In celebration of National Women’s Month, I figured I’d highlight the OG’s (original grandmas) of popularized cooking. Popularized cooking? I said what I said. We all grew up, hopefully, being fed by a parent or other parental figure. If you’re my age and older, chances are this was your mother, aunt, sister, or grandmother. Women have held families together by saving money making struggle meals, ensuring their children are nourished to the best of their ability, instilling a sense of creativity in their children by taking risks on a new recipe, or just ensuring the family comes together at the table to eat a meal and keep the lines of communication open. It’s not an easy feat. It became even harder when women started expanding their rightfully equal societal role into the workplace. However, it was rare that they also were able to shirk some of their domestic burdens onto someone else.
As my first OG relayed in “My Life in France”, “...the American housewife had to juggle cooking the soup and boiling the diapers-adding, ‘if she mixed the two together, imagine what a lovely combination that would make!’” This characteristically off-the-cuff wit comes from none other than Julia Child. Julia was probably the first woman, besides my mother, whom I watched cook at an early age. While not the very first tv chef, she was a pioneering, and most popular, voice here in America; iconic enough to be lampooned by Dan Akroid on Saturday Night Live skits - a tell-tale sign of being a prodigious presence. But, imagine my surprise, decades later after first seeing her on tv, laying my eyes upon her in an exhibit at the CIA! No, not the Culinary Institute of America...the other CIA - we all have our own interesting stories, don’t we? Mine is not as cool as working on shark repellent, though!
Julia’s tv show (popularized cooking!) was also the first place I was “introduced” to Jacques Pepin, who, if you’ve been following this blog, you should know I absolutely adore. But, for most American viewers, it was also their first glimpse at real deal French-style cuisine and cooking techniques. Best of all, my mom and I would watch Julia on PBS. It was (and still is, trust me) hard for the French cuisine to translate to the American public. It’s difficult to find quality, or similar, ingredients here in the states, even now, to make some great French dishes. The beauty of her approach was that she understood both the French cuisine and the struggle (and basic culinary knowledge) of the American consumer. So, in honor of Julia, I’m making the dish she first introduced to all of us, Boeuf Bourguignon. However, I’m combining 2 different recipes of hers to get the closest French approximation of the dish you can make.
If you’d like, watch her first ever show, where she demonstrated the abbreviated version of this meal, right here.
Julia’s Best Boeuf Bourguignon Adapted from My Best Beef Stew, Food & Wine, Julia Child and Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Julia Child
Warning, this meal will take you 4 days to make! However, it’s not really too involved, and is the best return on your investment for flavor-to-time-spent on preparing a meal. You will not believe the depth of flavor achieved in this meal. One note, I meant to add some tomato paste to this meal and totally forgot. I will be making it again in the future to see if it makes the sauce better or if relying on the fresh tomatoes from one version of her recipe is sufficient enough, and will update this recipe accordingly.
Marinade and Stew
~3-4 lbs chuck roast, trimmed of sinew, and cut into large 1.5-2” chunks
Kosher salt
Whole black peppercorns
Thyme
Large onion, peeled, halved and sliced thinly
1.5 lbs carrots, sliced ¼-inch thick
3-4 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
Extra-virgin olive oil
3 tbsp red wine vinegar
6 oz slab bacon (request a large chunk, unsliced, from the butcher counter)
4 chopped plum tomatoes
Bay leaves
Beef stock
Bottle of young red wine - such as pinot noir, Beaujolais, or other burgundy
Garnis
2 carrots, sliced thinly on the bias
6 oz whole baby bella mushrooms
Small bag of fresh pearl onions
Beef stock
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp flour, if needed
Day 1
Trim your meat and place in a large bowl and sprinkle on 1 tbsp of kosher salt. Place 1 tsp of black peppercorns on a work surface, and using the bottom of a large skillet, crush the peppercorns and add them to the bowl. Toss in 2 or 3 sprigs of fresh thyme, the sliced onion, carrots and garlic. Pour on 1/4 cup of evoo and mix thoroughly with your hands or a large spoon. Sprinkle on the red wine vinegar and mix thoroughly again. Cover the bowl and place in the refrigerator for at least 12 hours.
Day 2
Slice the top 1/2 inch of bacon rind from the slab. Then, slice the remaining bacon into lardons about ¼-inch wide and add them, along with the long slice of rind to a medium-sized pot with 6 cups of water and bring to a boil over high heat. When it comes to the boil, reduce the heat to a simmer and continue cooking for 10 minutes. Drain and reserve all of the bacon.
