Julia's Boeuf Bourguignon

Today I had a kitchen fire.

I've never had one before. It was somewhat exciting. Actually, it was more annoying than exciting, because no matter how much I blew on it, to put out the fire, it kept popping up. I guess it didn't help I poured a bunch of butter/oil down into the burner well--- aparently oil ignites fairly easily. Only after I realized the burner was on HI did I figure that turning that off would help as well. I'm just glad I didn't overreact and spray fire retardant all over my meal. That does a lot to dampen the flavors of anything you make.

Michelle is coming over tonight, and I thought I'd make my pièce de résistance--- Julia Child's Boeuf Bourguignon. The day after I'd gotten Julia's cookbook for Christmas (and watched the movie), I just HAD to try it. The fanciest beef dish I'd had before that was our weekly dinner, Boeuf de Sunday Roast, which after 15 years had gotten a trifle old. Boeuf Bourguignon sounded, well, better. And BOY was it ever.

WARNING: This dish should not be done as a spur-of-the-moment sort of thing. It takes a good 2 hours to prepare--- even with help--- and it'll be done about 4 hours after you start. You'll also need some kitchen supplies. Most important is a good pot that you can use both on the kitchen top and in the oven. The first time I made it, I used a Dutch oven, which worked pretty well (except the clean-up was hard). Knowing it would be a dish I'd make more often, I invested in a really nice porcelain Dutch oven (about $60 bucks at Wal-mart). It was pricy, but I LOVE my new Boeuf pan. It works *perfectly*.

On with the recipe. It's involved, so follow it pretty closely.

BOEUF BOURGUIGNON
by Julia Childs, Mastering the Art of French Cooking

ingredients:
6 oz bacon lardons (see below)
1 Tb olive oil
3 lbs lean stewing beef cut into 2 inch cubes
1 sliced carrot
1 sliced onion
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
2 Tb flour
3 cups of a full-bodied wine -- see next paragraph for types
2-3 cups brown beef stock or canned beef bouillon
1 Tb tomato paste
2 cloves mashed garlic
1/2 tsp thyme
crumbled bay leaf

Julia Child recommends the following wine: "a full-bodied, young young red wine, such as Beauolais, Côtes du Rhone, Bordeaux-St-Émilion, or Burgundy. I used one I found at the local wine store-- a 2007 Côtes du Rhone-Villages wine by Louis Bernard, costing me about 11 bucks. I think a wine in any of the classes above in the $10 range should be ok. I wouldn't go with the cheapest, but that's just me.

Pre-heat the oven to 425°. First you need 6 oz "lardons" which are like 1/4" x 1/4" by 1 1/2" pieces of bacon. I got the thickest cut bacon slices I could find, and just sliced the bacon into 1/4 inch strips. You *MUST* gently boil them for 10 minutes--- I found out later that American bacon is smoked, while French bacon is not, and if you don't boil the bacon pieces, your bourguignon will be compromised by the overwhelming taste of smoked bacon.

While the bacon was boiling, I dried off the pieces of stewing meat. I just got the meat at the grocery store, and tried to find the best and biggest pieces of meat. Try to avoid the small ones--- you will understand later on in the cooking process. The bigger the better. I just used paper towel to dry them off. Again, this is an important step--- if they're not dry, they will not brown, and you won't get the crispy sides that just add a lot of dimension to the final dish. After the meat was dried, the bacon was ready to cook.

The olive oil goes into the big dutch oven, on the stove, and I cooked the bacon in it, just barely browning it, not crisping it. I took it out, and then came the worst part of the whole process: browning the meat. It pretty much splattered grease all over everywhere--- but trust me, it's worth it. I definitely used more oil than Julia stated in her recipe, but I wonder if it's because the meat soaks up some of it, or more likely it splattered all over the stove. In any case, I got the meat browned, and cut up the carrot and onion, and got them browned too. Then I dumped the meat and bacon back in. I mixed the dry ingredients together (flour, salt, pepper), and tossed the meat in it. Itmade a nice paste looking coating on the meat. I then put the whole pot in the oven for 4 minutes on the middle rack (to brown the flour --- helps get a nice crust on the meat). I took it out, tossed again, and then put it in the oven again for 4 minutes (browning it again). IMMEDIATELY turn the oven down to 325°.

Then came the fun part. You get to pour 3 cups of the wine in the pot (make sure to measure, you'll want the rest for the onions), then poured in enough beef stock in to barely cover the meat (I flattened out the meat too, so I wouldn't get too much gravy to have to reduce). Then throw everything else in (I used fresh thyme--- I think it tastes better, and it's cheap to get if you have some growing in your garden) and simmer it. Once it's simmering, it goes in the oven for 2 1/2 hours on the bottom rack --- I just removed the top rack and put it on the very bottom rack. Once it's in, it just simmers until it's done.

