What Type of Wine for Beef Bourguignon
I t's a mystery to me how this giant of the French classical repertoire has escaped the clutches of this column for so long. Richard Olney (another big animate being of the Gallic cookery scene) describes boeuf bourguignon as "probably the most widely known of all French preparations", while Elizabeth David introduces it equally "a favourite among those carefully composed, slowly cooked dishes, which are the domain of French housewives and possessor-cooks of small restaurants rather than of professional chefs".
Sounds manageable. All the same Olney goes on, slightly worryingly, that "beefiness burgundy certainly deserves its reputation – or would if the few details essential to its success were more often respected. There is cipher hard nigh its preparation, but there are no shortcuts." And David doesn't help the situation, with the blusterous exclamation that "such dishes exercise not, of grade, take a rigid formula, each cook interpreting information technology co-ordinate to her gustation".
According to Larousse Gastronomique, la bourguignonne refers to anything (generally "poached eggs, meat, fish or sauteed chicken") cooked with scarlet wine and "usually garnished with small-scale onions, button mushrooms and pieces of fatty bacon". That much we know. Everything else, it seems, is up for grabs.
The beef
While, like about stews, this volition work with near all wearisome-cooking cuts, chefs have their own particular preferences. Simon Hopkinson and Lindsey Bareham call for "well-hung sinewy beef – chuck, shoulder or shin perchance" in The Prawn Cocktail Years. Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles Cookbook specifies paleron of beefiness, which, a helpful butcher informs me, means featherblade. Richard Olney's much lauded French Bill of fare Cookbook suggests Drastic Dan-fashion heel (which takes a while to runway down) and Michel Roux Jr's The French Kitchen opts for "braising beef (chuck is good but cheek is best)". Harry Eastwood is also a fan of cheek, writing in Carneval that: "My begetter introduced me to the joys of eating cheeks … [and] it turns out that beef cheeks are the perfect vehicles for a bourguignon since they absorb all the flavours in the pan and the meat surrenders completely."
Featherblade proves the to the lowest degree successful with testers – it's only as well lean, which makes information technology seem rather dry in comparison with the more gelatinous cuts. A expert well-marbled chuck (not e'er the case with supermarket versions) does the chore, and the more gelatine-rich shin and heel are even ameliorate, but my own favourite is the cheek, which seems to offer the all-time balance between meat and melt. Cut it into relatively large chunks considering, equally Hopkinson and Bareham observe, "A true boeuf à la bourguignonne is non about trivial cubes of meat stewed in Hirondelle."
Olney's is the only recipe to marinate the meat before use; Roux cautions against it, warning that "I find this makes for a gamey flavour that'south not entirely true to the original". Some testers agree, but my problem with it is that, far from tenderising the meat, it seems oddly to take dried it out slightly. Whether or non the wine is actually to blame, the meat should accept enough of fourth dimension to blot its season in the oven, rendering such a pace pointless.
Hopkinson and Bareham also add a gelatine-rich pig's trotter to the stew, presumably in order to requite it body and richness. This certainly works, but trotters are not always piece of cake for everyone to get agree of. One tester suggests that the more ordinarily available oxtail might do the aforementioned job even better is a expert i. You can leave information technology on the bone if you like, although I prefer to strip information technology off after cooking so the meat is more evenly distributed.
The pork
Boeuf bourguignon near ever contains cured pork, too – afterwards all, this is a French recipe, and ii meats are better than one. Certainly my testers are non happy with its omission in Bourdain's dish. Olney, who I am quickly learning to fearfulness, warns me that "if adept lean table salt pork is not available, omit it; do not substitute salary, the smoky season of which … distorts and muddles the otherwise clean, singled-out flavour of the sauce". Proving that ane man's muddle is some other's masterpiece, Eastwood'due south smoked lardons and Roux'due south smoked streaky don't seem to go downwards too badly with the panel, but the simpler savoury flavor of greenish bacon seems less likely to distract from the wine, which is, after all, the whole point of the dish. (If y'all have admission to salt pork, you may wish to poach it briefly earlier use to tame its aggressive salinity, equally Olney does. There'southward no need with salary or pancetta – you'll only spoil it.)
The vegetables
The traditional Burgundian garnish of button mushrooms and miniature onions ought to be non-negotiable, preferably sauteed until gilt in the fat from the bacon, as Eastwood, Olney, Hopkinson and Bareham suggest. In this way, they absorb some of its savoury richness. The Prawn Cocktail Years recipe adds the vegetables to the stew for the entire cooking time, while Roux and Olney cook them through separately, which is a bit of a faff, especially when the former demands they're washed in three separate pans. All very well with a kitchen brigade at your disposal, but I adopt Eastwood'southward method, which adds the the sauteed vegetables to the beef for the final half 60 minutes of cooking instead. Much easier.
Instead of the tiny pearl onions most recipes recommend, Bourdain uses the ordinary kind, thinly sliced and caramelised. Some testers like the sweetness they add to the dish, but we all agree their assertive flavour does give his version something of the soupe à l'oignon. If you can't observe pearl onions or another diminutive variety, pocket-size shallots are amend than cypher.
Carrots are also common; the baby multifariousness favoured by Eastwood and Roux make the most pleasing garnish aesthetically, but ordinary sized ones, cut into big chunks, work but likewise in the flavor department. (The aforementioned goes for ordinary mushrooms as opposed to the push button sort.)
