I got a little inspired like, a month ago and made a big French dinner for the family out of “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” I’ve just now gotten around to blogging it… but since I’m going to put a bomb-diggity recipe at the end of this post I thought I might be forgiven.
Hey! Stop scrolling! I’m not finished yet!
So here’s what I made:
Boiled Baby Artichokes with Lemon Dill Butter
Baked Cucumbers
Purple and Red Potatoes mashed and then baked with cream
Beef Bourguignon
Cheese Course
Fruit Tart with Agave Pastry Creme and Normal Tart Crust Served with Coffee
Reactions:
Baby Artichokes- First time I bought them, usually I use big ones but the baby ones were on sale, and let me tell you, they were SO much better! Great taste, good portion size for an appetizer, and no choke to worry about! Lemon and dill go great with artichokes, just melt some butter and squirt in lemon and sprinkle in dill to taste.
Baked Cucumbers- I had read an article about Julia Child in which Julie Powell raved over the baked cucumbers. So I made the recipe from the book and I liked it… but I had this feeling that it tasted really familiar. Then later, when I tried one cold, I was like, “Pickles! I just made an oven baked, not as crisp, not as sour, version of pickles!” And really, though I love pickles, I think I’ll stick with the real thing from now on.
Purple and Red Potatoes- These were my recipe, not Julia’s, and it showed. They were OK, but I did something horribly wrong when mashing them. (Tried a short-cut with the food processor, DO NOT try this!) They were supposed to be this pretty, fluffy swirl of purple and white with little flecks of red potato skin whirled in. But instead they were sticky, and gooey, and, and… puce. I never in my life thought I would be able to come up with a PUCE food. Not an appetizing color. So I baked them in the oven with the hope of browning the top and disguising the color and since the flavor was sweet and some of the gumminess went away I think they snuck by at the table. But really, I would call them a potato fail.
Beef Bourguignon- Is amazing. I LOVE Julia Child. Forget what I said earlier, scroll down and go make this, it’s more important. You can finish reading while it’s cooking.
Cheese Course- You’re back? OK, the cheese course was great. I also didn’t cook any of it.
Fruit Tart- Was yummy, but the pastry creme didn’t hold up. I don’t know if this was because of the agave or because it didn’t have enough time to set or what, but next time I think I’ll stick with a normal recipe.
It was pretty though.
OK so for all of you who scrolled down, you have to do me a favor and go back up after reading this OK?
Boeuf Bourguignon (Slightly adapted from Mastering the Art of French Cooking, by Child, Bertholle and Beck)
Ingredients:
6 ounces Thick Cut Bacon, sliced into 1/4 inch sections and simmered for ten minutes, then drained and dried.
3 pounds Stew Beef, cut into 2-inch chunks and patted dry.
1 Sliced Carrot
1 Sliced Onion
1 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp Pepper
2 Tb Flour
3 cups Red Wine, Chianti is suggested (I used a Zin, I think.)
2 to 3 cups Beef Stock (I doubled the recipe and could only fit in 1 or so, just season accordingly later.)
1 Tb Tomato Paste
2 Cloves Garlic
1/2 tsp thyme and one crumbled bay leaf (OR I tied together a bunch of fresh thyme and a bay leaf or two for a bouquet garni, and that worked great.)
18 to 24 Small Onions, Brown Braised, (Do this by browning the outsides in 1 Tb oil and 1 Tb butter, then baking, with a bouquet as described above, at 350 for 4 to 50 minutes, turning once or twice, till soft and golden.)
1 pound fresh Mushrooms sauteed in butter (You’ve seen the movie right? “Don’t crowd the mushrooms!” Fave line.)
Directions:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
In a Oven-Proof Casserole (or a cast iron dutch oven, which I used) lightly brown the bacon and set aside on paper towels to drain. In the remaining fat, saute the beef a little at a time, till browned on all sides, then set aside with the bacon.
Add the onion and carrot to the same fat and saute, then pour out remaining fat. (I did not pour out the fat, it did not hurt anything.)
Return beef and Bacon to casserole and toss with salt and pepper. Then toss with flour. Put in middle of oven and cook uncovered for 4 minutes. Remove, toss, and cook 4 minutes more. (This is supposed to get crusty bits on the meat, did not do it for me, but my pot was crowded.)
Remove casserole, lower oven to 325 degrees.
Stir in wine and enough stock so beef is barley covered, add tomato paste, garlic and herbs. Bring to simmer and then cover and put in lower third of oven. Cook 2 1/2 to 3 hours, till the meat is easily pierced with a fork.
Prepare little onions and mushrooms while beef is cooking and have them ready.
When ready, pour beef and everything else into a sieve set over a sauce pan. clean out the casserole and add contents of sieve back in. Put the little onions and mushrooms over the meat.
Skim fat off sauce, then simmer and continue skimming till reduced to a thickness that coats a spoon lightly. If it’s really thin, you can boil it down rapidly, if to thick, you can add a little beef stock tablespoons at a time. Taste and season well. Pour over meat.
At this point you can either simmer it for a few minutes, basting the meat with the sauce, and then serve it, or you can hold it in the fridge (after letting it cool of course) till you’re ready to serve, and bring it up to temp by bringing it to a simmer and then simmering it for 10 minutes, basting occasionally.
Bon Appetit!
