Julia Child’s Boeuf Bourguignon
An all day challenge, worth the work. Unfortunately, we took very few pictures as we were making Julia’s apple tart the same day. But trust us, this is an involved project with a great reward at the end of the day.
Julia actually calls for a Chianti in her boeuf Bourguignon. We also used bacon rather than a chunk of salt pork. It just changed the texture a bit.
If using the recipe from Mastering the Art of French Cooking go carefully through all of the steps and side preps. This is very characteristic of Julia’s recipes. I would imagine if you used the book often, you could insert the preps into a variety of dishes. In this case we braised the small white onions in a brown stock. We then quartered the mushrooms and sautéed them in butter. The mushrooms were a different prep than we used in the chicken fricassee a few nights earlier.
As for the beef used a bottom round, one of the recommended cuts for braising. Be sure to dry the beef before so it will brown properly.
The separate prep of the mushrooms and onions keeps their texture firm and flavor more intense.
The best part of the meal….sharing with family!
We served with simple buttered peas, as recommended. We did “Americanize” it and served with Steve’s famous mashed potatoes (recipe to come!).
We selected two different wines, once again, a California cabernet franc and a French Chateauneuf du pape. They both were delicious but I must give the nod to the French wine with this dish. Once again, the big bold California wine slightly overwhelmed the subtleties of this French dish.
I would make this again as I would be interested in further perfecting it!
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