Tuesday, October 27, 2009

No More Beef Bourgiunon

After seeing Julie and Julia, Anna and I decided to make beef Bourgiunon so I reviewed Julia's recipes in The Art of Fr. Cooking (1964). Very soon, I knew that all the recommended steps would take all day to complete: too many pots and pans and too much time. No thank you, Julia.

So I reviewed Julia's recipe in The Way to Cook (1989) which was simpler. (Evidentially, Julia learned by that year that most American cooks didn't want to spend the whole day laboring in the kitchen.) We chose to make the '89 version of the recipe.
Anna and I proceeded with the various steps, and we had fun talking and laughing while we sauteed little boiling onions.
Here she is sauteing again; this time it is the veggies which were combined with the meat in the roasting pan.
Whew, Anna needed a break during which she called Aunt Margi.
While browning the meat, she stayed at arm's length to avoid the spitting. (Anna looks like there was a large snake in the skillet, and she feared being bitten.)
Anna was a master with the big French chef knife. She cut the meat into cubes with great proficiency. (Look at that concentration.)
After it cooked for 2 hours and we shared it with family, we decided that we could cross beef bourgiunon off of our list of dishes to make in the future.

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