Beef Bourguignonne

Ingredients

750mL red wine (Beaujolais-Villages works well)

six carrots

15 medium onions

two stalks celery

two cloves garlic

4 Tablespoons butter

1 Tablespoon tomato paste

2 Tablespoons flour

125g salt pork or bacon

four sprigs thyme

four sprigs parsley

two bay leaves

fifteen whole peppercorns

Salt, pepper to taste

Procedure

Make a bouquet garni: wrap peppercorns, parsley, thyme, and bay leaves in cheesecloth and tie to ensure they don't escape.

Skin onions but leave them whole.

Chop bacon or salt pork coarsley.

Peel and section carrots.

Chop celery.

In a large cast iron pot over medium-high heat, melt four tablespoons of butter and fry the salt pork or bacon until lightly brown.

Remove the salt pork/bacon, leaving the fat. In the fat over medium-high temperature, brown the whole onions, just the ends will be fine. Remove the onions.

Pat the meat dry and brown the meat in the same fat.

When meat is brown on all sides, turn heat to low and re-add onion, carrots, celery, bouquet garni. Cover and simmer 20min.

After a 20min simmer, remove all solids from the pan, and you should have juice in the bottom. Make a roux with a small amount of the juice and the flour, then introduce the roux to the rest of the liquid and whisk over medium heat until thickened, perhaps four minutes.

Add tomato paste to liquid.

Add garlic to liquid.

Whisk until all lumps of tomato paste and flour (if any) are gone.

Turn temperature to low. Pour in 1/3rd of a bottle of wine. Whisk to dislodge any stuck material on the bottom.

Add everything back to the pan.

Add the rest of the bottle of wine. Cover and allow cooking to proceed on a low simmer for at least 3.5 hours, stirring once an hour or so. Be gentle and stir infrequently.

After the meat is very tender and the stew cooked to your liking, adjust seasoning. It probably needs more salt, since salt is best done after the cooking, not before.

Allow it to cool, then transfer, in pot, to refrigerator. When it is fully cold, a 0.25in layer of fat will have solidified at the top. Get rid of all this fat, or at least as much as is convenient without destroying the good stuff.

Reheat and serve.

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