While it was simmering, I made the brown-braised white onions and the fresh mushrooms sautéed in butter. Those go in right before you serve it and make this dish really shine. Those recipes will follow on this blog.

After the meat is simmered and is really tender (a fork should pierce it easily), I removed the dish, and poured the meat into a colander and strained the sauce into a pan. I heated the sauce and reduced it just a bit until it was fairly thick --- enough to coat a spoon lightly. There was a bit of oil on the top, but I just skimmed it off. I put the meat back in the pot, put the onions and mushrooms on top of the meat, and then poured the sauce over the meat and vegetables. After bringing it to a simmer again, I simmered it for a couple of minutes, letting the flavors mix a final time. And now it's ready to serve.

I'd better go try to get the burnt smell out of the house. She'll be here in an hour.

Clafouti --- Julia Child style

I got a Julia Child recipe book for Christmas. Ok I got THE Julia Child recipe book for Christmas. I immediately set out to try out the hallmark dish of the book (and the movie --- pretty good flick I must add) --- boeuf bourgignonne, and have made it several times since. I also tried the Bavarian Cream... which is well worth the effort. And I'm sure I'll talk about those in later posts when I make them again.

I was leafing through the cookbook the other day with my friend Jamon and we of course had turned to the dessert section (I'm rather partial to sugar). I also had a hunkering for cherries. Jamon had told me he'd had a clafouti and didn't really care for it much... but then again, he told me that about Boeuf Bourgignon, and he'd done a 180 on it after I'd cooked him some. So, after a few weeks of thinking... and thinking... and thinking... about it, I decided to make it. After all, Julia claims that it is a super simple dish. Sometimes the simplest ones are the tastiest.


Clafouti [Cherry Flan]
from Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking

3 cups pitted black cherries
1 1/4 cups milk
1/3 cup granulated sugar
3 eggs
1 Tb vanilla extract
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 cup flour

Basically you are supposed to blend all the ingredients (except the cherries) in a blender, pour a bit of batter in the bottom of a 7-8 cup pan (I used an 8x8" square pyrex dish), get that a bit cooked, pour the cherries in, shake 1/3 cup granulated sugar over the cherries, and pour the rest of the batter over it. You're then supposed to bake it at 350 for about an hour.

Well, her variation sounded interesting... Clafouti à la Liqueur... in which you soak the cherries in 1/4 cup kirsch (a cherry liqueur) and the 1/3 cup sugar for an hour, then put the rest in, but omitting 1/4 cup of the milk and the 1/3 cup sugar you're supposed to shake on top. (See here for a champion blogger's discussion on kirsch.) I decided to try it.

Pitting the cherries was kinda fun. I didn't feel like spending $10 on a cherry pitter (I'd just bought the kirsch), and after googling some other people's experiences, I just opted to use some scissors to pop them out. I poked a hole in the bottom of the cherry, then pushed the pit out from the top after removing the stem. It actually went really quickly, and though I was sad to see those cherries with holes torn in them, I figured my teeth would thank me for removing the pits. I stirred the kirsch and the sugar together, then poured it over the cherries. I also read somewhere on google (sorry citation police, I have no idea where) that soaking the pits in the kirsch mixture would add a sort of almond undertone to the dessert. I figured, what the heck.

While I soaked it, I made some dinner, relaxed, and started this blog.

I dusted off the blender and whipped up the batter. It's a bit on the runny side. I coated the bottom bit and put it in the oven to create the cake bottom (I guess that's what I am supposed to be doing with it) while I extracted the pits from the cherry mix. I think next time I'll either omit the pits, or put them in cheesecloth so they can't wander back up inside the cherries. I thought the batter bit would be done, but it wasn't, so I waited a bit longer. I might have made it too thick, but after maybe 7 minutes it came out pretty firm. I put the cherry syrup mixture on, then poured the rest of the batter, and popped it in the oven.

An hour later... and the clafouti is out of the oven. Don't be alarmed when it falls after you take it out--- Julia assured me that it's supposed to be that way.

VERDICT: *really* good. The cherries still are firm and have that really good crunch to them, and the custard really complements the dish. It's very best eaten right out of the oven. And it was really easy to make... just pit the cherries, and blend the rest of the ingredients together. I might try it without the kirsch, to see if there is a big difference in it, but it tastes REALLY good. I'll be making this again.