Boeuf Bourguignon

[thehunt]

Now the cold weather is upon us thought we could have a winter warmer.
1 Kg Braising steak, ( ask for chuck steak ) cut in big lumps otherwise they disintegrate.
Bouquet garni , I tie up celery,bay leaves thyme and parsley together.
2 garlic cloves.
Red wine, enough to cover the meat.
Beef stock
Splash of cognac.
1 Red pepper, handful of button mushrooms 5 tomatoes, 200grs lardons ( diced bacon pieces )
Plain flour
Beurre manie (teaspoon flour and teaspoon butter mashed together)
Olive oil

Method

In a deep saucepan fry off the beef chunks to seal them in olive oil. Add the garlic chopped up, be carful not to burn. When the beef is nice and brown on the outside add 2 tablespoons of flour. Stir to coat the beef pieces.
Add red wine to cover beef and add bouquet garni simmer to reduce down. Then add beef stock.
( If using stock cubes be careful as they can be very salty )
Bring to boil, then reduce heat, cook slowly for approx 2 hours. ( depends on cooker ) I cook on the top of cooker it's not a casserole done in the oven.

Towards the end of the cooking time, test the meat with a fork – it is done when it starts to break apart when you do this.

Take the beef out of the sauce. Remove bouquet garni.
Bring the sauce back to the boil, if it has reduced too much just add some more tap water, you should see some gungy scum come to the surface, remove this with a ladle, don't take too much liquid out, you just need to clean the sauce. This will leave you with a nice shiny sauce.

Leave to rest.

Fry off in olive oil the chopped pepper, button mushrooms and lardons ( the latter should be pre soaked to remove some of the salt and dried down with a piece of kitchen roll )
Put to one side.

To finish off the sauce, heat up again, if still a bit liquid add the beurre manie to thicken, add the beef again, peppers, mushrooms and lardons, finally add the the tomatoes chopped in 4, cook further until the tomatoes are soft.
To enrich the sauce you can add just a splash of good cognac, this refines the sauce, but is optional.

Serve steaming hot with creamed mashed potatoes with a hint of nutmeg and whole baby carrots sauted in butter.

Glass of red wine is obligatory, Enjoy.

EDIT: Sorry guys forgot to say add some salt and pepper to taste. Go easy on the salt as the lardons and beef stock add quite a bit.

[Pete Thomas]

Sounds good (but it's not cold here yet).

BTW, I added the bit about salt you put in another and deleted that thread (which I think you started instead of editing the post!), you need to edit this where it should go in the actual post

[thehunt]

I forgot you live in the sunny south!! Brass monkeys here, well it was this morning.
Thanks for helping out with my salt and pepper. Phil

Sounds good (but it's not cold here yet).

BTW, I added the bit about salt you put in another and deleted that thread (which I think you started instead of editing the post!), you need to edit this where it should go in the actual post

[thomsax]

I love that kind of food!! You can also serve it with butterfried white bread/Toast Melba (without crust). I use to serve a stew/casserole at our saxmeetings. Easy to serve - easy to eat. While we are eating and drinking the song "Memphis Soul Stew" is running in the background!

Thomas

[thehunt]

Amazing, did you play the sax afterwards with a mouthful of Stew??
Wish my sax meetings were like that

[thomsax]

If we play after eating, it's important to rinse our mouths with redwine. Beer and snaps is also working!

[Jules]

If we play after eating, it's important to rinse our mouths with redwine. Beer and snaps is also working!

never found being full of food to be good for my horn playing- i play best when hungry!

[thomsax]

Here in Scandinavia most musicans are eating before they're playing. They like to be full of food when they're playing! Maybe our Viking inheritance? When I worked at restaurants I gave the musicians very good food. From the Meny! I treated the saxman/men like Kings! My Soul Brothers. The guitar player ...... .

[thehunt]

I used to live in Germany years ago and drank many a schnapps. I also used to work for a Dane who was Viking, 6ft 4" blond blue eyes big bushy beard and he had hollow legs. He was always filling them up with beer and wine, as well as eating copious amounts of food. Mind you he was not a sax player. I'm with Nachoman i prefer to play on an empty stomach.