Boeuf Bourginon

So, my year of conquering my terror of raw meat has come to an end. Here’s what I made this year:

January: Beef roast
February: Tacos
March: Pork roast
April: Enchilada casserole
May: Linguini with shrimp
June: Ground beef gravy with mashed potatoes
July: Tilapia Meuniere
August: Chicken breasts with mushrooms in cream sauce
September: Beef noodle soup
October: Delmonico steak
November: Halupki

I really did learn to be less horrified by raw meat, and I'm cooking with it more and more often. This experiment was such a resounding success for me, I'm trying to think of other things I could plug into this model. A Kiefer Sutherland movie each month in 2012, perhaps?

For my final meat meal of the year, I wanted to do something a little more extravagant and special, and I wanted to cook the meal for my family. I decided on Julia Child's signature dish, bouef bourginon.

This dish required me to deal with two kinds of meat (bacon and beef) and took about six hours of cooking. In the end the dish was so delicious and I learned that complex recipes with 34 steps are not something to be afraid of. You just start at step one and keep going through step 34, and in the end I had a knock-your-socks-off dinner that my family loved. Here it is in pictures...

There were 4 or 5 steps just for the bacon that started the recipe. You had to trim it, cut it into lardons, blanch it, saute it, and drain it. Really, Julia?

Carrots and onions were the vegetables that simmered with the dish. (Mushrooms are added later, but only after they've been quartered and braised according to strict instructions.) Because I was serving this to my father, I had to pull all the onions out at the end, but their delicious flavor remained.

Look away, Kristen! I had to pat the beef dry so that it would sear properly. This was the scariest part in terms of raw meat, but I definitely noticed the effects of my experiment. I grabbed that bacon with my bare hands and I didn't wig out if beef juice got on me. A year ago I'd have passed out, which is a painful prospect on my mother's ceramic tile floor.

My seared beef. I had to sear it in small batches so it didn't overcrowd, which took patience, but it was worth it.

Next, the carrots and sliced onions are browned, and when they hit the sauteing fat, the kitchen really starts to smell amazing.

Seventeen steps later, I had something starting to resemble the final product. 95% of that sauce is strong French red wine. Mom was just hoping little Jules didn't get drunk off of dinner. Jen was uncorking the bottles for me and after I poured the first bottle in and told her I needed the second uncorked, she exclaimed, "The second bottle! Are you sure you read that recipe correctly?"

Some sprigs of fresh thyme and it's ready for the oven. Julia's recipe said to simmer it for 3 - 4 hours, but I read that French beef (which she used when writing Mastering the Art of French Cooking) was tougher than American beef and she later said that Americans need only simmer it for about 2 hours, so that's what I did.

While the stew simmers, the mushrooms are braised in butter and olive oil. Julia recommends that you shake the pan to coat the mushrooms in butter and oil. Once they've absorbed the cooking fat, they'll brown nicely.

After the stew is finished in the oven, your work is not done. You have to sieve out the sauce, skim the fat, simmer it, add beef stock if necessary, and then re-baste your meat. This is also the proper time to dip a spoon into the sauce, taste it, and say to yourself, "Yum."

A little more simmering and it's ready to go. I served this with mashed potatoes (thanks to Jen for mashing them) and it was dynamite. (Dad went back for fourths.) I was so relieved it turned out well after all that work. We gobbled it up so fast, I forgot to get a photo of it on a plate, so I leave you with this shot.

Thanks for following my adventures in cooking with meat. Bon appetit!