Sasha's Kitchen: Boeuf Bourguignon

I've been on a bit of a French cooking kick lately.  It all started when I took my most recent cooking class, the Essentials of Burgundian Cooking at the Institute of Culinary Education (ICE) in Manhattan.  Since then, I've made several French dishes (some in the class and some not) including my first try at eclairs which I will be posting soon (they were great!).  I've made boeuf bourguignon in the past, but I've never been happy with the results.  I always left out the caramelized pearl onions in the past, which was a big mistake.  This new recipe, from my French cooking class, is a bit more simplified that some that I have tried in the past, but in a classic kind of simplicity that made the perfect French stew.  This was one of the best meat-based dishes I've ever made, and it had a lovely perfect simplicity to it that was just perfect.  As my husband put it, it was like being back in Paris.  This dish is another one that will be on the list for upcoming dinner parties.  I should note, I substituted regular slab bacon with turkey bacon since I don't eat bacon at home, and made some other minor modifications to the recipe in the class, reflected below.  The meat was amazingly tender and the sauce was stunning and delicious.

Boeuf Bourguignon
8 oz turkey bacon, cut into 1/2 inch pieces (original recipe calls for slab bacon)
2 1/2 lbs beef cubes
6 to 8 T butter (approximate)
2 oz tomato paste
1/3 cup flour
2 cloves crushed garlic
2  bottles burgundy red wine
1 cheesecloth sachet with 12 peppercorns, 2 bay leaves and 5 stems parsley
salt and pepper to taste
1 lb mushrooms, quartered
1 bag pearl onions
1 T minced parsley
2 T sugar
chicken stock, as needed

Cut the turkey bacon and cook in a dutch oven.  You are supposed to reserve the fat, but turkey bacon really doesn't have any.  After the turkey bacon is cooked, set it aside.  Add 2 T butter and brown the beef until it caramelizes nicely.  Remove the beef from the dutch oven and add the flour to about 4 T of butter.  Make a blond roux by cooking the flour and fat over medium heat.  Then add the tomato p[ate and cook for a few minutes until the paste roux mixture darkens and caramelizes.   Add the crushed garlic and cook a few more minutes, then whisk in the wine.  Add back the beef and the sachet of spices.  Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer the beef until tender, about two and a half hours, covered on the stovetop.

While the meat is cooking, cook the mushrooms in 2 T of butter or canola oil.  I used canola oil, as I felt this dish had already used enough butter.  I normally don't use butter and substitute canola oil when cooking but this dish really requires butter for the roux.  Its ok to cook the mushrooms in canola oil though, and I did.  Saute the mushrooms for about ten minutes until nicely browned, and set aside.

To prepare the glazed onions, fill a medium saucepan with water and bring to a boil.  Add the onions and blanch for one minute.  Then shock the onions in an ice bath.  Peel off the skins.  Place the onions back in  the saucepan with 2 T sugar and 1 T butter and enough chicken stock to cover the onions.  Bring liquid to a boil and let the liquid evaporate.  Set the onions aside for serving.

When the beef is about tender, remove any fat from the surface of the braising liquid  and boil the liquid a bit for a few minutes to thicken to the desired consistency - it didn't take much.  Also discard the sachet.

When the liquid has reached the proper consistency, add the mushrooms and turkey bacon.  Season as needed with salt and pepper, and serve sprinkled with the glazed onions and minced parsley.

Sasha's Kitchen: Boeuf Bourguignon

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 on the Road: Paris Foodie Adventures

My husband Brad and I recently returned from a 12 day trip to Europe. On this particular trip, we visited three cities - Paris, Brussels and Prague.  Each of these cities has its own unique culinary traditions, and we made an effort to taste some of the best and most authentic foods in each place that we visited.  I will be doing separate posts on our gastronomical adventures in Prague and Brussels but I figured I'd start with Paris and some of our favorite foods that we ate while visiting that beautiful city for six days.

Crepes are one of Paris' specialties.  We had several crepes while in Paris. On our first night, we visited Le Petit Josselin in Montparnasse to sample some wonderful Parisian crepes. Josselin is one of Paris' best creperies and did not dissapoint, just like my husband had enjoyed the sister creperie down the block some 10 years prior on his last visit to Paris. We both had excellent savory and dessert crepes at Josselin. Below are photos of Brad's savory salmon crepe and my caramel crepe.

Street crepes are also wonderful. I had an amazing crepe with just sugar made hot while I waited (not pictured) at the Crepe Stand at Comptoir de Relais, a delicious Paris restaurant in the trendy rive gauche neighborhood of St. Germain that we enjoyed later in our trip.

Macarons when made correctly are just about the loveliest, pretties Paris dessert in the world. I've made macarons in the past but never ever like these. We went for the very best Paris macarons we could find at the wold famous macaron-maker, Pierre Herme.  We couldn't decide among all of the beautiful, colorful and delicious flavor combinations so my husband and I narrowed it down to seven (pictured at the top) and relished every bite.  These were a highlight and a trip to Paris is not complete without a visit to Pierre Herme.

Lamb and veal dinners are delicious in Paris.  I had a great veal with gnocchi and my husband had the delicious lamb dish pictured below at Restaurant Christine in St. Germain. For dessert at Christine, we had a Paris classic - one of the best souffles that I have ever had - a vanilla souffle with a strawberry sauce.

