Boeuf á la Bourguigon

( we need smell-o-vision )

Soundtrack for today's cooking:

• Sinéad O'Connor
• Rufus Wainwright 
• Indigo Girls

INA'S

Julia's

MINE

(not that I, in any way, put myself in the same universe as Ina and Julia )

This is a wonderful dish, that people just love ( Neil is crazy about it ) but I rarely if ever make it because it's pretty expensive to make, and takes a long time to get it all together. Once its there, you just let it go, but there is a good hour or more , of getting it, there.

Getting your mise in place on.

A big bottle of wine, a couple of good size chuck roasts, veggie stock, beef stock, regular cooking onions, frozen pearl onions, carrots, garlic, fresh thyme, parsley, bacon, mushrooms. Not seen some herbs de Provence and an orange ( + salt, pepper, old bay, flour, olive oil... staples )

Chop 5-6 pieces of bacon into chunks and render on med heat for 6-7 min, don't rush this, I add a little olive oil to get it started.Yes, like all good Southern cooks, I have a tub-o-bacon-fat in my freezer ( you can add a little from there , if it gets dry ) but don't start off with this, the real thing works better... When the bacon has given you all the fat it's going to , remove with a slotted spoon, and set aside.

Clean your meat! Chop into one inchish cubes ( don't make yourself crazy, just all basically  the same size ) discard any really fatty chunks, sinewy pieced , etc., and pat them all dry with a paper towel. I did one roast at a time here, season with a good heaping tbl of flour and salt, pepper, old bay to taste,  toss well.

This is the part that takes the longest and can not be rushed, you are building flavor. Brown beef in the bacon fat/oil and take your time, don't crowd the pan, and you will, as you go on, have to play with the heat, lowering and raising as you add more and a layer of yummy browned bits forms on the bottom of your pan.

Once all the meat is done, add your diced cooking onion and chopped carrots, you can see how lovely and brown ( flavor ) the bottom of the pot is, let your veggies go for 7-8 min... if you need to add more oil do so, just a little bit ( I added like a tbl of butter...) Grate in 4-6 cloves of garlic at the end, cooking the last couple of min...

Since Susan Lovell reads this blog, I will say, I cleaned all these mushrooms, one at a time with a damp kitchen towel or mushroom brush...........

After about 8- 9 min add the bacon , dried herbs back to the pan, toss then ( and this is a new step that I picked up from INA ) add a big slug of Cognac ( in my case  brandy ) to deglaze AND set it on fire, to burn off the alcohol!  No pics of this, cause I was alone in the kitchen.

After the fireworks dump in your meat, with all the juices that have collected, with the mushrooms, fresh herbs, about half a small orange worth of zest, and a big dollop ( about half of one of those small cans ) of tomato paste. Mix everything well, and cook for a few min, just to get everyone happy with one another there in the pot.

NOW, add a large bottle of wine... if only dong a single recipe, it's one regular bottle of wine , and beef or veggie stock to make sure everything is swimming....bring to a boil and cook on low for two hours . You can do this a couple of days in advance if you need to, it only gets better.

Ina puts hers in a low oven... 250... I don't really know why I don't do this, would be easier, but I do have the super low setting on my stove.. and I like it to really cook down.....don't taste right away, it will be too WIney... but do after about an hour, to check your seasoning.

This only the first part.... more to come....

The last 30 min of cooking, at my house, I added a bag of frozen pearl onions ( dump them on a paper towel and dry a little bit if they are thawed ).. yes, you can blanch and peel your own, but really.....