Case in point: One time in college I decided to make her delicious coffee whiskey semifreddo. I called home to ask for the recipe (she does actually have a "recipe" written down for this). My dad read the recipe to me and I followed it to a T. Later that night I pulled it out of the freezer and served it up to all of our friends. Reactions: "Wow, this is strong!" "V, you don't like to drink, but you sure like it in your dessert!" The recipe called for a cup of whiskey, okay? When I told my mom how much stronger than usual it tasted she said, "No, not a measuring cup. One of those little coffee cups we use for espresso. You know?" Lesson learned.
Anyway, this is all an extreme tangent to my initial point. Which is this: I shy away from difficult recipes, but I'm learning to loosen up. So I bit the bullet and made beef bourguignon Friday night. I wanted to turn on Julie & Julia and relive the joys and agonies of cooking Julia Child's boeuf bourguignon recipe. Instead, I researched a few recipes and chose a simple yet pretty authentic version. I admittedly shied away from Julia's original or even the million-step Martha Stewart recipe. There's no crime in making the recipe work for you.
A friendly heads up: The prep & cooking time for this is about 3.5 hours. If, like me, you get started on this recipe later than you planned, which means a late dinner, appease your hungry husband/roommate/friends/guests with some French-inspired munchies: bread, brie cheese and grapes. And wine. That always helps.
And if your husband brings home beautiful tulips, all the better.
Beef Bourguignon with Roasted Potatoes
Adapted from Jenna Weber's recipe on PBS Food
Prep + cooking time: Approx. 3.5 hours // Servings: 4
What you'll need:
1 1/2 lbs. stew meat, cubed
1/4 cup flour
2 tbs. vegetable oil
1 tbs. butter
8 oz. bag of pearl onions, peeled with ends cut off
2 carrots, chopped (or in my case, a handful of baby carrots, chopped)
3 celery stalks, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, minced
3 cups of dry red wine (I used Leese-Fitch's Pinot Noir; one bottle=3 cups)
1/3 tsp. dry thyme leaf
2 bay leaves
10 oz. sliced mushrooms
4 small yellow potatoes
1 tbs. olive oil
salt and pepper
What you'll do:
Use a paper towel to pat the meat dry before coating in flour. In a gallon Ziploc bag combine flour and pinch of salt and pepper. Add stew meat and toss to fully coat. Meanwhile, heat 1 tbs. vegetable oil and butter in a dutch oven or large pot on medium heat. {Confession: another reason I've been wanting to make this dish is to be able to use our beautiful Le Creuset}. When butter and oil are sizzling add meat and brown on all sides, approx. 4 minutes per side. Remove meat and place on a plate.
Add the rest of the vegetable oil to the pot and add the onions, celery and carrots. Saute the veggies, adding garlic after 5 minutes. Add a pinch of salt and cook until the carrots are tender, approx. 5 more minutes. Add thyme and stir.
At this point, put the meat back in the pot with the veggies. Pour in wine and add bay leaves. Allow to boil and then lower the heat to low. Partially cover the pot and simmer for 3 hours, or until wine has reduced into a thick sauce. Stir occasionally to make sure meat does not stick to bottom.
For the potatoes:
When 45 minutes of cooking time remain, preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cut the potatoes into eight pieces each and place on a foil-lined baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast for 35-45 minutes, tossing occasionally.
When 15 minutes of cooking time remain, heat 1 tbs. of olive oil in a pan and saute the mushrooms for 10 minutes. Stir into the beef for remaining minutes of cooking.
Remove bay leaves and serve potatoes alongside beef.
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