Beef Bourguignon

Well, I finally did it! I prepared the Beef Bourguignon last night and it was marvelous! This dish was well worth the wait and well worth the time it took to prepare it. I have never cooked with wine before but I can tell you now that I will be using wine more often in the future, especially when preparing beef dishes. I could just say that it was really good and leave it at that but I wouldn't be giving it the justice that it deserves. The wine gives the base of this stew such a unique flavor that it's difficult to put into words just how wonderful it really is. It's deep, rich, potent, flavorful and definitely full bodied. You'll wonder what you ever saw in Dinty Moore:-)

Just a few notes to mention: (1) I used regular onions rather than pearl onions because I couldn't find pearl onions in my local grocery store; (2) I cooked this dish in a crock pot rather than a dutch oven; (3) I drained about 1/4 c. of the base because I found my version to be a bit heavy on the liquid and I wanted it to have more of a stew-like consistency as opposed to soup. Overall, I don't believe that any of these subtle differences impacted the integrity of the dish in any way.

Beef Bourguignon

Serves 8

Active Time: 40 min

Total Time: 3 ½ Hrs

3 Tbsp. Olive Oil

8 oz. Button Mushrooms (quartered)
3 lbs. Boneless Beef Roast (cut into 1 in. pcs)

Coarse Salt and Ground pepper

5 Strips of Bacon (cut into ½ in. pcs)

1 Tbsp. Tomato Paste

2 Tbsp. All Purpose Flour

3 cups Dry Red Wine

2 cups Low Sodium Chicken Broth

1 Bay Leaf

1 Garlic Clove (Smashed and Peeled)

4 Carrots, peeled and cut into 1 in. pieces

10 oz. Pearl Onions (Peeled)

1 Tbsp. Butter (Cut into pcs)

2 Tbsp. Fresh Chopped Parsley *optional

1. Preheat oven to 350˚. In large Dutch oven or heavy pot with a lid, heat 2 tbsp. oil on medium-high. Add mushrooms and cook until browned, about 10 minutes.

Transfer to a plate. Season beef generously with salt and pepper and add 1 tbsp. oil to pot. In batches, brown beef, 2 to 3 minutes per batch (adding up to 1 tbsp. oil per batch if needed.)

Transfer to plate. Pour off all but 1 tbsp. fat from pot. Add bacon and cook on medium until brown, 5 minutes. Add tomato paste; cook, stirring 30 seconds. Add flour and cook, stirring 30 seconds.

2. Return beef to pot; add wine, broth, bay leaf and garlic. Bring to a boil,cover and transfer pot to oven; cook 1 ½ hours.

Add carrots and onions and cook until meat is very tender, 1 to 1 ½ hours more, adding mushrooms 15 minutes before end of cooking. Stir butter into stew and serve topped with parsley if desired.

*Per serving: 538 cal; 29.8 g. fat; 31.1 g. protein; 12.3 g. carb; 1.8 g. fiber