Posts Tagged boeuf bourguignon

Boeuf Bourguignon with fettucini

What’s the best cut of meat to use?

Chunks of beef slowly cooked in red wine and lardons until it’s soft and the liquid is thick and dark – that’s the simple aim. But there are so many versions of this peasant-turned-classy dish that many of the finer points are just garnishes to the main meal. Here are a few variations.

A Table for Two: Recipe derived from Trish Deseine. Chuck/rump steak, marinated in wine. Bacon and mushrooms added. Anthony Bourdain on Techniques: Suggested the best cut is neck, next is shoulder (which is where chuck is derived from). Don’t worry about the marinating just get on with it! Julia Child’s version also forgoes the marinating. Guillaume Brahimi (check his Frenchy-ness at 1.48 min) has a version with a cut of Wagu beef. He doesn’t marinate the meat ( I hope the white streaks is connective tissue and not fat). To thicken the sauce, Guillaume added carrot purée.

When you think about it, boeuf Bourguignon is really the same as coq au vin – rooster cooked in wine and lardons.

After browsing through the web and attempting my own, here are some important points.

1. The cut of beef is important. Chuck and oyster blade  is good and easy to get (cooking time 3-4hrs). Ox cheek has much more connective tissue and gives a very tender texture in the end. Some butchers sell them, though they can take a bit more effort to cut up. The cooking time also increased to 4-5 hours for ox cheek.
2. Marinating probably doesn’t matter much since the beef is cooked for 3-4 hours in the same liquid. When kept overnight and re-heated, there is ample time for all the flavours to develop
3. If you marinate, patting the beef dry is paramount to the next point
4. Brown your meat! Brown your meat!
5. Coating the beef in a light coating of flour might help with browning/flavour, but it helps to thicken the sauce. I avoided this by point 7
6. Depending on how you want your carrots and small, whole onions/shallots in the end, add them 1-2 hours before you finish. Onions will start to break apart after 1 hr. Carrots just get softer.
7. Apart from the wine, most recipes call for beef/veal stock. supermarket stock is ok but never as good and homemade. I improvised with added 5-6 pieces of ox tail as it has ample gelatin in the connective tissue. The gelatin thickens up the sauce and give it a slick mouth feel (jus is really a concentrated version of stock containing gelatin from the meat). Ox tail also has some very tender meet on it. Just remove meet from the bone near the end of cooking time and return the meat back in the pot.
8. I like adding soy sauce instead of salt. More umami flavour. People wont recognize and ‘Asian’ flavours in the final product

brown the meat for the 4th time!

The version I made this time does not contain lardons (or bacon). I wanted something that tasted of pure beef and wine.

• Chuck steak, 0.8-1kg, cubed  into equal sizes, around 3cm size
• 6 pieces of ox tail. Small ones with less meat is fine. The connective tissue is the important component
• 1 large onion diced
• 1 bottle of red wine
• 1 celery stick or a few parsley stalks
• 2-3 bay leaves
• 3 carrots, cut into equal 3cm sized cubes/lengths
• soy sauce, 30 ml
• 1 stable spoon of tomato paste
• 12-15 shallots or small white onions
• 10-12 white mushrooms, sliced thick (3-4 slices per mushroom)
• Flat-leaf parsley

chuck steak, whole slice

1. Put a thick based pot on medium-high heat, add some olive oil/grape seed oil. Brown the ox tail and beef cubes in small batches to ensure the pan is always hot. Remove the meat and set aside
2. Sweat onions in the same pot, then return the meat into the pot
3. Add all the wine. If the meat is still not covered, add some water
4. Add a stick of celery, pepper, tomato paste, bay leaf, carrot and soy sauce
5. Place lid on and cook on low heat for 2 hour
6. Remove celery and bay leaf
7. Brown mushrooms in some butter or olive oil. Add some water to start with helps.
8. Add mushrooms, shallot/white onions into the pot
9. Cook lid off to reduce the liquid until the sauce can coat the back of a spoon or you feel like it will sit well on pasta. About 1 hour.
10. De-bone the ox tail, return the meat back in the pot
11. Cool the pot down, then in the fridge overnight
12. Skim the fat off the top
13. Re-heat, garnish with parsley and it’s ready!

developing a deep colour

Just added carrots and shallots, time to reduce with lid open

If you want to add lardons, have 150 gm slices into strips 1-2cm wide. Render the fat and lightly brown the smoky pork goodness just after browning the meat. Add the onions after the lardons are just lightly coloured.

Serve boeuf Bourguignon with fettucini or pappardelle or mashed potatoes. On a cold night like this, returning home to the smell of this concoction bubbling away is comforting. Note, best results if  you walk into a house with someone making the dish. You can bring the wine.