The Boeuf Bourguignon Recipe is not as difficult as it looks

When you read any recipe for Boeuf Bourguignon, the first thing you see is “fry, set aside” / “fry, set aside” / “fry, set aside”. This sounds terribly frightening and intimidating to a novice cook. Further more the list of ingredients looks terrifying as well, but actually it’s not. Let’s make it easy. Here is the whole recipe and the method in 5 easy steps.

Most of the ingredients for Boeuf Bourgiognon you might already have in your pantry, if not all.

A Touch of France!

How to Make Boeuf Bourguignon the easy way

Course: Main

Cuisine: French

Serving: 4 persons

Time: 2 to 3 hours

Rating:

 5/5

Ingredients

1 tbsp. Olive oil or cooking oil
50 g Butter
1 kg Lean stewing beef, cut into 2-inch cubes (Chuck or rump)
1 pkt. (200g) Diced bacon
1 Diced carrot
1 Diced onion
2 tbsp. Flour
3 cups Red Wine
300 ml Beef stock
1 tbsp. Tomato paste
1 Clove of crushed garlic
20 to 24 Small white onions / Pickling onions
500 g Button Mushrooms

What is a Bouquet Garni?

It is simply your favorite fresh herbs / or the fresh herbs that you would like to use in your dish, all tied up with string to make it easy to extract later.

Method

STEP 1

1 Tbsp. olive oil or cooking oil
50g butter

To fry the onions in

STEP 2

1 kg lean stewing beef, cut into 2-inch cubes (Chuck or rump)
1 packet (200g) of diced bacon (lean)
1 diced carrot
1 diced onion (I love the taste of the red onion)

Add the above to the sautéed onions and fry for about 1 to 2 minutes.

STEP 3

2 Tbsp. flour
3 cups full-bodied, red wine

Sprinkle the flour over the meat and cook for about 1 minute while stirring the whole time. Gradually stir in the wine.

STEP 4

Now add

300 ml beef stock
1 Tbsp. tomato paste
1 clove crushed garlic
20 to 24 small white onions / pickling onions
500g quartered fresh button mushrooms

Add the Bouquet Garni which is, in this case, a combination of Parsley, Thyme or Rosemary (depending on your taste) and 2 bay leaves.

Season with 1 tsp. salt and 1/4 tsp. pepper

STEP 5

Put the lid on and simmer over low heat for about 2 to 3 hours or until the beef starts to become tender.

Have you seen the movie?

The movie Julie & Julia made me think of this recipe…

The origin of the recipe

Julia Child made this recipe famous and she called it “certainly one of the most delicious beef dishes concocted by man“. Today you can still buy her book “Mastering the art of French Cooking” to get the original recipe.

Strangely enough, according to Wikipedia the dish was first documented in the 19th century and similar recipes was named “à la Bourguignonne” (made with leg of lamb or rabbit). Therefor it is not a very old recipe according to the people in the know, but it is delicious and the perfect recipe for the winter.