Archie and Gabel try one of Julia’s most iconic main dishes, and scourge of our spell checkers, Boeuf Bourguignon.
Ingredient List:
- Chuck or beef shoulder. Julia suggests 3.5-4 pounds for six people, or about ½ pound per person.
- Enough bacon for 1 cup of lardons
- Pork rind to blanch
- 3+ cups of Red wine
- 2 cups of beef stock
- Bay leaf
- Thyme
- 1 dried orange peel
- A few cloves of garlic
- 1 whole tomato
- Tomato paste
- Enough white onions to crowd a pan (SMALL onions. She uses the mini ones)
- Enough mushrooms to crowd a pan
- 3 tbsp butter
- 3 tbsp flour
For a vegetarian version, Archie and Gabel substituted the meat with Beyond Beef Steak, beef stock with vegetable stock, and omitted the lardons and pork rind entirely. To make the recipe vegan, you could also swap butter for vegetable oil.
Instructions:
- Preheat your oven to 325 degrees
- Cut up chuck along the seams into 2.5-3 inch chunks, pat them dry, and set them aside
- Simmer the bacon in 2 quarts of water for 10 minutes, then drain. While you’re at it, blanch the pork rind by boiling it briefly and then dipping in cool water (screech optional)
- Cut the bacon into small pieces and sauté in your pan to render out the oil. Set the lardons aside, and brown the chuck in the pan with the lardon oil. Once each piece is browned, place it into a casserole dish. This should take about 10 minutes
- Deglaze the pan with red wine or water, and add the drippings to the casserole
- Add an additional 3 cups of good red wine and 2 cups of stock to the casserole so that the meat is submerged, and bring to a simmer
- Add seasonings: blanched pork rind (Gabel’s favorite), bay leaf, thyme, dried orange peel, garlic, tomato, and tomato paste. Stir and add salt to taste
- Cover the casserole dish and place it in the oven to cook for 2-4 hours, checking after 1.5 hours
- Peel and cut your onions, then cook in ½ inch of lightly salted water. Add the lardons and simmer for 30 minutes
- Quarter and saute mushrooms in a pan with hot oil. Do not crowd the pan! Once they’re cooked, add them to the onions
- Set aside the meat, and drain the liquid from the casserole dish into a saucepan. Wipe the casserole dish, and put the meat back inside
- Boil the sauce, skimming grease, and correct seasoning
- Mix together the flour and butter to create a beurre manie, beat the mixture into the sauce until it’s absorbed, then continue vigorously stirring over the heat until the sauce thickens. Keep an eye out for steam!
- Add the onion and mushroom mixture into the casserole, then pour the sauce over the whole thing and simmer for 5 minutes to combine
- Put onto a platter to serve, or bring the whole casserole to the table for a family style meal