The liquids
The main flavor here ought to be dry, fruity red wine of the kind produced in Burgundy, although for those of the states ownership vino in the UK, I'g non convinced that sticking an actual Burgundian pinot noir into the oven for 3 hours isn't a criminal waste matter of both wine and money (Olney demands a "practiced red burgundy" no less). I make i with the authentic product (the cheapest I tin notice over here is nearly £nine) and the rest with an inoffensive but rather cheaper red from the south-west, and no 1 remarks on the deviation, even when it's pointed out. So, unless you take an extremely discerning palate, I'd recommend saving your cash for a good burgundy to drinkable with information technology instead.
Puzzlingly, Bourdain uses only a cup of wine in his version, which might explain why everyone describes it as more like beef stew than a bourguignon, with one observing that, "If you added some dumplings it would make a lovely hotpot." A whole bottle is required for maximum impact, preferably reduced to concentrate its flavor: Olney does so later on cooking, just this involves lifting out the meat and vegetables and then warming everything dorsum up together and then it seems far easier to practise all the simmering offset, as Roux and the Prawn Cocktail Years recommend, and then the dish can exist served straight from the oven. While you're at information technology, add a few aromatics, as the latter recipe suggests, for a more rounded gravy.
A splash of brandy, although not absolutely necessary, does add together a picayune more complexity to the dish. If you don't accept it, however, it's not a disaster.
Other liquids
Most recipes also use stock of some kind, generally beef, veal or even, for a lighter gravy, Eastwood'due south chicken or vegetable alternative. Bourdain tops up the vino with water instead, and fifty-fifty with his optional couple of spoonfuls of demi glace, or concentrated veal stock, testers notice his gravy sparse and a petty insipid. "It's just very … ordinary." And ordinary is definitely not what we're afterwards here.
Flouring the meat volition both help information technology brown more rapidly, and thicken the sauce more apace, though it's certainly not essential if you would adopt to keep the dish gluten-free.
Aromatics
Like any respectable French classic worth its salt, boeuf bourguignon benefits from a boutonniere garni of bay, thyme and parsley, and a piffling garlic. If, afterward all that hard work, you feel information technology needs a niggling assistance in the flavour department for some reason (and sometimes information technology happens), add a dash of Worcestershire sauce before serving, as Eastwood does, although it ought not to require any love apple puree, dijon mustard or indeed Hopkinson and Bareham'southward redcurrant jelly. Add a dash of lemon juice if y'all think the dish needs it, just I like mine unapologetically rich and sticky.
Cooking and serving
You can cook boeuf bourguignon on the hob – it's no doubt the original method – simply I observe information technology much easier to go on the rut constant in a moderate oven. (Plus it's easier to make clean upwardly after yourself with the pot safely bubbling abroad out of sight.)
Bourguignon is traditionally served with steamed or boiled potatoes, but Roux proves he's a truthful Brit by preferring his with mash. Gordon Ramsay's celeriac puree would also piece of work, as would Julia Child's buttered noodles or rice. Delia Smith, meanwhile, goes for full-on flavour with pommes boulangère or ratatouille. I hold with Roux, only each to their own – just as long every bit there's wine.
(Serves half-dozen)
ane bottle of fruity, relatively light dry cerise wine
one onion, peeled and cut into vi wedges
ane large carrot, scrubbed and cutting into 2cm chunks
2 garlic cloves, peeled and squashed with the back of a pocketknife
one bay leafage,
Pocket-size bunch of parsley, plus a handful for garnish
two sprigs of thyme
two tbsp olive oil
35g butter
200g unsmoked bacon lardons or a thick piece of unsmoked bacon cutting into 2cm cubes
24 pearl onions, or 12 small-scale shallots
eighteen infant carrots
200g button mushrooms
2 tbsp flour
1kg beef cheeks, cutting into 3cm chunks
400g oxtail
60ml brandy
250ml skillful beef stock
Put the wine in a pan with the onion, carrot, garlic and herbs and bring to the boil. Simmer for 30 minutes until reduced past about one-half. Heat the oven to 150C.
Heat the oil and butter in a large casserole dish over a medium-high heat, and when the cream has died down, add the bacon. Fry until golden, and then scoop out with a slotted spoon and set bated.
Add together the bay carrots and mushrooms to the pan and saute until lightly golden, then scoop into a fresh bowl. Add the onions, turn downward the heat slightly, and fry until just beginning to brown. Meanwhile, put the flour on a plate, season, and then curlicue the beef in it. Add the onions to the other vegetables and turn upwardly the estrus slightly in the pan.
Fry the beef in batches until crusted and deeply browned, being careful not to overcrowd the pan or it will boil in its own juices (add a little more oil if it feels like it's called-for rather than browning). Scoop out and set aside in a bowl. Plough up the heat.
Add the brandy to the pan and scrape to dislodge whatever caramelised bits on the bottom. Strain in the reduced wine (discarding the vegetables), followed past the stock. Return the cheeks and oxtail to the pan and bring to a simmer.
Cover and broil for 2 and a half hours, then tip in the pearl onions, mushrooms and carrots and bake for another one-half an hour.
Scoop out the oxtail and strip the meat from the bones. Stir dorsum into the pan with the lardons and flavour to gustation. Add the remaining parsley and serve with mashed potatoes.
Is information technology a false economy to make boeuf bourguignon with any other wine than red burgundy? What other wines would y'all suggest serving it with? Which classic Gallic recipes would you lot similar to see?
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Source: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2017/mar/09/how-to-cook-the-perfect-boeuf-bourguignon
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