Meanwhile, remove the meat from the bowl and dry with paper towels. Let stand at room temperature while you prepare the bacon.
In a large stainless steel skillet, heat a tablespoon of evoo over medium heat with the bacon and render, cooking until browned, but not crisped/burned, about 5 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, remove the rendered bacon and return the pan to the heat (with the rendered fat) and increase the heat to medium-high.
Brown the meat in the skillet in 2 separate batches. Do not overcrowd the pan so that the meat sears, as opposed to steams. You want to achieve really good, deep, dark, browning on the meat. When the first batch of meat is cooked, place it on a large plate or casserole and cook the remaining beef.
Meanwhile, in a large dutch oven, sauté the vegetables and any juices, from the bowl over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the onions are soft and translucent. When finished return the vegetables to the empty bowl.
When all of the beef has been seared, transfer the meat, rendered bacon, and any accumulated juices to the now-empty large dutch oven and cover the meat with the cooked vegetables from the bowl.
Remove the rendered fat from the pan and return the pan to the heat. Deglaze the pan by pouring in ⅓ cup of water and use a wooden spoon to scrape up any browned bits and pour it all on top of the beef and vegetables in the dutch oven.
Top the sautéed vegetables and meat with the chopped tomatoes and bay leaves. Pour in 1.5 cups of beef stock and the bottle of red wine. Cover the pot and refrigerate for about 12 hours.
Day 3
Preheat the oven to 300 degrees and place the rack in the lower-third.
Place the covered pot on the stove and bring to a simmer over medium heat, never stirring.
When the pot has reached a full simmer, move the covered pot to the oven and cook for about 2.5 hours. Check the meat. If it is not fork-tender, cook for another 30 minutes.
When the meat is fork-tender, cool completely, cover and place back in the fridge and let sit overnight.
Day 4
Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Return the pot to a gentle simmer over medium heat. Remove the meat and place in a casserole dish. Cover and place in the oven to keep warm.
Carefully pour the remaining pot contents into a fine mesh strainer above a large bowl, letting the broth work through the vegetables. Then, using a rubber spatula, press the cooked vegetables to have them release any more juices into the bowl. Pour the reserved cooking liquid into a fat separator measuring cup and let sit for about 10 minutes, so the fat can rise to the top.
Meanwhile, bring a small pot of water to a boil. Slice the root end from the onions and throw them into the boiling water and cook for a minute or so. Using a slotted spoon, remove the onions to a bowl and let cool. Repeat with the sliced carrots, boiling them for 2-3 minutes and drain the pot, reserve the sliced carrots in a bowl.
When the onions are cooled, squeeze the onions from the papery outer-pod and discard the outer layer.
Clean the mushrooms, thinly slicing a sliver of the dried root end off of the stem. Preheat the now empty pot which you used to blanch the onion and carrots over medium-high heat. Let the empty pot get super-heated, about 5 minutes or so, then drop in the cleaned mushrooms and let them brown, shaking the pan every few minutes and letting them brown/sear again. After about 5 minutes or so, start shaking the pan more frequently (as you shake the pan, it will probably sound like chirping birds - (this is good, it’s cooking out the excess moisture - think of it like basketball shoes on a court, squeaking from the friction).
When the mushrooms are no longer looking sweaty, add in some beef broth, almost covering the mushrooms, and stir. When the liquid has nearly evaporated, add in a tbsp of butter and allow it to melt, then add in the reserved onions and give a stir to coat and add in more stock to come up halfway of the vegetables. Simmer until nearly all the liquid has evaporated and remove the pot from the heat.
Clean out the dutch oven with a paper towel, removing any chunks from the cooking surface.
Carefully pour in the reserved cooking broth, avoiding too much fat from getting in the pot. Add in the blanched sliced carrots and bring the broth to a simmer and reduce for five minutes.
If the stock is too runny, whisk the flour and 1.5 tbsp of water in a small bowl then take about a ¼ cup of hot broth from the dutch oven and whisk to incorporate. Then whisk the slurry back into the dutch oven and let simmer for a few minutes to thicken the sauce.
When ready to serve, place a couple of pieces of warm beef on a plate, spoon the warmed broth and carrots over the meat. Place the reserved cooked onions and mushrooms on the plate around the beef and spoon some more sauce on top.
______________________________ Copyright 2021, Brendan McCann, All Rights Reserved.
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