A winter hug in a bowl using some cheaper ingredients, ‘Bourguignon’ refers to the French region where this dish was born.
As it is famed for its wine, the key here is to marinate the beef in the wine before cooking. The traditional version calls for mushrooms, bacon lardons and pearl onions.
Chef Mark Moriarty shares some of his heartwarming recipes including this yummy dish as he tells us: “I can’t stand peeling onions so I’ve cheated and used pickled ones from a jar.”
Beef Bourguignon
Serves 3
Ingredients
- 1 kg diced stewing beef
- 500ml red wine (traditionally pinot noir)
- 2 bay leaves
- 8 garlic cloves
- 1 handful of thyme
- 1 tbsp freshly ground black pepper
- 3 tbsp vegetable oil
- 200g plain flour, plus 2 tbsp
- 1 medium brown onion, cut into wedges
- 4 carrots, cut into thumb-sized chunks
- 1 tbsp tomato purée
- 500ml water
- 2 beef stockpot
- 1 heaped tsp honey
- 100g small button mushrooms
- 100g thick bacon lardons
- 100g pickled pearl onions (from a jar)
Method
- Start by marinating your beef. Place the beef in a large container and cover with the red wine. Add the bay leaves, garlic cloves, thyme and black pepper. Mix well and cover, then leave in the fridge for at least 4 hours or ideally overnight.
- The following day, strain the beef from the wine but keep all the liquid. Preheat your oven to 150°c.
- Now get a heavy-based flameproof casserole dish on the heat and add the vegetable oil. Allow it to get smoking hot.
- Dust the diced beef in the 200g of flour and add it to the casserole in batches to brown, resting the browned pieces on a plate in the meantime. You may need to top up the vegetable oil as you go. Once the pieces are browned, clean out the base of the pan if it needs it.
- Now add the brown onion and carrot pieces to the dish and get some colour on them. After about 2 minutes, return the beef to the pan along with the tomato purée and 2 further tablespoons of flour. Cook this out for 1 minute, stirring, and then it’s time to add the wine marinade, including the garlic and herbs.
- Simmer to reduce the wine by half before adding the water, stockpot and honey. Bring the mix to the boil, then remove from the heat. Find space in the liquid to add your button mushrooms, bacon lardons and pearl onions. Place in the oven and cook for 3 hours until the beef is soft and the sauce has thickened.
- Serve warm with mashed potato. You can cook it in advance, if you wish, then reheat it.
Recipe taken from recipes from Off Duty Chef, Mark Moriarty, out now