Boeuf Bourguignon in Honor of Julia Child's 100th Birthday

When you think of complicated dishes, boeuf bourguignon via Julia Child

should come to mind.  It takes about 3 hours and has many steps.

In honor of her 100th birthday, I decided to tackle this and feed my flock.

I got her recipe online and began to cook at 2:00 in the afternoon.

The first step is to blanche some bacon to remove some of the

smokey flavor.

Then you sautee it to get it slightly browned, but not crispy.

The meat is chuck roast, cut it into 2 inch chunks. 

I sliced some carrots and onions to get ready for cooking.

Brown the chuck, in the bacon fat and olive oil, on all sides.

Once evenly browned, I browned the carrots and onions.

Deglaze the pan with a bottle of red wine.  Julie suggest pinot noir, and

who am I to argue with her?  Any recipe that has an entire 

bottle of red wine is ok in my book!!

Add some chopped tomatoes, then

pour the wine into the mixture and then add beef stock until

it almost covers the meat and simmer at the lowest 

possible temperature for about 2 hours.

The herb bouquet included parsley, bay leaf, thyme, garlic and whole cloves.

Quarter some mushrooms that will be cooked when the meat is almost done.

Pearl onions are sauteed in butter, then you add chicken stock, sugar 

and salt/pepper and cook for about 25 minutes.

This is at the halfway point...1 hour.

After 2 hours, take all the solids out and strain it in a colander, 

over a saucepan.

Take the meat out and put it back in your original pan.

Press all the solids down to extract as much juice as possible,

then discard them.

Bring the sauce to a boil and reduce it to about 3 cups.

Add a beurre manie (flour and butter mixed into a paste), off heat,

and whisk until the sauce thicken a bit.

Brown the mushrooms in butter and olive oil.

3 pans going at the same time!

Once the sauce is thickened, pour it over the meat,

then fold in the mushrooms and pearl onions.

Boom, goes the dynamite!!!

Since I worked so hard, I decided to pull out the fancy plates.

I served this culinary gold with rice.

This was so worth the time and effort!!  Rich and delicious.

Some sauce poured over the rice was awesome.

You could taste the wine and butter and all the levels

of flavors.

After we were done eating, I felt like my stomach was smiling!!!

En l'honneur de l'enfant Julie, un père a nourri son troupeau de la nourriture délicieuse françaises.

In honor of Julie Child, a father fed his flock some delicious french food.