Now back to our full meal at Comptoir de Relais.  First we had some great French wines and appetizers at the wine bar portion of the restaurant while we waited for our table. Then, at dinner, we had a delicious beef dish (a bit stew like) with noodles pictured below. Yum! On the bottom is a picture of one of the appetizers, basically a mini beef sandwich with a creme fraiche based sauce. The apple tart we had for dessert was scrumptious as well.

We had another great meal in Paris at Allard Bistro - first a delicious salad with frisee and lardons, followed by a French classic made famous by Julia Child - boeuf bourguignon. This was another amazing meal, which ended with our desserts - a raspberry tarte and another French classic - profiteroles.

Sasha's Kitchen on the Road: Paris Foodie Adventures

Sasha's Kitchen: Boeuf Bourguigon In Only Four Hours

Boeuf Bourguignon and Julia Child.  The two kind of go together, and invariably draw references to the recent movie Julie and Julia.  But it doesn't have to be that way.  For my purposes, I like to cook and experiment with all types of cooking and dishes, whether they are part of a movie or not.  So eventually, if you cook enough, you are going to try Boeuf Bourguigon, as well as  other French classics like Coq Au Vin (as prepared by Christina in Budapest).  In my case, it has nothing to do with a certain blockbuster movie.  I prefer to think of it as today, I decided to do some French cooking and prepare Boeuf Bourguigon.

To prepare this recipe, I worked with a modified version of the Julia Child original recipe, which I used as a reference.  I made a bunch of further changes, some of which made the dish better (in my humble opinion) and some of which made it easier to prepare.  The recipe I am going to post may not be exactly the authentic Boeuf Bourguigon as approved by the French masters, but it is my version of the dish and one I am very happy to share with others.  I think it is a reasonably authentic and classic Boeuf Bourguigon, and the recipe is one that is relatively straightforward to follow.  My goal was to rework a basic recipe for Boeuf Bourguignon that is almost as good as the original, but can be done in approximately 3-4 hours, rather than 8-10 hours.  This is not to say there's not value in the original long-version, but simply that there's value and reasonableness for a more typical family with other things going on.  So, keep reading below, if you want to learn how to make a delicious Sasha-classic Boeuf Bourguigon.

Stew

12 oz beef fry bacon (a healthy alternative to regular bacon for the health-conscious and those who do not eat pork products, but feel free to substitute with regular bacon if you prefer)
1 T canola oil (or extra virgin olive oil)
3 lb lean stewing beef, cut into 2 inch cubes
2 large handfulls of baby carrots
1 onion, diced
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
2 T flour
1 T tomato paste
3 cups red wine (chianti, bourdeaux, burgandy, or high quality red cooking wine)
3 cups beef stock (approximate; see below)
1 tsp diced garlic
1 sprig thyme
2 sprigs rosemary
2 bay leaves

Braised onions
18 pearl onions
1 1/2 T unsalted butter
1 1/2 tsp canola oil
1/2 cups beef stock
salt and pepper to taste
2 sprigs thyme
2 sprigs parsley

Sauteed Mushrooms
1 lb diced mushrooms
2 T butter
2 T canola oil
4 T brandy

First, prepare the beef fry bacon by sauteing in a dutch oven (Le Creuset!)  in 1-2 T of canola oil.  Cook until crispy, the same way you would prepare bacon.  In a separate pan, saute the onion and carrots in olive oil, for about 10 minutes, until the onions are tender. Remove the bacon and keep the fat/oil from the bacon and use to sear the beef chunks lightly.  Before searing the beef, coat with the 2 T of flour.  I seared very lightly.  Return the bacon to the Dutch Oven, and add the carrots and onions. 

Next, to the Dutch Oven, add the wine and the beef stock.  You can add more or less beef stock, to get the right amount, but make sure the total amount of liquid covers the meat, just barely.  I used store-bought organic beef stock, and that makes a delicious dish.  You could, of course, prepare your own beef stock from scratch, but this takes hours, and I really didn't feel like spending the time today - although perhaps on another day when I had specifically allocated the entire day to the project.  It still was very good tasting so I don't think I sacrificed too much here.
Add the tomato paste, thyme, rosemary, garlic, bay leaves, salt and pepper.  Bring to a boil and then put in the oven, preheated to 325 F.  Cook for about 2 1/2 to 3 hours, until the beef is tender. 

In the meantime, here is how I prepared the mushrooms:

Add the 2 T of butter and 2 T of canola oil and allow the butter to fully melt aat high heat.  Cook the mushrooms about 5-8 minutes.  When the mushrooms are just about done, add the 4 T of brandy and cook for another minute.

To prepare the braised onions, dice the onions and heat the butter and oil in a skillet.  Add the onions and saute for ten minutes over medium heat.  Add the 1/2 cup of beef stock and simmer for 40-50 minutes.

When the meat is tender, remove the Dutch Oven from your oven and empty its contents, collecting the sauce separately.  Distribute the mushrooms and onions over the meat.  Skim the fat off the sauce and simmer the sauce until reduced to 2 1/2 cups of a sauce thick enough to coat a spoon.  If the sauce gets too thick, add a little bit more of the beef stock.  Keep boiling if you need to to reduce the sauce to get it just right.  I served the dish with the sauce, and seasoned with the parsley.  I think I just made French cooking quite a bit easier, but still fun and tasty.





Juliachild

Sasha's Kitchen: Boeuf Bourguigon In Only Four Hours