Beef Bourguignon? No problem.

As we say goodbye to Julia, I feel compelled to cover her and her movie’s most famous dish, Beef Bourguignon. Please, don’t get scared. Read on, you will want to try this. Julia’s Beef Bourguignon recipe is very similar to her Coq Au Vin, a method of tenderly slow-cooking tough meat in wine and acidic vegetables.

I searched the Internet to find recipes of how others had interpreted the complicated french cuisine. I remember years ago, a Pillsbury Bake-Off finalist created a Weeknight Beef Bourguignon recipe that got rave reviews. It looked great, and easy, but the flavors seemed a bit too simple. You guys need to know you can still achieve GREAT flavor without a huge mess or effort… so I searched on. I’d heard good things about Ina Garten’s recipe. This one is very similar to my Coq Au Vin interpretation. I needed something that was a much-easier alternative for you guys. So I needed to look further. When I found a recipe that combined stew meat with sundried tomatoes, I knew I’d hit the jackpot. Don’t those flavors sound like a perfect complement? Trust me, they are. And this recipe is super easy to make. This recipe slow cooks the beef in the tomatoes and red wine, and the result is divine. Serve it over rice, with noodles or potatoes, and your family will ask “When are we having this again?” Yum.

Ingredients

• 2  teaspoons  olive oil
• 2  pounds  beef stew meat, cut into 1-inch cubes
• 1  medium onion, vertically sliced
• 2  garlic cloves, minced
• 1 package button mushrooms
• 1  tablespoon flour
• 1 cup water
• 1  cup dry red wine
• 1  cup chicken broth
• 1  cup sun-dried tomato halves, packed without oil, cut into strips (about 2 1/2 ounces)
• 1  tablespoon brown sugar
• 2  tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1 1/2  teaspoons rosemary
• 3/4  teaspoon salt
• 1/4  teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Heat olive oil in a large pan on stove over medium-high heat. Add beef, seasoned with salt and pepper, and cook 4 minutes, browning on all sides. Add onion and mushrooms; cook a few minutes more until onion is softened, stirring occasionally. Add minced garlic; cook 1 minute, stirring frequently. Stir in flour; cook 2 minutes, stirring often.

Add water and next 7 ingredients to pot on stove, or transfer all to crock pot. Cook over high heat for 3 hours, or low heat for up to eight hours in crock pot, less time on stove.

Stay tuned for the Cook Once, Eat Twice version… I will find a way to “re”use this delicious dish. It’s so good it should be made by the pounds, and eaten in as many creative ways possible.

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Side-by-side pictures of the dish 1) just as it is put in the crock pot, and 2) after simmering for 3 hours shows a great example of how time brings flavors together. See how in photo 1, there is a broth-like consistency, but in photo 2) you have gravy.

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Tags: beef bourguignon, crock pot beef recipe, julia beef