Traditional Beef Bourguignon

All about the sauce, Boeuf Bourguignon, a French comfort food classic. This is a dish that when done well its just pure happiness to me.

Beef Bourguignon Recipe:

Beef Bourguignon is a rich, flavorful French stew made with beef, vegetables, and red wine. The dish is traditionally simmered slowly to allow the flavors to develop fully. It typically includes ingredients like beef chuck, carrots, onions, garlic, mushrooms, and a robust red wine, such as Burgundy, which gives the dish its deep flavor and name.

Classic Beef Bourguignon:

Classic Beef Bourguignon refers to the traditional preparation of this dish, often following time-honored methods, such as those made famous by chefs like Julia Child. The classic version is. made with cuts of beef (usually chuck or brisket), which are browned and slow-cooked in red wine with vegetables like carrots, pearl onions, and mushrooms. The recipe focuses on slow cooking to tenderize the beef and infuse the dish with complex flavors.

Prep. time: 20 mins.  Marination: overnight   Cooking time: 2 hour 30 minutes  Serving: 6 persons

Ingredients:

• 1 kg boneless beef meat 
• 1 bottle of red wine, ideally burgundy 
• 180 g smoked bacon or lardons, diced
• 50 g butter or olive oil
• 1 large white onion, thinly sliced 
• 3 to 4 carrots, cut into chunks 
• 3 cloves garlic 
• 1 tbsp tomato purée
• 250 g mushrooms
• 200 g shallots
• 1 bunch garnish bouquet 
• 3 bay leaves
• 1 litre beef stocks
• few thyme sprigs
• salt, pepper

Click the link for the video of marinating procedure. 

Preparation:

1. Cut the beef into cubes. Peel the onions and chop them, if you use small onions no need to chop them. Peel and cut the carrots into chunks. Crush and peel the garlic.
2. Marinate the beef in the red wine with salt, white pepper, garlic cloves, thyme and bay leaves. This needs a minimum of 2 hours but can be left for up to 24, importantly the beef needs to be patted dry after the marinade.
3. In a large pot add the bacon and start to render out the fat, when it's brown and a little crispy remove from the pan.
4. Use the bacon fat to caramelise the beef in the same pan and remove.
5. Add the sliced onion and carrot, when softened add the tomato purée and garlic cook out for 2-3 mins before adding the beef and bacon back into the pan with the marinade and beef stock
6. Simmer with a lid on for 2 hours on a low heat and 1 hour without a lid to help the sauce reduce and thicken with the high quality beef stock you won't require a thickening agent. This process can be done in a slow cooker or even a pressure cooker if you are in a rush.
7. Serve with creamy mash potatoes.