Boeuf bourguignon

I didn't have to drag my husband to see Julie and Julia. He is all about encouranging me to cook and he figured the movie will "inspire" me. He got me Julia Child's baking book a few years back and enough kitchen stuff to get me started. I made several recipes from her Joy of Cooking - the chicken pot pie and chocolate mousse are my favorites (with Fall starting again I can't wait to make those again).

Starting has been slow - all these recipes are good when you have plenty of time on your hands - and preferably don't work. More than a year ago I spent 4 hours on one weekend to make a chocolate cake - probably spent $25 on the ingredients and it turned out worse than the $4 10 minute powder thing you get at the supermarket.

So we saw the movie and the making of the famous boeuf bourguignon (on an unrelated note - I don't understand why they can't pronounce boeuf properly and they say something similar to boof)

Anyway - a couple of weeks ago I gathered the stuff for the recipe and started - on a Thursday afternoon - the advantage of working from home - got my work done early in the morning - fixed the bourguignon and while it was in the oven for a few hours did more work.

I had forgotten the pearl onions and didn't go back to the store to get them - so you can say it was not truly boeuf bourguignon. I followed the recipe to the T (other than the onions - which probably would have added another 30 minutes of cooking). All and all I'll say it is actually easy to make - if you put the time in - it took me about 3 hours of cutting, frying, etc. Next time I will definitely make it the day before I plan to serve it.

The best surprise in the recipe was beurre marnie. I have been incapable so for to make decent gravies and my last attempt at making roux for gumbo (one of Emerille's recipes) turned into such a disaster I had to throw away the whole thing. I had everything done up to the beurre marnie. I was all nervous I will mess up the whole recipe and it will turn into a gumbo disaster. But to my surprise it was very easy to make.

It was definitely my kind of food - meet and potatoes at its best. It was excellent. There is this French cafe we walk to often - I had Boeuf bourguignon there a couple of times (they serve it with linguini instead of potatoes) - mine was so much better - I am not ordering it there anymore.

Next time I won't forget the pearl onions ...

Oh - I found one of Julia Child's comments in the cookbook funny - you should serve the dish with the same kind of wine you cooked it with - funny - and the recipe calls for 1 - 1.5 bottles of Zinfandel :)