Challenge #24: Bourgignon-inspired slow cooker beef stew

[ewt]

Equipment needed:
-slow cooker
-chopping board and knife unless you're using all pre-chopped ingredients
-big frying pan or saucepan of some sort, moderately optional but pretty helpful
-roasting tin for some veg

It's not a recipe so much as a description of what I did. I cook fairly intuitively, and I'm not a technical writer. But el_staplador asked me if I'd be happy to post this here, so here it is.


We had some stewing beef (500g x2 packages) in the freezer, which I guess I bought when it was on sale. It was already cut into chunks, hurrah.

I looked up recipes for beef bourgignon, and decided it's bascally a fancy way of saying "beef stew that has wine and mushrooms and bacon in it".

I took the beef out of the freezer and marinated it overnight in:
-bay leaves
-black pepper
-a bit of paprika
-thyme (dried, because I couldn't face Outside)
-some chopped garlic, I think? Not much though.
-star anise
-cumin
-red wine, I think an Italian variety, that someone brought us and we hadn't gotten around to drinking because we don't really drink that much. The bottle said it was "rich with spicy and fruity notes" and goes well with pizza and pasta. I don't remember what variety it was, and the recycling bin has been emptied since then.

Next day, I drained the beef, putting the wine and bay leaves directly into the crock pot, and fishing out the star anise (well, most of it). I dunked the beef pieces in flour and browned the outsides in olive oil and butter before putting them in the pot too.

Then I put in the oven:
-carrots, cut into bite-sized chunks
-fennel bulb, cut ditto
-an entire bulb of fresh garlic (the kind where the stem is still green), broken up into cloves and peeled to save having to peel it later
-more olive oil, drizzeled on top

While that was in the oven, I fried:
-bacon (most of a package; my intention had been an entire package but spouse ate three slces in sandwiches the night before)
-two bags of frozen mixed wild mushrooms
-frozen chopped leeks
-the rest of a small bag of peeled chestnuts I also found in the freezer
-ground nutmeg, I almost always fry mushrooms with some ground nutmeg.

Added the fried stuff to the crock pot; remembered to turn the oven on; eventually added the part-roasted stuff to the crock pot. Found some butter beans in the freezer, added those to the crock pot, and a small box (150ml I think? I'm not getting up right now to check, they might be 200ml) of tomato passata. By now, the various veg were piled way above the level of the cooking liquid, so I added the rest of the bottle of wine. Cooked on high until bubbling, then on low until well after the carrots were done through.

This looks like horrible brown sludge with bright orange carrots and slimy grey fennel in it. It tastes... glorious. The different things all have their own flavour as well as the taste of the wine, and the beef is falling-apart tender. I divided it into six portions and added mashed potato. I thought it was too liquid to make pies with, but the reheated portions have been solid enough that it wold have been eminently possible, so that's one thing that could be done.

If you don't want to dip the beef in flour and brown it, that step is probably not strictly necessary for a long-cooked stew. In that case you might want to add potatoes to the stew itself, or perhaps some barley, so that the juices still thicken a bit -- especially if you're planning on using it as pie filling. Otherwise? maybe eat from a bowl instead of a plate.

This is not an especially cheap meal, but I haven't had anything as hearty in a long time, and that's quite welcome at the moment. It's a little overwhelming if I'm not hungry, though.

Comments

[miss_s_b]

Oh my good Cthulhu this sounds amazing. I am literally drooling just reading this.

Note to self: need a drooling icon.

[el_staplador]

Thank you!Thought it deserved to be shared more widely, because it does sound sooooo good.