This weekend it was a gooood weekend! The weather was fantastic, forecast was good and I hade the fridge filled with beautiful ingredients. Also, it was something I wanted to try for quite some time now. Boeuf bourguignon, Dutch Oven Style.
I started out on saturday to cut the beef in squares of about 1 inch. I had about 2,5 kg of meat, so a big bowl full of meat was the end result.
I prepped the veggies, carrots, unions and mushrooms, in big chunks, and got the bacon. When I had all my ingredients ready, I fired up the starter with coals, and prepared a nice working area outside. I loved it!
When I had my coals ready, I placed about 9 or 10 of them below the pan and let it get really hot. When it was nice and hot, I put the bacon in and stirred that to perfection, after which I removed it from the pan again, but left the fat in the pan. I dried the pieces of beef and salted and peppered them accordingly. Once dried up, I put them in to the pan, one layer at the time, to brown them and close them up all the way round. Took some time, with 2,5 kg, but I managed to get it done.
After this was finished, I had a very big bowl of meat (beef and bacon), and started to put the carrots and unions in the pan, for about 15-20 minutes, to soften it up. After about 10-12 minutes I’ve added a lot of garlic and the mushrooms to the pan.
When all the vegetables were getting nice and soft, I’ve added about 1 tablespoon of salt and 2 tablespoons of grounded pepper. Stirred it nice through and put in some Booz. I used Marsalla, since I didn’t have cognac, but preferable that would be the choice, of course. Cognac can also be flambéd, but the Marsalla didn’t. Nevertheless, it gives a nice bite to the food.
I’ve put in the meat again and gave it a careful stir to mix it up nicely. Once done, I’ve added 2 cans of tomato puree and 2 cans of sour little unions (without the moist, of course). Some secret mix of Boeuf Bourguignon herbs, bought on a little market in Bretagne finished it off. Adding the wine now (2 Â bottles, to cover the meat up nicely) and we were good to go.
I’ve put about 10 coals below the DO and 16-18 on top. Just let it simmer softly for the time it needs.
I had anticipated on about 2,5-3 hours, but the harsh truth is that it took me twice that, roughly. No problem, it was a beautiful night with friends, and I had some other things on the Q to go as well.
We ate it the next day, with some home made bread (DO style 😉 ) and a glass of good red wine.
Fantastic!
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