Stewing up a Storm

Well, here I am sealed up tight waiting for this HUGE storm to blow through the Bay Area and my husband is out of town for the evening. Usually when he is out of town I make all the things that he doesn't like. Well, he isn't a fan of beef stew so I am on a mission. It's cold, wet, windy and gray. A perfect combination for some hearty stew. Whenever I think of stew I think Beef Bourguignon and then I think Julia Child. What a perfect time to try it… I have yet to see the movie Julie and Julia but I was always a huge fan of Julia Child. While the other kids were watching cartoons on weekend mornings I would either be watching the WWF or PBS cooking shows, yes, I was sort of an odd child. My favorites were Julia Child and Martin Yan solely for their entertainment aspect. Also, I was smitten with Julia Child because at that age she was the only celebrity that I had ties to.

Here is my "tie" to Julia Child…I know it's a stretch but at 10 years old it was like she was my BFF. I spent so much time at my grandparent's house in East Cambridge and in one of the flats lived my Uncle and my Great Grandmother. Well, my Uncle was a cab driver (I think he is going on 40 years). In any event it was his job to pick up Julia Child from her home in Cambridge every day and deliver her to the PBS studios for the taping of the shows. There you have it…my connection to the professional culinary television industry.

Back to my point. …I took one look at the recipe and said "not today Julia". I needed to make do with what I had cuz there was no way I was heading outside. I finally found a recipe on allrecipes.com that looked good that I could adapt to what I had "in house"…While this recipe has wine in it, I don't think it can officially be called Beef Bourguignon. To add to the confusion in this "stew" I discovered that I do not own a covered casserole dish. I do intend to invest in a Le Cruset eventually though. What I did however have was an All Clad Tagine. I know, weird. I LOVE my tagine and don't use it all that often because I think about it only when I want to make Moroccan type dishes. In this economy we need to start thinking out of the box because no way in hell will my husband be OK with me spending 350$ on a pot! I browned the meat and basically did everything in the pan and then simmered it on the stove for a couple of hours with the cone top on it and it came out FANTASTIC! You SHOULD do this a day ahead of time if you can, it does taste better. Heat it slowly.
The gadget: Tagine: I have the All Clad Emerileware one. I love that it's nonstick, the size is perfect and it's not heavy BUT you cannot put the top in the oven.

Beef "kind of" Bourguignon
2.5 tablespoons flour
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon of pepper
1 pound bite sized beef (I use sirloin)
2.5 tablespoons of butter
1 medium onion sliced
2 carrots sliced or 1 cup of the mini's
½ clove garlic minced
¾ cup red wine
½ cup beef broth
1 bay leaf
2 tablespoons parsley
¼ teaspoon dried thyme
10 oz pkg of sliced mushrooms optional


Put flour, salt and pepper into a Ziploc bag and shake to mix. Then add beef and shake to coat.
Heat butter in pan and add meat to sear on all sides
Remove meat from pan and put aside.
Add onion and cook until soft about 5-10 minutes
Add carrots, mushrooms, and garlic and cook another 5 minutes. Do not burn garlic
Add wine, broth, bay leaf, parsley, thyme and stir, bring to boil.
Add beef and drippings, cover, and turn down to simmer for 2 hours.