Boeuf Bourginion

I got a Le Creuset pan and I'm proud of it. And I wanted to make straight away this recipe. I will not repeat the full name, just call it "beef" , well, because I can.

First time, our friend Magali invited us over for this treat I have to say I was dissapointed. A stew? Come on. Then I tried it. Then the magic happened.
I will tell you no more, except that this is not her recipe, but it still gives off the magic of a slowly cooked meat in wine, tomatoes, and beef broth.
And the magic gets done somewhere in the oven, when the tastes frolic together. I adore it, and I will definitly advise everybody to get a cast iron saucepan with lid to make just this recipe. Go get one now if you haven't got one. Shoo!

Type of dish: main, stew
Cost: medium
Difficulty: easy
Serves: 5
Time: 3h
Prep time: 30 min
Baking time: 2,5h
Oven temp: 160C


You'll need:
a cutting board, a sharp knife, a large frying pan, spatula, bottle opener, a cup, teaspoon, cast iron pan at least 20cm diameter with lid.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 kg cut beef for stew (it's diced)
• 1/2 kg mushrooms, cut in 4
• 1 can tomatoes
• 1 medium onion
• 2 medium carrots, sliced
• 1 bay leaf
• few fresh sprigs of thyme
• few sprigs of fresh parsley
• fresh cracked black pepper
• 1 bottle red table wine ( medium dry or dry)
• 1 cube beef stock, or 250ml beef broth, unsalted
• 500gr  short pasta (macaroni, penne, fusili), or rice
• olive oil

 Preheat oven to 150C. Heat the frying pan, drizzle olve oil heartily over the pan, wait for it to sizzle, then pop in the mushrooms. fry them up a bit, until they brown evenly. Transfer them to the pot. Saute the onions and carrots for 5 min, transfer them to the pot. Next, add more olive oil, and add the beef to the pan. We need to brown it on all sides before we add it to the pot. While cooking the beef, add the bay leaf, thyme, black pepper, can of tomatoes, beef stock to the pot and stir around so the flavours integrate. Open the wine, and once the beef is done, throw it in the pot, and pour the wine in the frying pan, heating and scraping the bottom of the pan, to get the goody stuff in the sauce. Once the wine has reduced by half, pour it in the pot, try to stir it up a bit, cover up with the lid and put in the oven for 2,5 h. No need to check the pot in the meantime, so clean up and relax. After 2,5 hours, check if the beef and carrots have incorporated most of the liquid, and the leftover liquid is more stewish. If so, remove the pot, cook some pasta al dente and serve with a hearty serving of the beef. Garnish with freshly chopped basil leaves ,or chopped thyme.
Serve!