Beef Bourguignon

This recipe blew my mind! Both my husband and I kind of went crazy when we tasted this, it was so yummy and tasted like it was a lot more difficult to make than it was (which is always a plus). You can use stew beef or Venison (who regularly has venison? not us). Mr. chef and I LOVE LOVE LOVE steak and this was a really fun new recipe for using the frozen stew meat that we buy in bulk from Costco. Somehow, when we are there things like giant packages of meat always end up in our cart. MMM, why fight something that delicious?  We don't.

Anyway, make sure you give yourself enough time to prep it and then a few hours for cooking but the actual "hands-on" time was pretty simple.

MEAT MIXTURE:

1/2 to 1 lb. bacon, cut into strips 1/4 x 1 1/2 inch long
1 tbsp. olive oil
3-5 lbs. lean stewing beef or venison steak, cut in 2-inch cubes
2-3 sliced carrots
2 sm. onions, cut into ringlets
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
2 tbsp. flour

Cook bacon until crispy, then add olive oil to saute bacon. Remove bacon. Saute beef or venison in "hot, smoking" oil. (Use dried beef and venison as it will brown nicer.) Remove meat. Saute carrot, onions in same fat. Add vegetables to beef mixture. Throw out remaining fat. Sprinkle meat mixture with flour and seasonings. Toss lightly in uncovered casserole dish in oven at 450 degrees for 4 minutes, mix. Return to oven for 4 minutes, mix again. Reduce temperature to 325 degrees.

WINE MIXTURE:

3 c. red wine (inexpensive)
2-3 c. beef stock or bouillon
1 tbsp. tomato paste
2 cloves garlic, mashed
1/2 tsp. thyme
Bay leaf, crumbled
1 lg. onion, chopped and sauteed
1 lb. mushrooms, quartered and sauteed (when we made this last week we left off the mushrooms because I was too lazy to go to the store ad it was still yummy)

Prepare 1/2 cup wine with remaining ingredients, mix well. Pour over meat. Combine remaining wine with bouillon. Mix into meat mixture so that it is covered. Cook slowly at 325 degrees for 2 1/2 to 3 hours until meat is tender.When ready to serve, saute mushrooms and onions. Distribute evenly over meat. Serve with mashed potatoes, noodles or rice (we used egg noodles and they were great). Decorate with parsley.

DIVINE.