As some of you know I love the Beatles. I HATE when a different singer thinks he can just pop in, modify a Beatles song, and then sing it and expect us to like it. Because let me tell you, I will not like. Some things were created in perfection (which is why I had a hard time with the latest American Idol, but I digress). I don't, however, feel the same way about recipes. I don't care how famous and revered a chef (say... Julia Child) is, I mean a line must be drawn. I love recipes because they spark ideas and experimentation and I believe that you should always follow your gut (pun intended) when it comes to what you put into a dish. No strict-recipe-following! I mean, what are we, fascists?
(Yes, I realize that the same argument could be made about Beatles and music and them being a jumping point for other things, blah, blah, blah, shut up. This is my blog.)
I'd always been intimidated by Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child, I mean c'mon, Volumes 1 AND 2. But recently I found her show on DVD in the library,
The French Chef, and she made her recipes so much more accessible. So I tried a famous one. Boeuf bourguignon. If you compare my recipe and hers they will look nothing alike, but in my defense, what she did on the show was what I wrote down, plus I was writing on a scrap of paper, so I was hindered by shoddy tools. And, I was too cheap to buy pearl onions...or pieces of beef.
Oh, and of course I didn't think to take a picture until it was all gone. But that's a good thing because now your imagination has no visual limitations.
Boeuf Bourguignon a la Nat -
makes about 3 to 41 lb ground beef
4 large-ish potatoes, peeled, bite-size
1/2 lb mushrooms, quartered
1/2 lb green beans, cut in half
1/2 cup red wine
1/2 tsp thyme
1 bay leaf
1 garlic clove, diced
2 tbsp tomato paste
about 2-3 cups beef stock
salt
pepper
light oil
butter
flour
1. Cover bottom of oven-proof pot (if you want to use a crock pot, brown beef deglaze pan then stick beef, wine and other ingredients in crock pot and cook for about 45min) with oil and brown beef, but do it quickly so it doesn't cook all the way. Make sure you pat meat with paper towel so it's kinda dry. Put meat aside and deglaze pan with red wine. Put beef back into pot add stock just until all beef is covered. Add garlic, thyme, bay leaf, tomato paste, A LITTLE salt and pepper. Let it simmer for a few minutes.
2. Stick pot in 325 degree oven for about 30-45 min (or until you're done making the potatoes, green beans, mushrooms). Make sure it doesn't boil, just simmer.
3. Meanwhile boil potatoes until tender in lightly salted water, drain, sprinkle parsley on top and put aside as stew accompaniment.
4. Also sautee mushrooms in about 1 tbsp of butter and oil, just until tender and they reduce a bit.
5. Blanch green beans just to get the bright green color. Don't cook through.
6. Pull pot out of oven and set on burner. Keep at simmer. Notice about how much liquid you have (should be about 2 cups-ish). For every cup of liquid in the pot add a teaspoon of flour and butter in a dish and mash together to make a paste. (So two cups of liquid=2tbsp butter, 2tbsp flour).
7. Add butter/flour paste to stew and bring to a boil stirring constantly so as to dissolve paste. Once it has thickened a bit throw in mushrooms, green beans and let it simmer for a few minutes. Check for seasonings, make sure there isn't a raw flour taste.
8.Serve warm over boiled potatoes, thrown in a salad, bread and ta-dah! That was easy.
