Yesterday was another much-needed Wine Sunday, this week featuring Julia Child's Boeuf Bourguignon. I say featuring because this meal was a work of art and a labor of love that I spent literally all day working on. The resident taste tester and I were joined for dinner by James' roommates: three guys who can definitely eat a lot of meat!
After spending an hour and a half working to get the dish ready to go into the oven for 3-4 hours, I was hungry and more than a little cranky. Luckily, the resident taste tester came to my rescue with a fabulous BLT that restored my good mood. Plus, I was able to sneak a little nap in while the beef simmered happily in the oven.
When I got back to my kitchen, I started browning my pearl onions and mushrooms to go into the beef. Unfortunately, I didn't read the browning of the pearl onions as carefully as I should have, since it called for simmering the onions for 40-50 minutes. Since my beef was about ready to come out of the oven, the onions got about 25 minutes of simmering before I added them to the beef. Personally, I don't think anyone noticed.
Up to this point, all the many little steps had gone pretty smoothly, until I got to the sauce. I strained the beef and veggies out of the liquid and started boiling it down rapidly for several minutes, per Julia's instructions. After roughly 15 minutes of boiling, many words of encouragement, and a couple of curse words, it finally started to thicken up and a thick brown sauce was created! It may not seem like it, but it was a huge victory for me. Not only had I made sauce, but dinner, my masterpiece, was ready!
The guys came over for dinner bearing a lovely and always welcome gift, more wine, which was very much enjoyed. Not to toot my own horn, but I think that dinner was an absolute success. We went through roughly 3 pounds of beef, salad, potatoes, a baguette, and several bottles of wine, plus the resident taste tester made a delicious deconstructed apple crisp for dessert.
For all the work that went into it, I enjoyed making the boeuf bourguignon and I know I'll have to make it again in the future. But for next week, I'm thinking of going simple and enjoying a lazy Sunday!
PS: Don't forget, tomorrow is National Pancake Day!! My office will be continuing our tradition of celebrating pancakes, and I should hopefully have a blog up tomorrow with the results!!
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