Boeuf Bourguignon

Putting the peasant back into this peasant food inspired haute cuisine dish. This is only vaguely close to the cooking processes used for this dish today. It’s easy and tasty this way though…and I don’t argue with tasty. She fights dirty. Ofcourse, the other thing that makes this dish a good idea for hungry hobbits all over the world….MUSHROOMS!! See? Tasty fights dirty bigtime. The key to make this healthier is really in the cut of your stewing beef. Try to get one that only has a bit of marbling. If you can get sirloin stewing beef then you are golden. Some butchers offer “steak ends” which are the bits they cut off those sirloin steaks to make them beautiful. These are awesome lean cuts that are perfect for this dish. The other reason I absolutely had to post a beef dish today? I was watching ‘Come Dine with me Canada’. On it was this woman who kept complaining that when she was dieting all she could eat was chicken, that is why she dislikes chicken. Sheesh. No idea what diet she was trying but I seem to be doing just fine and NOT living on just chicken. So there. It’s not a beautiful picture, as I embraced it’s peasant roots, but it sure was tasty.

• 1 slice bacon, chopped
• 1 pkg crimini mushrooms, sliced or puree (according to preference)
• 8 pearl onions (I used red pearl onions for colour)
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 tbl cornstarch (I like my boeuf with a thick sauce, if you don’t skip this)
• 1 tsp poultry spice
• 1/2 chicken broth
• 1 cup red wine
• 2 large potatoes, cubed
• 4 carrots, sliced
• 2 celery stalks, sliced
• 8 oz stewing beef
• salt and pepper to taste

1. Heat a pan to medium, add bacon, garlic and mushrooms. Cook until the bacon is crispy. Drain the fat and pour into a crockpot.
2. Toss the beef in cornstarch to coat then add to the pan and brown. You just want to sear the meat here, not cook it. Pour into the crockpot.
3. Deglaze the pan with the red wine, scraping off the browned bits from the pan. Pour into the crockpot.
4. Add the remaining ingredients to the crockpot and allow to cook on low for 8 hours or high for 5 hours.

Makes 4 servings. Each serving contains 278 calories, 5.7 grams of fat and 3.8 grams of fibre. Very diet friendly to me. Living on chicken, heh, the very idea!