Chefs as heroes started early for me with Julia Childs and Jacques Pepin. Others would follow, but Julia was on television and therefore accessible from an early age. Last year’s movie “Julie & Julia” tried to bridge the generation gap between Julia’s TV kitchen and the digital texting, blogging, social networking world of today. It succeeded largely because of a brilliant performance by Streep (age 61).
The real star of the movie was however Beef Bourguignon, a timeless peasant dish from France that has evolved into an icon of elegance, but alas seldom cooked. It was originally a method for slowly simmering beef that was too tough to eat any other way. That it has evolved into haute cuisine speaks to improvements in the tenderness of beef and in modern kitchen equipment, but also to our yearning for comfort foods from the past.
The recipe that most of us refer to as an authentic boeuf bourguignon was first codified by Auguste Escoffier (1846-1935). Escoffier was famous as a chef, restaurateur and food writer, but his real genius was to simplify the elaborate and ornate cooking practiced in the royal kitchens of France by Antoine Carême and others. Then Julia came along to simplify and modernize even further so that ordinary Americans could recreate the same dishes at home.
In Escoffier’s’ “Le guide culinaire” Beef Bourguignon is referred to as boeuf à la bourguignonne. Lardons (batons of pig belly) were used to lard the beef of that day, as marbling the meat in giant feed lots with corn had not yet been envisaged. Today we use bacon to achieve that same umami (savoriness) that was once achieved by cooking beef bones and scraps for 24 hours to arrive at a demi-glace.
And that is really the point isn’t it? It is the sauce after all, that nuanced and complex broth of rich nectar that evolves over four hours of simmering in the oven. It is achieved by the perfect union of bacon, beef, garlic, onions, carrots, butter, olive oil, flour, tomato paste, bay leaves, thyme, beef stock, red wine, salt and pepper. It is a process. It is a dance.
Ingredients:
Kitchen Supplies:
9- to 10-inch, fireproof casserole dish, 3 inches deep
Slotted spoon
Boeuf Bourguignon:
6 ounces bacon
1 Tbsp. olive oil or cooking oil
3 pounds lean stewing beef, cut into 2-inch cubes
1 sliced carrot
1 sliced onion
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
2 Tbsp. flour
3 cups full-bodied, young red wine, such as Burgendy
2 to 3 cups brown beef stock or canned beef bouillon
1 Tbsp. tomato paste
2 cloves mashed garlic
1/2 tsp. thyme
Crumbled bay leaf
Blanched bacon rind
18 to 24 small white onions, brown-braised in stock
1 pound quartered fresh mushrooms, sautéed in butter
Parsley sprigs
Preparation:
Remove rind from bacon, and cut bacon into lardons (sticks, 1/4 inch thick and 1 1/2 inches long). Simmer rind and bacon for 10 minutes in 1 1/2 quarts of water. Drain and dry.
Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
Sauté the bacon in the oil over moderate heat for 2 to 3 minutes to brown lightly. Remove to a side dish with a slotted spoon. Set casserole aside. Reheat until fat is almost smoking before you sauté the beef.
Dry the stewing beef in paper towels; it will not brown if it is damp. Sauté it, a few pieces at a time, in the hot oil and bacon fat until nicely browned on all sides. Add it to the bacon.
In the same fat, brown the sliced vegetables. Pour out the sautéing fat.
Return the beef and bacon to the casserole and toss with the salt and pepper. Then sprinkle on the flour and toss again to coat the beef lightly with the flour. Set casserole uncovered in middle position of preheated oven for 4 minutes. Toss the meat and return to oven for 4 minutes more. (This browns the flour and covers the meat with a light crust.) Remove casserole, and turn oven down to 325 degrees.
Stir in the wine, and enough stock or bouillon so that the meat is barely covered. Add the tomato paste, garlic, herbs, and bacon rind. Bring to simmer on top of the stove. Then cover the casserole and set in lower third of preheated oven. Regulate heat so liquid simmers very slowly for 2 1/2 to 3 hours. The meat is done when a fork pierces it easily.
While the beef is cooking, prepare the onions and mushrooms. Set them aside until needed.
When the meat is tender, pour the contents of the casserole into a sieve set over a saucepan. Wash out the casserole and return the beef and bacon to it. Distribute the cooked onions and mushrooms over the meat.
Skim fat off the sauce. Simmer sauce for a minute or two, skimming off additional fat as it rises. You should have about 2 1/2 cups of sauce thick enough to coat a spoon lightly. If too thin, boil it down rapidly. If too thick, mix in a few tablespoons of stock or canned bouillon. Taste carefully for seasoning. Pour the sauce over the meat and vegetables. Recipe may be completed in advance to this point.
For immediate serving: Covet the casserole and simmer for 2 to 3 minutes, basting the meat and vegetables with the sauce several times. Serve in its casserole, or arrange the stew on a platter surrounded with potatoes, noodles, or rice, and decorated with parsley.
For later serving: When cold, cover and refrigerate. About 15 to 20 minutes before serving, bring to the simmer, cover, and simmer very slowly for 10 minutes, occasionally basting the meat and vegetables with the sauce.
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