Boeuf Bourguignon

How we make it.

4 ounces pancetta, diced
2 pounds beef round stew meat, cubed
1 pound beef chuck, cubed
3 tablespoons flour
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 pound shallots, sliced
4 carrots, chopped
2 cloves garlic, smashed
2 cups Bordeaux
2 cups beef stock
1 tablespoon tomato paste
5 sprigs of Thyme
1 pound cremini mushrooms, quartered
1 tablespoon butter

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. In a large heavy bottomed braiser over medium low heat, add pancetta and cook for 5-7 minutes until crispy. Remove pancetta from pan and set aside. Add olive oil to pan where you cooked the pancetta and raise heat to medium high. Toss the beef in a bowl with flour. Add beef to the pan, browning on every side for 4-5 minutes. You'll want to do this in two batches so there's enough room in the pan for the beef to brown and not steam. Remove beef and set aside. Add some more olive oil if the pan is too dry, batch browning can do that. Add shallots and carrots to the pan, cooking 4-5 minutes until softened. Add garlic, cooking a few minutes more. Once vegetables are tender, add the wine and scrape up any burnt bits with a wooden spoon, cooking for 2 minutes. Then add beef broth, thyme, beef, pancetta and tomato paste, stirring to combine and bringing to a simmer. Once simmering, cover with the lid and put in the oven to cook for 2 1/2 hours. 

Just before serving, sauté mushrooms in butter for 7-8 minutes until browned. Add the mushrooms to the boeuf bourguignon. Garnish with thyme. Serve warm with a baguette.

Why we make it.

Every New Year's Day I open Mastering the Art of French Cooking and look up Julia Child's recipe for Boeuf Bourguignon. Every year I forget how much I will never follow her recipe, until I see it again. And every year I make some different simpler version of my own. Once a year I take down her turquoise volume, pull out the idea that matters more than the instruction and throw it in my green pot to see what it tastes like. Here's the idea: someone passionate used her hands and her heart to tell us about the way people cooked and ate in a place that did those things really well, because she loved that place and wanted us to taste it, too. This is why I cook. It's the possibility I'm in love with more than the stew. It's the hands and the heart trying to tell you something through carrots, stock and mushrooms. Maybe you can taste it, too. Happy New Year. That's why I make it.