Beef bourguignon

Tasmanian trail: from passion to plate, 208pp.
by Ben Milbourne
New Holland Publishers, Auckland, 2014
Cooking on page 132

Tasmania is Australia’s smallest state and one of the country’s most thriving food paradises. In producing this cookbook, Ben Milbourne travelled the state meeting the owners, farmers, fishermen, chocolatiers and brewers whose love of fresh, locally made products have established them as purveyors of fine food.

The book showcases the various produce available in the state from beer and cider to seafood and lamb to berries and cheese. Page 32 introduced Ashgrove Dairy but had no recipe, so I moved on to 132.

Beef bourguignon

Ingredients
1 kg (2.2 lbs) casserole steak, roughly chopped into large chunks
¼ cup plain flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
¼ cup olive oil
150 g (5 oz) smoked bacon, cut into batons
8 eschalots, peeled
5 cloves garlic, crushed
2 leeks, white part sliced
2 carrots, diced
750 ml (3 cups) red wine
500 ml (2 cups) beef stock
5 sprigs thyme
1 sprig rosemary
2 bay leaves
8 button mushrooms, halved
8 chat potatoes, cut in half
¼ cup picked parsley leaves, finely chopped, for garnish

Method
Preheat oven to 140°C.

Toss the beef in the flour, salt and pepper. Heat the oil in a large ovenproof casserole dish. Fry the beef in small batches, adding extra oil if needed, until browned all over. Remove the beef and in the same pan, fry the bacon and set it aside.

Fry the eschalots, garlic, leeks and carrots in the oil for 5 minutes.

Deglaze the pan with the wine and simmer for 5 minutes, then add the stock, thyme, rosemary, bay leaves and the reserved beef and bacon. Cover with the lid and place the dish in the oven for 2 hours.

Remove the casserole dish from the oven and add the mushrooms and potatoes and cook for another 30 minutes. If the sauce is a little thin, leave the lid off.

Scatter over the parsley leaves just before serving.

How it played out
I made this towards the end of a pandemic lockdown when shopping opportunities were limited, so I had to improvise a bit. I had 700 grams of gravy beef in the freezer. Given there was just two of us, I decided to make half a batch with a little less beef and the full amount of bacon.

Had 2 eschalots on hand and added 2 small red onions. Luckily I have parsley, thyme, rosemary and bay leaves in the garden, and had mushrooms and smallish red potatoes on hand.

Followed the instructions exactly and the timings were perfect. I wanted to serve over mashed potatoes, but had run out, so made steamed rice.

Verdict
Oh yum, oh yum, oh yum! Easy to make and full of flavour. My modifications worked well, which goes to show the recipe is versatile. Perfect for chilly days. And the leftovers are even better.