Who is the man who makes a complicated French dish and videotapes it at the same time? Shaft? No! Moi!
Tonight I made Boeuf Bourguignon from The Barefoot Contessa’s new cookbook: “Barefoot in Paris.” It came out looking thusly:
The broth was great but the beef was a little underseasoned. I seasoned it, but apparently not enough. Very tender though. And her idea for serving it on top of a piece of bread is not only a good one, but practically essential. It soaks up all the broth and is the best tasting part of the whole experience.
But enough yapping. You want to see movie magic. Well here you are, my cinematic francophilic masterpiece…
PS: This film features my brandest newest piece of cooking equipment: my Le Crueset oven, which is beautiful and perfect and completely the product of the help Brian W. gave me in Kitchen Queries. (Apparently the site he linked to no longer features the Halloween special that saved me so much money.)
PS2: This film features me LIGHTING SOMETHING ON FIRE. That should be worth the price of admission alone. [The idea to use scissors to hold the match was my own inspiration. That technique will forevermore be known as the Amateur Gourmet wuss maneuever.]
Whoo hoo! I’m so glad you like it!
It looks like Caplan-Duval have replaced all the old sales with one big holiday sale, so if anybody else needs some Le Creuset just hit caplanduval.com and you should be able to find the sale no prob. If you haven’t read the Kitchen Queries thread, C-D is a Canadian housewares place that for some reason is way cheaper than any American place I’ve ever found for Le Creuset stuff (even the outlets, and even figuring in the shipping charges).
Next you need to get one of those long Zippo fireplace-lighter things so you can flambé without giving us all heart attacks.
My work here is done. *Flies away*
Kudos on diving into “Barefoot in Paris” with such aplomb! I made the BB as well, and I have to say, it is not only slightly tastier than…gasp!…the Julia Child version I used to use, but also it takes MUCH less time, even possible to do on a weeknight. Ina’s has more broth than Julia’s, so I wound up adding more thickener at the end, but it was still deelish. Hmmm, it just started snowing here outside Boston, BB would hit the spot tonight… :)
Now THAT looks vraiment delicieux! I loved the simple shot of it simmering on the stovetop, so promising. And I’m going to have to remember your holding-the-match-with-scissors trick, although there hasn’t been much fire in my kitchen lately–just some very lava-like apple butter that nearly blinded me with one of its splatters. Any “wuss maneuvers” for that?
Great movie, classic dish. Mmmmmmm. The Le Creuset was a nice purchase. You mentioned the beef was less flavorful than you might have liked. I don’t have the Barefoot recipe, and it was hard to tell from your movie, but there are a couple things that might make the beef itself – independent of the broth – more innately tasty. One would be to marinate it in the red wine overnight with some of the thyme. The other would just be to really, really, really brown it, almost to the point where you think it’s overcooked. I’m talking deep, crusty brown. Lastly, for mine I add a little tomato paste just before the onions/other veggies and then cook just the paste itself, stirring it and breaking it down for a minute until it is rusty and pungent. Just some ideas for next time – although it looked pretty damn fine this time…. Keep up the great work.
fun ina fact of the day:
today’s nytimes features an opinion piece by ina’s husband, jeffrey. don’t you feel enlightened now?
Ah, the return of Lolita! C’est magnifique, she is still up to her old tricks, it appears.
What a wonderful cold weather dish – hope you make a souffle’ soon.
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