Sasha's Kitchen: Oxtail Bourguignon

I love boeuf bourguignon. It is one of my favorite French dishes, and we had the best boeuf bourguignon when we were in Paris on vacation in August. I have made the dish before, but this time I decided to try a variation of the Bon Appetit recipe for oxtail bourguignon. I made a bunch of minor changes, the most significant that I substituted organic turkey bacon for regular bacon, because, being Jewish, well, that's how I roll (or, is it don't roll, as per the Big Lebowski?) Anyhow, if I was to use regular bacon for this recipe, you are supposed to use only the fat. However, turkey bacon is much healthier and does not use load's of far, so instead I used canola oil, and added the turkey bacon in as part of the dish. Oxtail is a great meat to cool with in a stew of this nature, and it is a nice, inexpensive cut of meat. I bought mine from Fresh Direct.

Oxtail Bourguignon (derived from this recipe)
8 slices of organic turkey bacon
olive oil or canola oil
3 large fresh parsley sprigs
2 large bay leaves
3 large fresh thyme sprigs
1 T plus 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 T butter
1/4 tsp nutmeg
4 lbs meaty oxtail pieces, trimmed of excess fat
2 cups chopped onions
2 cups of baby carrots
4 large cloves garlic, peeled; 1 minced and 3 left whole
1 3/4 cups beef broth

1 1/2 cups red burgundy wine (I used an inexpensive Pinot Noir)
1 lb baby bella mushrooms, cut into 1/4 inch slices
6 small shallots, peeled and diced

Cool the turkey bacon until brown and crisp. Transfer to plate, and add some canola or olive oil to the dutch oven. Place parsley, thyme and bay leaves in a sachet. Meanwhile, combine the melted butter and tablespoon of flour into a paste and set aside. This will be used later to thicken.

Combine the 1 1/2 cups of flour wtih the sat, 1/2 tsp of pepper and nutmeg and toss the oxtails in it to coat. Working in batches, sear the oxtail in canola oil until brown on all sides, about six minutes in total for each batch.

Add the chopped onions, carrots and minced garlic to the pot and saute for about 6 minutes until the onions are soft. Return the oxtails to the pot and add the bouquet, broth and wine. At this point, I also returned the turkey bacon to the pot, since I wanted it to be part of the dish (just too good to waste!). Bring to a boil, and then cover and simmer in the Dutch Oven until the meat is almost tender. This took about two and a half hours for me. At this point, mix in the mushrooms, shallots (I preferred mine diced rather than blanched), carrot chunks and whole garlic cloves. The return to a boil and then simmer for about 30-45 minutes.  Skim off any excess fat, and stir the flour paste into the stew. Simmer until the sauce thickens slightly, stirring occasionally for about 6 to 8 minutes. Season wtih salt and pepper and serve.

Sasha's Kitchen: Oxtail Bourguignon

Sasha's Kitchen: Chili Con Carne

So, I have not been feeling great this week, hence the lack of cooking and lack of blog posts. But, I figured I could share one that was a winner that I have not yet had the time to write about. 

Last time I wrote about chili, it was my recipe for turkey chili which my husband and I both really enjoyed as our first foray into chili making. This time, we tried out a recipe for Chili Con Carne from Bon Appetit, which I followed with a couple of modifications. It was also delicious and another terrific meal with plenty of leftovers. I made half of the recipe in the link (which is posted below) and it was still enough for us to get two meals out of it. Yummy!

Chili Con Carne (based on Bon Appetit recipe)

2 T Canola Oil

2 pounds lean beef chunk, cubed

1 medium onion, chopped

1/2 of a head of garlic (about eight cloves), peeled and diced

1/4 cup ancho chili powder

1 T cumin

1/4 tsp allspice

1/8 tsp cinnamon

1/8 tsp cloves

6 oz dark beer (I used Guinness)

1 14 oz can diced tomatoes in juice

1 tsp dried oregano

1 T tomato paste

3 T masa (or pureed frito chips, which worked just fine)

grated Shelburne Farms 2-year Cheddar

chopped fresh cilantro to taste

chopped fresh tomatoes, to taste

fat free sour cream, to taste

pinch of pepper to taste

1 cup of water

Heat the canola oil and sear the beef cubes, half at a time. Cook until browned, stirring, for about three minutes. Transfer to a bowl and set aside.

Add a bit more canola oil if needed, and saute the onion for about 8-10 minutes. Add the garlic and saute for another two minutes. Add the ancho chili, cumin, allspice, pepper, and cloves and stir until fragrant, another minute or two. Add the beer and stir for a minute, before returning the beef to the pot. Then, add the tomatoes, a cup of water, oregano and a pinch of salt. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and cover partially with lid ajar. Simmer for about 1 1/2 to two hours, until the meat is tender. Cool for about an hour.

Then, simmer again over medium heat. Stir in the tomato paste and pureed fritos/masa, which will thicken the chili. Simmer until thickened, uncovered, for about 20 minutes, adding a quarter cup or water or so if the chili becomes too thick.

Top with cheddar, chips, sour cream, and diced tomatoes.

