Beef Bourguignon

I think it’s fairly safe to say that I’m old school. I’m a bit of a throwback because I generally prefer tradition. I’m not a fan of Ebooks as I prefer the smell of an old book, reading and turning the worn out pages. I think the Dixon Ticonderoga pencils are far better than mechanical pencils. I’ll take the simplicity of Penn State’s football uniforms over the carousel of wardrobe changes of the Oregon Ducks. I like Al Green, Stevie Wonder and the Beatles.

The same goes for food. The techniques that my grandmother used may take more than 30 minutes but the final product is always better. Good food takes time, love and passion.

If there’s anything that really grinds my gears about food and the process of preparing food, it’s the crock-pot. I am certainly well aware that most households cherish their crock-pot in the same fashion they cherish their microwave. Call me old school, but I believe the crock-pot and the microwave simply cannot compete with time tested cooking techniques of the past. Now, before you begin to gather the masses and occupy my front doorstep with pitchforks and torches, let me explain.

Pot Roast vs. Beef Bourguignon

What’s the difference you ask? It’s all about technique. Here’s the difference, Beef Bourguignon is Pot Roast on steroids! My definition of Pot Roast is taking most of the components of Beef Bourguignon, loading them in a crock-pot, turning the thing on low and letting it go for a few hours. Beef Bourguignon is just as easy if you follow a few simple techniques.

What you’ll need.

• 4 pounds of beef short ribs (8-10 ribs roughly) generously seasoned with salt and pepper
• 8 slabs of bacon, sliced in lardons (you can certainly use more if you’re feelin’ a little frisky. The more pig fat at the party the better!)
• 2 yellow onions, small dice
• 4 carrots, medium size dice
• 8 cloves of garlic
• 3 bay leaves
• ¼ cup tomato paste
• 1 pint of Burgundy wine. If you’ve opened a new bottle for this, and you should, you’ll have a few glasses left over for yourself so go ahead chef, pour me a glass while you’re at it. Salud!
• 16 cups of cold water

If you’ve read any of my previous recipes, you’ll recognize the process here of making soups, sauces and in this example, braising.

“Chef, what is braising?”

Really quick, there are two methods of cooking proteins: Dry heat and moist heat methods.

Dry heat is simply searing, roasting and most commonly grilling. The dry heat cooking method is used for taking low exercised muscles, tender muscles like ribeye, beef tenderloin, strips and sirloins applying high heat and cooking for short periods of time. These are parts of the animal that receive very little exercise and are very tender therefore the cooking process is generally fast and without much manipulation.

Moist heat methods are generally used for the parts of the animal that get more exercise. The shoulders, the rib sections and the legs are generally tougher pieces of meat because of the amount of exercise or stress they are constantly under and therefore require a little more attention. The plus side of the effort of a longer cooking process is that the more exercise the muscle gets, the more flavor.

Step 1. Sear the short ribs

In a large, heavy bottomed stockpot render the fat out of the bacon on medium high heat. When the bacon has become crispy and the fat has released, add the seasoned short ribs, meat side down. The idea here is to create a nice crust on the ribs from the high heat of the bacon fat. After about 8 minutes of high heat searing, turn the short ribs and sear the backside for about 4 more minutes. When the backsides of the ribs have a nice crust, use your tongs and remove the ribs from the stockpot to a clean plate.

Step 2. Sauté the vegetables

With the ribs removed, add in the diced onions, garlic and carrots along with a pinch of salt and pepper and sauté until the vegetables have caramelized. About 6 minutes. By now, if you’ve read any of my past articles, you should know the importance of adding salt to the vegetables. The salt is used to dehydrate the vegetables, isolating the sugars with the heat of the bacon fat, thus giving you much more flavor than the crock-pot method.

Step 3. Caramelize the tomato paste

Add in the tomato paste once all of the vegetables have turned a nice caramel color. Sauté the tomato paste until the color of the paste has taken on a much darker appearance. Using a high heat spatula or wooden spoon, stir the components of the stockpot to ensure an even heat distribution. Approximately five minutes.

