HAHAHA!
I printed off a copy of Julia Child's recipe for said dish and we were off to the races....
I hit my first roadblock with the 1st ingredient.....this should have served as a sign of things to come.lol
Ingredient #1....1 6-ounce piece of chunk bacon.
I only had regular old thick cut bacon strips.
And Preheat your oven to 450 degrees for later & make sure that you have a rack in the middle position in your oven.
After drying your pork product, you saute your lardons in a flameproof casserole(I used my enameled cast iron casserole) with 1 tablespoon of olive oil, over moderate heat for 2-3 minutes until lightly browned.
The recipe called for 3lbs. of stewing beef, so I cut up my roast into small 1 inch chunks.
Pat your beef cubes dry. The meat will not brown properly if it is damp. You want a nice sear on the outside of your moo-cow cubes.
Turn up the heat on your casserole until it's almost smoking hot. Add your beef, a few pieces at a time to the hot pan and saute until nicely browned on all sides. As it is done, add it to the dish with the lardons. Repeat this until all the beef is browned.
Can't you just smell the bacon and beef fat in this photo?lol
In the same fat you just browned your beef, add your vegetables(1 carrot & 1 onion, sliced) and brown them. We like carrot A LOT so I used 2 or 3 carrots instead.
Then pour out the excess fat. See the browned bits on the pan now? Mmmm....
Return the beef and bacon lardons to the casserole and toss the 1/2 tsp. salt and 1/4 tsp. pepper on them.
Then sprinkle on the flour(2 Tbs.) and toss again to coat the beef.
Set uncovered casserole in middle position of preheated oven for 4 minutes.
Toss the meat again and return to the oven for 4 more minutes. This browns your flour(so you don't have that uncooked floury taste)& hopefully puts a nice crust on your meat.
Mmmm crusty meat.....
Remove casserole and turn down oven to 325 degrees.
Stir in red wine(3 cups)& 2-3 cups of stock, just enough so that the meat is barely covered.
I had a bottle of wine sitting out in the garage from Christmas so I used that. The amount of wine needed is almost a full bottle. There should be enough left over for a small glass for drinking....go ahead and drink what is left while you finish up this recipe. Julia would want you to!
I didn't have any bacon rind since I didn't use chunk bacon so I didn't add that. I also didn't have any tomato paste.
Ok....that's a lie! I DID have tomato paste....but I didn't want to open a whole can just for 1 stinking tablespoon.
So I did the unforgiveable.
I.
Used.
Ketchup.
EEEEEK!
I know, Julia is spinning in her grave.
I love a great meal but I am F-R-U-G-A-L.
Frugal wins out here over Gastronomy.
Bring to a simmer on top of the stove.
Then cover the casserole and set it in the lower third of oven.
Photo as the pot, before cover, went into the oven for the Long Hot Bake.
Regulate heat so that liquid simmers very slowly for 3-4 hours. The meat is done when a fork pierces it easily.
While the beef is cooking, prepare the onions and mushrooms.....
Heat 1.5 Tbs. butter with 1.5 Tbs. olive oil until bubbling.
Add 18-24 white pearl onions and saute over moderate heat for about 10 minutes, rolling them so they brown as evenly as possible.
Ok....problem #??....I don't have any pearl onions. And they are expensive this week here.
So we make do and sub regular onions, chopped uniformly.
Add 1/2 Cup of the stock, salt & pepper to taste and the herb bouquet.
Cover and simmer slowly for 40-50 minutes until the onions are perfectly tender but hold their shape, and the liquid has evaporated.
Using chopped onions cuts down on the time it take for them to get tender, so I didn't cook them as long as you would the pearl onions.
When done, remove the herb bouquet and set onions aside.
Wipe out the skillet and heat remaining olive oil and butter over high heat. As soon as you see butter has begun to subside, indicating that it is hot enough, add mushrooms.
Toss and shake pan for 4-5 minutes. As soon as they have begun to brown lightly, remove from heat.
No photo of the mushrooms, but the point here is to cook them quickly over high heat. Sort of searing them like you did the beef cubes. The mushrooms will continue to cook after you remove them, with the residual heat they store up. I put the mushrooms right in with the cooked onions to rest together.
When the meat is tender and done, the recipe calls for pouring the contents of the casserole into a sieve set over a saucepan. This is to separate the 'juice' from the solids, so you can boil down or 'reduce' the juices into a sauce and also skim off any excess fat. I found that my juices in the pot had already reduced down to a thicker saucy consistency so I skipped this step. And I didn't see much excess fat so I didn't skim it. Besides, the fat is what makes it taste good. And we are all going to die from something, so I'll take my chances with that miniscule amount of fat in my stew.
I went right to putting the components together to plate the dish.
You can make up a nice presentation on a platter on in the casserole, with your meat and the mushrooms/onions distributed evenly on top and then the sauce poured over it. If you put this on a platter, serve on a bed of rice or with roasted potatoes surrounding the stew.
I chose to roast some potatoes and carrots in olive oil, parley, salt & cracked pepper to taste.
The daughter couldn't keep the fork out of her mouth long enough to talk that evening or even say how good this tasted.
So, in the end.....
It took way longer than I want to spend on making dinner on a given day.
It wasn't difficult in skill level, it was just alot of steps and it took a looooong time.
It still was amazingly good, even with making substitutions like GASP!...ketchup!
It is Silly to be afraid of fancy pants recipes. Unless it's the precision of pastry or baking, just dive in and give it a try. Even most failures can be salvaged or made edible.
And after being forced to finish that bottle of wine, I now know why Julia always seemed happy in the kitchen. ;-)
Sluggy
