Beef Bourguignon

Work has been hectic lately, and every night by the time I got home and had dinner, I just fell asleep on the couch, if I don't fall asleep, I just wanted to sit there and do nothing! Not good! Finally tonight, I don't feel as tired and can continue to blog! There are a few dishes waiting for me to blog about! =)

I always wanted to try to make the beef bourguignon, but never had the time to because it takes like almost 2 hours in the oven! Every time I think of the long oven time, I wish I have a pressure cooker!

Ingredients:

1.5kg boneless shin/gravy beef, diced in 3cm cubes

4 sprigs of flat leaf parsley

4-5 sprigs thyme

1 fresh bay leaf

2 cups red wine

1 cup beef stock

1 tbsp plain flour

1 tbsp olive oil

30g butter

12 small pickling onions or shallots, peeled

200g button mushrooms, stalks trimmed

250g bacon, rind removed, cut into short strips

1 cup water

1) Place beef in large bowl, add the herbs and wine. Refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight.

2) Preheat oven to 180C. Drain the beef and put aside the marinade and herbs. Pat the beef dry with paper towel. Heat a large frypan over a medium-high heat. Brown the beef in 3 batches. Remove each batch and place in a casserole dish. pour over the reserved marinade and herbs. Add the stock and flour. Stir to mix.

3) Cover the casserole dish, place in oven. Stir every 40 minutes, add water if needed to keep the ingredients just covered. Cook until the beef is almost tender (about 80 minutes)

4) Heat the oil and butter in a small frypan, add the onions and cook stirring for 10 minutes or until lightly golden, remove and set aside. Cook the mushrooms in 2 batches, remove and set aside. Add the bacon to the pan, cook until crispy. Add the onions, mushrooms, bacon and water to the beef, stir gently to combine. cook for a further 20-30 minutes or until beef is tender.

This dish definitely smelt good, and I served it with some rice and broccoli. However, I don't know whether it's because of the time problem that I didn't cook for long enough or because the beef I bought (I used gravy beef). The beef turned out quite hard and chewy, and there was a lack of flavour in taste! ummm.... unfortunately my first beef bourguignon turned out to be a fail! =(