Sasha's Kitchen: Chili Con Carne

Sasha's Kitchen: Belgian Beef Carbonnade

My husband Brad and I are going on vacation to Europe for two whole weeks soon, and one of our stops (a brief stop and not the focus of this trip) will be in Brussels, primarily so we can eat our way through Belgian cuisine. Our brief visit to Brussels is planned to include eating the very best moules (mussels), frites with spicy mayo, Belgian waffles, Belgian beef stew and of course Belgian chocolate, that we can get our hands on.   Planning this made me really hungary for some Belgian cuisine.  I have already made Belgian waffles, which were delicious and easy to make.  I decided to try my hand at two of my favorite Belgian dishes this week - frites with spicy mayo (coming soon) and Belgian beef carbonnade, or beef stew.

Belgian beef stew is very simple.  My recipe is a variation of a Jacques Pepin recipe that I found on the internet.  They key to this stew, and quite frankly any classic Belgian carbonnade is the quality of the Belgian pale ale that you use to make the broth, as well as the quality of the beef in the stew.  Pepin uses flatiron steaks, which are expensive and contain a bit too much fat for my style of cooking.  Instead, I elected to use lean stew beef from Fresh Direct, a great NYC area provider of quality meats.  For the beer, I went for the real deal - my favorite Belgian pale ale, Leffe Blonde, a great Belgian Abbey beer.

Belgian Beef Carbonnade
2 T unsalted butter (can be replaced with olive oil if you prefer)
2 T extra virgin olive oil
2 lbs lean stew beef, cut into chunks
salt and pepper to taste
3 T all purpose flour
2 bottles of Leffe Blonde Belgian Pale Ale
3 bay leaves
1/2 cup chicken stock
5 thyme sprigs
2 cups baby carrots
1 cup peas

In a large Dutch Oven, melt 1 T of butter with 1 T of olive oil until it sizzles. Season the meat with salt and pepper and sear until browned, about 2 minutes on each side. Cook for about two minutes.  Transfer the meat to a large plate and add the remaining butter and olive oil. Add the onion and cook for a few minutes until lightly browned. Stir in the pale ale and bay leaves, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the pot.  Add the chicken stock and thyme and return the meat to the pot. Bring to a boil, and then reduce to a simmer. Cover the Dutch Oven and simmer on low heat until the meat is tender - it took me about an hour.  Add the baby carrots and simmer for 15 minutes. Then, add the peas and simmer for an addition five minutes until the peas are cooked (but not faded in color) and the carrots are tender.  This was delicious and exactly how I hoped.  I can't wait to eat this dish with some steak frites in Brussels!

Sasha's Kitchen: Belgian Beef Carbonnade

Sasha's Kitchen On The Road: Irish Guinness Stout Stew

About two years ago, my husband and I went on a family vacation to Ireland.  While we were in Dublin, a fun loving, carefree city, we visited, like most American Tourists, the Guinness Storehouse.  This was a highlight of our time in Dublin, which was a magical city to explore on foot (one of the other highlights was by chance catching a tiny R.E.M. concert at the Olympia Theater, which set us back a day or two in recovering from jet lag).  At any rate, while in Dublin, we tasted several excellent traditional Irish stews, prepared using Dublin's famed Guinness Stout.

Guinness is a popular Irish dry stout.  It has a deep, rich, heavy flavor (it's like a meal, really) that works well with a beef stew.  However, as guest writer Bryan noted to me last week, if you use too much Guinness, it will impart a bitter flavor to your stew.

I made this stew in a very impromptu manner.    I was unhappy with all of the recipes that I found online, so I started from scratch, and tried to create a hearty stew that would be enriched by the deep flavor of the Guinness.  I decided before I started that I was in the mood for a pretty unhealthy (but very tasty) version of this stew, which meant that I sauteed my ingredients using butter rather than my usual canola oil (I suppose Julia Child would be happy since I usually disregard her love for butter in favor of a healthier style of cooking with canola oil).

Here is the recipe that I used to make my version of this Irish classic:

Sasha's Irish Guinness Stout Stew

4 cups beef broth
4 sprigs of thyme
2 bay leaves
1 1/2 cups Guinness Stout
2 lb stewing beef
1 large onion
3 T butter
2 T canola oil
three large handfuls of baby carrots
4 T of flour
3 T tomato paste
salt and pepper to taste

First, I diced the onion, and sauteed the onion and carrots for a few minutes in the butter and canola oil, until the onion was soft in my Dutch Oven.  Then, I added the meat to the Dutch Oven, after tossing it in 2 T of flour.  I braised the meat in the butter and canola oil for about five more minutes, until it was browned on all sides.  Then, I added the herbs, beef broth, Guinness and tomato paste to the pot and brought the mixture to a boil.   After the stew was boiling, I reduced the heat to simmer and continued to simmer for quite awhile (about thirty to forth minutes or so) until the soup was thickened to a stew.

To thicken the stew, I used my mom's trick and added 2 T of flour (or, you could use cornstarch) to a half cup of the broth and mixed well before adding back into the stew.  This really helped the thickening process, while completing the process in the manner I suggested helps avoid clumping in the stew.

The end result was a delicious thick and hearty broth that had a strong thyme flavor, as well as the hearty deep flavor imparted by the Guinness.

Have some extra Guinness?  Make my Chocolate Stout Cupcakes next.

Sasha's Kitchen On The Road: Irish Guinness Stout Stew