Tuesday, October 19, 2010

dinner a la Julia Child

alright folks, here it is...i made it. Julia Child's world famous Beef Bourguignon. and just so everyone knows, EVERY time i have to spell Bourguignon i have to google the darn word...its too hard for me. :p

first off: MUSIC  Harry kept me company today in my kitchen, as he does many days. *sigh*. :) this is my favourite album of his...other than his christmas album...but that's not allowed to come out till after halloween. :)



I began this recipe with trepidation. Not only is it a "Julia" recipe, but from all of the reviews and ratings that i could find, everyone said it was SOOO labour intensive!! so, i thought to myself, "self? let's get ready for a LOOONG day of cooking". then i began, following all instructions to a T, and i was done with the prep in under an hour. by that time, the meal was in the oven, and i was finishing dishes, and making sock munkys for tomorrows orders! So, if you compare the difficulty of this recipe to, say, making frozen chicken nuggets and french fries, then yes...it is very labour intensive. BUT if you compare it to  making Thanksgiving dinner? it's super easy! i guess if i had to stoke the fire under the pot for 6 hours, yes, it would be a 6 hour recipe...but i call this a 1 hour recipe, because the oven does the rest of the work.

so, i got the recipe online from THIS wonderful recipe on Food.com. it has 45 steps...but don't let that intimidate you. steps can be anything from browning meat to turning on the oven. so, made the recipe according to instructions...almost. these are the changes i made:

i only had 2 lbs of stewing beef, which was totally fine in the end.
i only had 2 cups of red wine, which, again, was totally fine in the end.
i didn't use fresh thyme, or bay...dried was fine.
i had no pearl onions, nor did i have time to get said pearl onions, so i just left that part of the recipe out.
i did not strain it at the end...my sauce was so thick that i didn't feel that step was needed...and i didn't mind the carrots and onions in the stew. 

so, fast forward 6 hours to the finale of my dinner prep, and i had a amazingly delicious beef stew to serve with noodles, rice, potato...whatever. i chose noodles, because i knew that my kids wouldn't eat the beef stew, so they could have plain 'ol red sauce on their noodles if they wanted. (which they did...)

now, i took photos...i tried different angles, and different lighting...and i could NOT make this look like anything but Alpo on my plate...which, i guess it did ...a bit. lol! BUT it sure didn't taste like it. it was so rich, and thick and delicious...it was almost TOO  much flavour. it seemed a bit salty, which could be remedied by using low sodium bacon and beef stock i suppose. but other than that, the beef was beautiful, the sauce was to die for...and all together i think it was a success!! yay me!! so, i'll post the photos, but please...no digs on how it looks like dog food...you've been warned. :) trust me, i even searched online for another photo, thinking i could trick you into thinking that was mine...ALL of the photos of this meal look like Alpo. lol!!

and yes...that is a Pillsbury Croissant on my plate with my delicious Beef Bourgin-whatever...don't mock me. hahaha!!





so, enjoy, good luck, and God's speed. let me know if you try this...it was well worth "all the work".

cheers!

3 comments:

Christina Ykema said...

Wow- that looks delish...however you spell it...LOL

Your Favorite Rocksnob said...

looks good. When you having us over?

nataschia said...

my dogs are salivating... i kid... i kid-i'm just jealous of your mad cooking skills. so funny, i totally recognized the pillsbury croissants...they are almost a daily snack in this house.