Beef bourguignon

I don't know what's going on with me lately. I seem to love to make beef stew. Maybe because it is so easy to make. All you need to do is put all the ingredients in one pot and let it simmer for a while. And if you make it ahead it doesn't take much time at all.

I decided to make something different...something Frenchy. I had half a kilo of button mushrooms and didn't want to make mushroom soup. So I thought why not try and make beef/boeuf bourguignon.

I started with chopping one onion and 3 cloves of garlic and brown them in some olive oil and butter. Then I added some dicced bacon and after they brown the big junks of beef went in. You can use whatever beef you like, but since it has to simmer for a long time there is no need for using an expensive cut. In fact I always use the cheapest cut I can find. As long as it doesn’t have much fat you’re good.

After the meat is brown I added a whole bottle of red wine. People always say use the wine that you like to drink instead of cooking wine, but what do you use when you don’t drink wine? I think I’m one of the few who doesn’t like wine. But that doesn’t mean I can’t cook with it. So again since I can’t tell the difference between a 10 euro bottle and a 3 euro bottle (beside in my wallet) I went for the 3 euro bottle. Whole bottle went in the pot.

I didn’t want to through away the flat leave parsley stems so I used them to flavor the stew.

Then I added half a jar of picked pearl onions. The acid in the onions will help to break down the toughness of the meat faster. After everything boiled for a while I had a taste and added some sugar, salt and grounded pepper.

I removed the parsley stems as soon as they got tender and almost fell apart.

I went out to my little herb garden and picked some sprigs of thyme. They smelled so good. Love the smell of fresh thyme. I have two kinds of thyme, one regular and one lemon thyme. Never used the lemon thyme before so I have to find a recipe for that.

Anyways after the meat got tender I added the thyme and all the mushrooms I had. I also added some carrots and let everything boil some more till the carrots were nice and soft. Then to thicken the sauce I added 4 pieces of "ontbijtkoek" which is a Dutch spice cake made of rye, cloves, cinnamon, ginger, succade and nutmeg. It was like putting the cherry on top of a pie. The spice cake made all the flavors combine together. As a finishing touch I sprinkled some parsley on top.

We ate the beef bourguignon with some boiled broccoli and white rice. It tasted even better the next day.