craig's recipes

Beef Burgundy

I don't make this recipe too often, because it has a rather high fat content. It is delicious though, and easy to prepare. I think the original was from The Frugal Gourmet [amazon.com], but I'm not sure now. I've made a few modifications to the original (wherever it was from).

I like using bacon grease instead of some other oil, because I like the flavor that it adds. You can use olive oil (or any other vegetable oil) if you prefer. A disadvantage of bacon grease is that it will smoke at a lower temperature than olive oil, which makes it more difficult to properly brown the beef.

The cut of meat that you use can make a bit of a difference too. If you use an inexpensive or very lean cut, the beef in the final product could seem a little dry, although the gravy that this recipe makes hides that. A better cut of beef, with fat marbled through it, will still improve the dish.

Burgundy is used in this dish because it is an inexpensive dry red wine. Any dry red wine will result in the same flavors in the dish, a Cabernet will work quite well. A more expensive wine, however, will not improve the flavor, so whatever is easiest on the wallet is what you should use. It does need to be dry though, not sweet.

Recipe by: Jeff Smith and craig Servings: 8 Preparation Time: 4:00 Categories: French, Main Dishes, Beef

Ingredients

3 tablespoons bacon grease or olive oil

3 pounds beef stew meat -- cut into 1 to 2 inch cubes

3 cups burgundy

2 - 12 to 16 ounce cans beef broth (home made would be better)

2 tablespoons tomato paste

3 cloves garlic -- crushed

½ teaspoon dried thyme

1 bay leaf

½ teaspoon salt

 

1 pound mushrooms -- sliced

3 medium onions -- chopped

½ cup flour

½ cup butter

1 pound egg noodles

Preparing the Dish

Brown the sliced mushrooms over high heat in one tablespoon of bacon grease, turn the heat to low, then add the onion and cook until transparent. Set aside the mushrooms and onion.

Beef Browned in Electric Pan

Brown the beef in the remaining bacon grease. Heat the bacon grease until it starts to smoke, or if using olive oil, until it is shimmering, then brown the meat a little at a time, carefully and rapidly, so that it is a deep brown. I sometimes use an electric frying pan for this, as you can keep it quite hot and it does a better job of browning. Of course you then have to move the beef back to a large oven-safe pot (Dutch oven) since you're going to finish cooking the dish in the oven.

Add the remaining ingredients except the mushrooms, onions, flour, and butter. Bake the mixture in a 350 degree oven for three hours.

Add the mushrooms and onions to the beef and burgundy mixture and cook another 20 minutes.

While cooking the mixture for the final 20 minutes, cook the egg noodles as directed on the package.

While this is cooking make a roux from the flour and butter -- melt the butter and add the flour, mix well, until smooth, and cook one or two minutes, until the mixture bubbles.

Thicken the beef burgundy with the roux -- add the roux to the beef burgundy mixture and boil for 2 minutes, stirring as necessary.

Serve over egg noodles, with a large salad, greens, and lots of burgundy for guests.