Bon Appetit!!
Melt in your mouth deliciousness!!! Worth the time and effort, a fun day in the kitchen. Would I make it again? Absolutely!! In a heart beat. Would someone else clean the kitchen when I’m done!! 2 cast iron skillets, 2 dutch ovens… etc etc. but boy it was worth it! Here is Julia Child’s recipe. I used a large (7 quart) dutch oven to do the bacon, brown the meat and to cook the stew in. I switched to a clean, smaller dutch oven to make the final dish and to serve from.
Watch the video first… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zA2ys8C-lNk&t=723s
6 slices bacon, cut into lardons
3 1/2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
3 pounds stewing beef, cut into 2-inch chunks
1 large white onion, sliced
1 pinch coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
3 cups red wine, like a chianti
2 1/2 to 3 1/2 cups beef stock
1 tablespoon tomato paste
18 to 24 small pearl onions
1 herb bouquet (4 sprigs parsley, 2 sprigs thyme, 1 bay leaf)
1 pound fresh white mushrooms, quartered
Her recipe says to simmer bacon lardons in 4 cups water for 10 minutes. Drain and pat dry. (**** I didn’t do this, I used mom’s thick cut sliced bacon, cut in big pieces and fried. Worked perfectly!! )
Preheat oven to 425°F. In a large dutch oven, sauté the bacon in 1 tablespoon of oil for about 3 minutes, until it starts to lightly brown. Remove and set aside. I also added fat trimmed from the beef. The dog loved it.
Dry the beef in paper towels for better browning. It won’t brown if it’s moist/wet.
In batches, sear the beef on all sides in the Dutch oven (uncovered). If you over crowd the dutch oven, your meat will steam and not brown. When done, set aside with the bacon.
Add the sliced carrot and onion; sauté in fat until browned, about 3 minutes. If there’s any excess fat, drain.
Add the bacon and beef back to the pot. Season with coarse salt and ground pepper. Toss. Sprinkle the flour and toss together. Place in 425 degree preheated oven uncovered for 4 minutes. Remove, toss meat mixture again, back in the oven for another 4 minutes… remove from oven and THEN TURN YOUR OVEN DOWN TO 325!!!
I added one cup of beef STOCK. (As shown in picture) Then 3 cups of dry red wine. I ended up using 2 more cups of stock to barely cover the meat. Bring to a gentle simmer on stove top. Add the tomato paste, garlic and thyme. Make sure you remembered to reduce your oven temperature to 325. Cover your dutch oven with a tight fitting lid, cook for 3-4 hours until your meat is tender. I checked mine every hour to make sure it was simmering and not boiling. I ended up turning my oven temperature down to 310 after about an hour as it was boiling, then down to 285 for another hour, and because the meat was really tender already, down to 250 while I finished everything else. It was in the oven for 4 hours.
I used pearl onions. A tip to peel them.. boil water in a large enough pot that your onions won’t be crowded. Add onions, bring back to a boil and set your timer for 20 seconds. Remove from water. While they are still warm, cut the very tip off the root, leaving some root on to hold the onion together. Peel that cut root back like your peeling a banana, and squeeze the bottom of onion, it will slide right out. With a small sharp knife, make and x in the root. (I’m not sure why…)
In the last hour of cooking, (or you can do this way ahead of time) preheat your skillet, add about 1 1/2 tablespoons butter and 2 teaspoons oil. Add the pearl onions and toss around in the fat until they’ve browned. Add more oil/butter if necessary. I had to. My onions took forever to cook. (1 hour in total) After they have browned some, stir in 1/2 cup beef stock, a small pinch of salt and pepper and the herb bouquet. Reduce the heat to low and simmer the onions for about 40 minutes, until the liquid has evaporated and the onions are tender. (I didn’t use the herb bouquet here I just put the herbs in the sauce before I added it back to the meat at the end.)
Remove the onions from skillet and set aside. Discard the herb bouquet. Wipe out the skillet (I had to use a new one… my onions totally caramelized on the skillet.) Add the remaining butter and oil and bring to a medium heat. Mushrooms should be quartered and the smaller ones halved so they are of like size. Do them in two batches so you don’t over crowd them or they will steam and not brown. Make sure they are dry before you fry them or they won’t brown.
Remove meat mixture from oven. Place strainer over large bowl (I used a huge measuring cup), drain the sauce into the large bowl/measuring cup. The strainer will catch the carrots and chopped onion, bay leaf etc. Skim any fat on top of liquid. Put the beef into the new (clean) dutch oven. Add the sautéed pearl onions and mushrooms over the beef, set aside. Pour sauce back in the dutch oven you cooked with on the stove on low heat to simmer. Taste the sauce, if it needs more garlic, tomato paste or thyme, do it now. If your sauce is too thin, add a paste of butter and flour, use a whisk to stir it in quickly. If it’s too thick, add more beef stock. Once you have the right flavour and consistency, pour the sauce over the beef mix, place on low heat and simmer an additional 3 to 5 minutes to heat everything through. Be care to not over mix as meat is very tender and will fall apart.
Garnish with parsley. I served ours with ‘dirty mashed potatoes’. (Cook and mash potatoes with skin on, add about a tablespoon each of finely chopped onion and garlic, 1/2 package of cream cheese, butter, salt and pepper and cream or milk if needed.) and peas, and sliced potato bread, buttered with butter and garlic, then pan fried.