Step 4. Deglaze the pot.

Deglazing the pot is simply using an acid, in this case wine to dislodge all the fond at the bottom of the stockpot. There’s a ton of flavor that has accumulated at the bottom of the stockpot and you need this! Add in the wine and using your spatula or wooden spoon; scrape all the browned bits of goodness from the bottom of the pot. Scrape, scrape, scrape! Allow the wine to reduce by half, return the short ribs to the pot, and add in the water, enough to cover the ribs along with the bay leaves and bring this short rib bath to a slow simmer.

Step 5. Braise the ribs

When the liquid has reached it’s slow simmer, reduce the heat to medium low, slap on the lid of the stockpot and move on to your next project. The braising process should take about three hours so you have plenty of time to get to a few other pressing issues.

Prepping the potatoes. In this recipe, I used red potatoes. I quartered the potatoes, put them in a small stockpot, covered them with water and turned the heat to high. Bring the water to a boil and cook the potatoes for approximately ten more minutes. When the potatoes are about ¾ cooked through, turn the heat off and remove the potatoes from the water. Let the potatoes cool for about 20 minutes and transfer to a mixing bowl with 2 tablespoons of melted butter, two sprigs of fresh chopped rosemary, two sprigs of thyme, 4 cloves of minced garlic and 2 tablespoons of Dijon mustard. Toss the potatoes in the bowl to make sure that they are completely covered. Transfer the potatoes to a sheet pan and place in a 375-degree oven for about a half hour. When the potatoes have developed a nice crust, remove from the oven.

Step 6. Reduce the sauce

After about three hours, the ribs should be extremely tender. Remove the ribs from the pot and transfer to a clean plate. Turn the heat of the stockpot off and strain the liquids from the solids making sure to retain the liquid. Do not discard the liquid or the solids!!! The liquid goes back in the stockpot so there’s no need to clean it just yet. With the liquid in the stockpot, return the stockpot back to a high heat and bring the liquid to a rapid boil. While the liquid is boiling (reducing), add the solids to a large sauté pan. To clarify, the solids should consist of the bacon, onions and carrots. To the sauté pan of solids, add in two tablespoons of Dijon mustard, 8 ounces of shiitake mushrooms (stems removed) 2 cups of peeled pearl onions and ladle in 8 ounces of liquid from the stockpot of boiling liquid. The idea here is to make sure your sauté pan of solids has enough liquid to prevent the solids from sticking to the sauté pan. Cook the solids until the shiitake mushrooms and the pearl onions have cooked thoroughly, which should take about ten minutes.

Step 7. Plating

Yes chef, we’ve made it! Pour me another glass of wine. We’ve earned it! Now that the sauté pan of solids is thoroughly cooked, add the solids back to the reduced liquid along with the short ribs. Cook for another few minutes to bring the ribs back to a warm temperature. When the ribs are nice and hot, place the quartered roasted potatoes in the center of your finest white-rimmed bowl. Next, artfully arrange your short ribs in a tower styled fashion over the potatoes. Now, ladle your mushrooms, carrots, bacon and onions over the centerpiece along with the braising liquid. Finish the presentation with a few touches of roughly chopped, fresh, flat leaf parsley and serve.

Extra points of interest.

I know that I stated that I’m a bit of old-school and I’m not a fan of crock-pot cooking. I’m also not a fan of using a roux to thicken sauces. I understand that this may be a bit of a contradiction, but I find that taking the extra step of reducing the sauce alleviates the use of the roux. I also think the reduction produces a deeper, more complex flavor that often gets hidden when using flour to thicken the sauce.

Furthermore, I know that it seems so simple to use a crock-pot but trust me; the difference in flavor and the final product of Beef Bourguignon far surpasses anything that a crock-pot can produce. It’s often said that, “you only get out of it what you put into it”. This recipe is the epitome of that statement!

Buen Provecho!