Beef Bourguignon

Beef braised in red wine for three hours, where the meat is dried and browned in small batches and the wine is reduced before it goes in.

Beef. Not vegetarian — contains beef, beef stock, lardons, which are pork.

Ingredients

For the braise

• 1.5 kg beef shin or chuck, in 5 cm pieces
• 1 bottle full-bodied red wine
• 150 g smoked lardons
• 2 onions, chopped
• 2 carrots, in thick rounds
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed
• 2 tablespoons plain flour
• 2 tablespoons tomato purée
• 500 ml beef stock
• 2 bay leaves
• a few thyme sprigs
• 3 tablespoons oil
• salt and pepper

For the garnish

• 300 g button onions, peeled
• 300 g button mushrooms
• 30 g butter
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• chopped parsley

Method

1. THE WINE IS REDUCED BY HALF BEFORE IT GOES IN, and that is the difference from the chicken braise on this site. Coq au vin marinates the bird overnight and the wine goes in raw after skimming; here the beef is not marinated at all and the wine is boiled down to concentrate it first. Three hours of beef needs a wine that has already lost its sharpness, and a bottle poured in raw stays thin and acidic however long it cooks.
2. THE BEEF IS DRIED AND BROWNED IN SMALL BATCHES, which sounds fussy and is the difference between a dark sauce and a grey one. Three or four pieces at a time in a pan that stays hot. Crowded, they release water, the temperature falls and they stew -- and nothing after that point puts the colour back.
3. SHIN RATHER THAN A LEAN CUT. It has the collagen that turns to gelatine over three hours and gives the sauce its body. A lean braising steak stays dry however long it cooks.
4. The wine poured into a pan and boiled hard until reduced by half. Set aside.
5. Beef patted very dry and seasoned.
6. Lardons fried in the oil in a heavy casserole until crisp, lifted out.
7. Beef browned in the same fat in FOUR batches, 4 minutes a batch, each lifted out before the next goes in.
8. Onions, carrots and garlic softened in the fat 10 minutes.
9. Flour stirred in, 2 minutes. Tomato purée, 1 minute.
10. The reduced wine and the stock poured in and whisked smooth. Beef and lardons back with the bay and thyme.
11. Brought to a bare simmer, lid on, into a 150C oven for 3 HOURS. The meat should give completely to a spoon.
12. Garnish cooked separately as for the chicken braise: button onions glazed in butter, sugar and water, mushrooms fried hard in the same pan. Folded in for the last 15 minutes.
13. The sauce reduced on the hob if it is thin. Parsley over. Better the next day and better still the day after.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under France · All recipes