Sunday, June 16, 2013
THE OLD PHILOSOPHER STEPS UP TO THE BIG LEAGUES
Yesterday, I went to the market and bought three pounds of beef, two carrots, two stalks of celery, two carrots, a leek, a can of tomato paste, three onions, some little potatoes, five thick slices of lardon, and a bottle of Burgundy. Yes, Virginia, I am going to make boeuf bourguignon. Today I chopped and sliced the beef, onions, carrots, celery, and leek, added peppercorns and the bottle of wine, and put it all in the fridge to marinate for twenty-four hours. Tomorrow I shall complete the dish and serve it up. Wish me luck. This is a very simple recipe from Ma Bourgogne, a lovely restaurant in Place des Vosges in the 4th arrondissement. I got it out of a book. Oddly, the restaurant itself no longer has boeuf bourguignon on the menu. I have made it once before, and it was spectacular. I figure if I can make a traditional boeuf bourguignon, I can do anything.
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3 comments:
I wish you luck on your dish Professor Wolff. I bought Elizabeth David's French Provincial Cooking several months ago and there is a similiar (or same?) dish on page 343 called Boeuf A La Bourguignonne. The marination time is shorter, from 3 to 6 hours, so it may not be the same dish. This dish is supposed to be heavily used for holidays and feast days.
ISBN 978-0-14-118153-0
This is a Penguin Classics book.
There is no better book (I think of it as one of my desert island books, though where I would find a stove, some pans and decent knives on said island is slightly mysterious)than Richard Olney's Simple French Food. (By 'simple' he simply means not haute; he doesn't necessarily mean simple.) It is a huge stylistic contrast to, say, Mastering the Art....
First of all, it is written in beautiful, slightly ornate, prose. Second, it is conceptual; although there are recipes, the bulk of the book characterizes recipe schemes. Here's the structure of a stew; use red wine, beef and onion you get this; replace the beef with squid, you get this instead. Both artful and correct. The chicken liver terrine is a keeper as is the vegetable stew (which is a schema too). And on and on. Great book.
I have just ordered it from Amazon. It will be waiting for me when I get home.
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