Add more wine/water if necessary to have a nice amount of sauce but not too liquid.
- Put into serving dish and sprinkle with a little chopped fresh parsley.
- Serve with steamed potatoes or if you want to make it fancier, Pommes Duchesse.
Notes
* Beef - When the butcher trims the cuts of beef that have been ordered, or the meat for his display, he reserves all the left over pieces, which he sells as Boeuf Bourguignon. Therefore, there is no special piece of meat, but you can ask for collier, la pointe de culotte, etc. cut in 1 1/2 inch cubes.
* Onions - You can replace the yellow onions with small pearl or cippolini onions, to make the dish look a little nicer but they are annoying to peel. And you should take them out of the pot for part of the cooking so they don’t fall apart.
* Lardons - 1/4 inch thick slices of bacon, cut into small strips, crosswise. You can find the uncut bacon, salted or smoked, at the butcher shop and ask them to cut it into 1/4 inch strips. You will then cut these crosswise into little 1/4 inch strips.
*Mushrooms - cut into small parts depending on their size, small button mushrooms can be left whole.
* Bouquet garni - is a bundle of herbs tied together with string and mainly used to prepare soup, stock, and various stews. The bouquet is cooked with the other ingredients, but is removed prior to consumption.
I often cheat with a vegetable bouillon cube, of which we get good quality organic ones in the super market.
The key to a delicious Boeuf Bourguignon is the infusion af all the ingredients.
For the best results:
Make it a day (or two!) before, cook at a low simmer for 2-3 hours, let cool and re-simmer later on for 1-2 hours.
Add more wine/water if necessary to have a nice amount of sauce but not too liquid.
