Le Cordon Bleu - Instruction #17; Practical #17

Instruction #17 – Red Meats – Part 2

• Braising: cooking Boeuf Bourguignonne, boiled turned potatoes
• Prime rib of beef red wine sauce, tomatoes Provençal-style

Finish Boeuf Bourguignonne

(Remember this serves 4)

100 ml light brown veal stock (3.5 ounces), brought to a boil
3 garlic cloves
1 teaspoon tomato paste
30 g flour (1.5 tablespoons)
Salt
300 g small mushrooms (1 ½ cups)
250 g pearl onions (1 ¼ cups)
250 g salt slab bacon (1 ¼ cups), blanch to extract excess salt
50 g butter (2 tablespoons)

Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius (392 degrees Fahrenheit).

Take each piece of meat out of the marinade. Strain aromatics, reserving marinade. Heat peanut oil until smoking in a sauté pan. Brown the meat in an even layer on all sides. Add a tab of butter during browning. Transfer meat to a braising pot (i.e. Le Creuset) and season with salt and pepper. In the same sauté pan brown the aromatics and bouquet garni. Deglaze with a little veal stock. Place braising pan with meat on high heat. Add tomato paste and flour. Rolling (cooking) the paste and flour for about 1-2 minutes. Add browned aromatics to meat. Add reserved marinade and veal stock. Bring to a boil. Cover and braise in oven for 1.5 - 3 hours. Check cooking temperature and seasoning half way through. Cook mushrooms, onions, and bacon separately in butter and oil. Once braised, separate meat from liquid. Bring liquid to a boil. Skim and degrease. (If too thick, thin with water). Strain over meat. Add cooked vegetables.

We also made prime rib with red wine sauce and tomatoes Provençal-style. Provençal-style usually means with garlic and olive oil and, of course, herbs de Provence.

We were all in a made rush to get the boeuf Bourguignonne into the oven so that it would have at least 1.5 hours to braise. Bowls were slinging from one side of the kitchen to the other. Sweat was beading every brow. It was a 100 meter-boeuf-Bourguignonne-dash.

The excitement didn’t stop here. Once our boeuf was braising away in the oven we prepared the mushroom, pearl onion, and lardon garish. Cooking individually - giving necessary care to each ingredient.

Next. We prepared Anglaise-style turned potatoes.

Finally. Large croutons dipped in parsley to garnish the plate.

For those of you wondering about my slow down mentality, I didn’t forget today. There were moments when I had to rush, because it was the nature of the recipe. The filler time was well paced and calm.

For a second time, I needed more salt for the potatoes. The rest was good. Beef was cooked. Sauce was seasoned tres bonne. Potatoes were well done. Vegetables were nicely prepared. And the crouton was crispy. You can bet the next time I make potatoes I will drop a good kilo of salt into the cooking liquid.