I love a good stew, and I love any kind of food made with wine (it is just BETTER) but always get hung up at the cost of a good beef bourguignon (basically beef stew with WINE)
SO, through years of making this beef bourguignon recipe, I have continued to pick away at it to make it quicker to make, and better on the budget as well.
This pot fill lasts our family for at least two hearty meals, which I also love! Anytime leftovers are just as good (if not better than the first meal) I am sold!
Now in the “real recipe” this bourguignon calls for brandy, and “quality wine”. Now, I don’t spend more than 10$ a bottle on wine and I will def. not waste the “good stuff” on food.
And honestly, to my “untrained” palate, I don’t notice a difference.
Start with a big dutch oven sorta pot (a pot, with a lid, that can go in the oven and not melt!)
Toss in a bundle of bacon. I use “any bacon” not the expensive, smoked in a covent chimney bacon that is recommended.
Sautee it up in a few tablespoons of olive oil until it is cooked through (but not burnt) and then scoop it out with a slotted spoon to a “standing dish”
Leave the oil and bits in there and toss in the beef cubes. I buy the big pack of stewing beef, dry it a bit with some paper towel and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Then toss it in the pot, onto the hot oil, one layer only.
Brown all the sides and then remove the beef to the standing dish, and do until all the beef is browned on the outside.
Once the beef is browned, you now have a pot with remaining oil, bacon bits and beef bits. MMM. Yummy.
Dice up some carrots into chunky cubes for the next step. I like carrots, so I use about 6 good sized, peeled carrots.
Top and tail some little onions. You can also use frozen but I find the pain and suffering I endure prepping these little guys makes the dish all the more worth it in the end.
Toss both the carrots & the onions into the pot with the olive oil, and beef/bacon bits. Add salt, & pepper and stir until softened.
Add a crushed and diced clove of garlic into the pot, and stir for a minute. Then add the beef and bacon.
Stir up the yummy goodness and add RED WINE to cover the mixture. I use a bottle of red wine, MINUS a glass or two. It is only logical that you taste the wine during this process, and I find the missing glass (or two) doesn’t make a difference in the end.
Top the red wine with a TBS of tomato paste and beef stock until the whole she-bang is covered. Add in some rosemary- fresh if you have it, dried if you don’t.
Pop a lid on it and toss it into the oven, set to 250′ for 1hr and 15 minutes.
About 10 minutes before the oven timer goes off, sauté some mushrooms in a pan with butter until lightly browned. You will toss these in the mixture when you take it out of the oven.
NOTE: the pot will be hot. REALLY hot. Be careful. I have burned myself so many times on a dutch oven.
With the mushrooms added to the pot, continue to season with salt and pepper and then make a ROUX. (it makes me feel fancy just typing that!)
A ROUX is almost equal parts of butter, melted with flour stirred in to make a paste.
Use TBS of butter, and 3TBS of flour to make your ROUX for this. Once it is ready, add it to the simmering pot of beef bourguignon to thicken. If you want it thicker- make more ROUX. 🙂
This is what you end up with. A hearty, steaming, easy to inhale bowl of beef bourguignon. Made cheaper and easy to re-heat for tomorrow’s dinner as well.
By leaving out the brandy, cheapening the wine and going for more “basic” ingredients you save an easy 30$ on this meal, and you can’t really notice a difference. Well, the average family, feeding their kids a delicious meal can’t!
Enjoy
INGREDIENTS:
BIG pack of stewing beef (family sized, the more the merrier)
1 package of bacon
Olive Oil (2 TBS)
5-6 diced carrots
1 bag of pearl onions (about 1.5cups)
Garlic clove
1TBS tomato paste
1 bottle (minus 2 glasses) red wine
2 cups (apx) beef stock
Rosemary
3 cups mushrooms
4 TBS butter
3 TBS flour
Salt & pepper to taste