Boeuf for a winter’s night

Boeuf Bourgignon

While my husband has been unwell I’ve shared the cooking. Once he’s got started his ideas come flooding back and he’s good to go but, some evenings, his post-surgery anxiety prevents him from taking the initial steps.

At our local French restaurant, owned and run by French chef Christophe, I enjoyed a superb boeuf bourgignon. I had made it myself the week before but my sauce was less rich than Christophe’s. On the day of our visit our hyperactive chef was up a ladder repainting the exterior to his eaterie. At any moment I expected him to strip off his overalls, wash his hands, tie on his wrap-around apron and start cooking but on this day he stuck to one thing. Decorating!

When we left I asked him how he got such a rich sauce for his boeuf bougignon. My recipe was a ‘Delia’ and was part-cooked with white wine ( that was a mistake - red wine is a must). After a lot of joshing from Christophe about using a Gordon Ramsay recipe he said the secret to a good boeuf bourgignon was in separately cooking each of the ingredients and laying them to one side until your dish was ready for the oven. And then there was the special, secret ingredient.

‘What’s that, Christophe?’

‘It’s a trade secret.’

However, undaunted, I took to my cookbooks and discovered The Hairy Bikers wrote a recipe very in keeping with the Frenchman’s preferred method: each part of the dish treated separately. The net result was a truly rich,thick sauce and melting meat. It took approximately 2 hours 5 mins as I used ingredients for two people - cut down from a recipe for six.

Stage 1

9 oz good-quality braising steak (diced)

2-4 tbsp olive oil

freshly ground  ground black pepper

31/2 oz lardons ( or diced bacon) 

1/2 onion (finely chopped) and 1 clove garlic ( crushed or finely chopped)

38 cl red wine

1 tbsp tomato puree ( a generous spoonful)

1 beef stock cube

1-2 bay leaves

leaves from a sprig of thyme

1. In a large saucepan heat 2 tbsp olive oil, season the steak with ground black pepper, take a third of the meat and brown the steak evenly over a medium heat. Lay to one side. When the steak is browned all over transfer it to a flame-proof casserole dish.
2. Pour a little more oil into the pan in which the beef was browned and fry the bacon for 2-3 minutes until it is crispy and beginning to brown. Scatter the bacon over the meat. Add a touch more oil to the frying pan and fry the chopped onion over a low heat for 5-6 minutes, stirring often until softened. Stir the garlic into the pan and cook for one minute more. Turn the oven on to 170 degC, 150 fan or gas mark 3.
3. Add the cooked onion and garlic to the pan with the meat and pour over the wine. Stir in the tomato purée and 150ml/5fl oz water. Sprinkle the stock cube into a little water, allow it to dissolve, pour over the meat, add the herbs and stir. Place the casserole on a ring, bring it to boiling point and quickly allow it to simmer for a moment. Stir well, cover with a lid and transfer it to the oven. Cook for 1 hour 20 mins, or until the beef is almost completely tender. This stage can take 13/4 hours if you are cooking for six.

Stage 2

1oz butter. 

12 silverskin onions 

5 oz button chestnut mushrooms, wiped, peeled and halved or quartered (5 oz).               

2 heaped tbsp cornflour

2 tbsp cold water

freshly chopped parsley, to garnish

1. While the beef is cooking, wash and peel the mushrooms and halve or quarter them.
2. A few minutes before the beef is ready, ie by the time it’s tender, melt half of the butter in a large non-stick frying pan with a touch of oil and fry the onions over a medium heat for about five minutes, or until golden-brown on all sides. Tip into a bowl. Add the remaining butter and mushrooms to the pan and cook for 2-3 minutes over a fairly high heat until golden-brown, turning often. 
3. Mix the 2 tbsp cornflour with the 2 tbsp water in a small bowl until smooth. Don’t halve the flour ingredients if only cooking for two. It’s best to keep 2 tbsps flour & water to keep the sauce thick and rich.
4. When the meat is tender remove the casserole from the oven and stir in the cornflour mixture, followed by the onions and mushrooms. Return to the oven and cook for 45 minutes more, or until the beef is melting and the sauce is rich, tasty & thick. 

Enjoy!

A superb sample of French cuisine in your own kitchen.

And the trick is to use red wine and keep the sauce thick and rich. I still don’t know what Christophe’s secret ingredient is but this version from The Hairy Bikers was almost as good.