“A perfectly delicious dish.” – JC
I am very inspired by culinary legends – Julia Child, Ina Garten, Martha Stewart & Alice Waters. They embody the quest best articulated by Thoreau – “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams”. If only it was that easy! For those of us who lack that confidence, we can at least step into their footsteps if only for an evening. These brave women wholeheartedly pursued their culinary interests. I share their garden and culinary passions but have a 2025 set of constraints. So, while initially inspired by Julia and her famous Boeuf Bourguignon recipe, after making it a few times, I’ve tweaked it to fit my needs. Notes explaining where and why.
Recipe from “The French Chef” & adapted by a 2025 working & slightly exhausted mother
We’re in STEW season bay-bay. ‘Tis the season for hearty foods and serving them to the ones you love while wearing a slouchy and very comfortable sweater.
I am not the first to recreate or adapt a Julia Child recipe. Please don’t think we are claiming this revelation.
Ryan and I love hosting. During COVID, we had a small family COVID cohort. We hunkered down in Santa Ynez and in Montana, snowshoeing, ski’ing Whitefish, watching friends prepare their favorite dishes – homemade Minestrone, raised Parker house rolls – things that require time. After COVID, we paused our hosting … I think we were just super exhausted becoming parents. We are staking a claim to get some of that back
If you have time, watch the JC Boeuf Bourguignon episode. Try her recipe. Make it yours. Cheers!
Boeuf Bourguignon Dreamcôte Adaptation
Serves 4-6
Ingredients in order of addition
- 7 Slices or 5 oz Bacon
- 2 Large Carrots
- 1 Medium White Onion
- 3 lbs of your favorite stew meat cut into 4 portions (Julia prefers chuck. I prefer Short rib texturally. Ultimately, you won’t break the stew by trialing a cut of meat.)
- 2 tablespoons flour for thickening
- 1 Bottle of Red Wine
- Herbs (4 thyme sprigs, 3 fresh bay leaves)
***Learn how to grow your own core herbs in our Garden Club. - 2 cloves Garlic
- 1lbs Tomato paste
- 2 cups Beef Stock or Broth
- .5tsp Salt
- 1lb Pear Onions
- 2 thyme sprigs
- 1tbs Butter
- 1lb Crimini Mushrooms
- 1 tbs Butter
- 1tbs Olive Oil
- Pepper
- Chopped parsley leaves for garnish
Directions
This dish can be mostly prepared in a single, 4 qt cast-iron pot.
- Set your oven to 350F.
- Throw your meat on the counter as soon as you can remember to bring to room temperature
- Bacon: Chop bacon into 1/2 inch pieces.
- Carrots and onions: Prep vegetables — chop carrots into large sections and onions into large bit size pieces
- In your cast-iron, brown bacon. Remove to a bowl on the side.
- Pat dry beef, but into large portion-sized chunks. Brown beef in the bacon grease.
*JC boils her bacon and does not use the fat. I prefer using the bacon grease as my browning agent. - Add beef to the pan on med+ heat 4 minutes each side to brown. Do this in 2–3 batches. Remove to bowl with bacon
**Resist the urge to crowd your pan. Doing this in batches takes quite a big of time.
WHY brown: Maillard reaction creates a caramelization – a browning + complexing of flavors - Add onions and carrots and sauté for 3 minutes. Remove to bowl with beef & bacon.
- Brown 2 tablespoons of flour in the remaining grease by sprinkling and whisking. One lightly brown in color, deglaze!
- Red wine: Deglaze 2/3 bottle red wine – 3 cups. Authentically Burgundy (pinot), “but you can use any red wine”.
BZ: I used 4 cups of wine vs 3 in my subsequent productions – I prefer a saucier version with higher acidity. - Herbs: 2 Thyme sprigs, 2 bay leaves.
BZ uses FRESH not dried because I grow them in my yard
JC: Per Julia – French and American bay leaves are different. I don’t know the difference. - Garlic: Slice and add garlic to pot.
BZ sliced garlic instead of using a press. - Tomato paste: 1 tablespoon into the beef stock / beef broth.
- Beef stock: 2 cups
- Salt: 1/2 tsp salt. More salt added later. Because you reduce the sauce later… you want to go slow and easy here.
- Throw the lid on and pop this in the oven for 3.5 hours
- Prepare Pearl Onions & Mushrooms. See individual steps below.
- Remove from oven.
- Pepper: Add 1/8 tsp pepper prior to reducing the sauce
- Reducing the sauce (really nice step for the quality of your stew). This is your opportunity to add more salt, tomato sauce, etc. With tongs I removed carrots, onions, beef and reduced the sauce to half. I added the braised onions and mushrooms back in with the reduced sauce prior to serving.
JC: Julia removes the fat of reduced sauce by skimming, I do not. Per Julia, pepper is not typically added to sauces until the end because it can become bitter.
JC: does not add her flour until this stage … Chef Paul Bocuse adds his in much earlier (just after the browning stage so that it colors in the pan prior to adding wine & stock. You do you.
Braising pearl onions
Time-consuming but worth it. Remove onion skins: Julia has an awesome method for how to loosen the pearl onion skins. Sauté onions in pan with one tablespoon of butter and a pinch of salt. Slow simmer these adorable onions covered for 20 minutes until tender & set aside.
Braising mushrooms
Time-consuming but worth it. Sauté mushrooms in 2 tablespoons butter, 1 tablespoon of olive oil, pinch of salt for 4-5 minutes. Set aside. Add both the braised pearl onions and mushrooms back into your stew.
Sides and wine pairing
- I served this alongside KILLER butter, Yukon Gold mashed potatoes.
- Any wine you like! We’ve paired this cold-weather recipe with our SYV BDX, a richer red with excellent barrel aging. Try them out and let us know what you think!
Future augmentation
- I’m tempted to try shiitake on my next take & add in a smidge of soy sauce, a teensy drop of sesame oil & to serve with aromatic jasmine rice.
- I’d also love to trial this recipe with lamb and dried Montmorency cherries for more acidity paired with our Gamay or Pinot… more to come!