Bœuf à la bourguignonne

Or bœuf bourguignon, if you prefer. After eating chicken for more than a week (I finally finished it!), I wanted something different, and something that I could make ahead to have when Ken got back from his trip on Thursday. I was to pick him up from the train station around 13h00, so lunch would be late. Having something ready to heat up would be good. I decided to make beef Burgundy.

Ingredients for the marinade.

I started on Wednesday morning by marinating the beef in red Burgundy wine, of course, along with flavoring ingredients: onion, carrots, garlic, bay leaves, cloves, and black peppercorns. After about nine hours, I sauteed some lardons (smoky bacon), then browned the drained beef pieces (lightly floured). It all went into the slow cooker with a little fond de veau (concentrated veal stock) and a bouquet garni of leek tops and fresh thyme from the garden. I poured in the marinade and let it simmer over night.

The recipes I have for this classic dish say to strain all the aromatic vegetables out of the marinade and discard them. But I leave them in. Well, the leek greens, thyme, and bay leaves come out at serving time, but the carrots, onion, and garlic stay in. Ken thickened the sauce with a little beurre manié (flour and butter kneaded together). We served it over pasta. Yum!