beef bourguignon

very good red wine was essential to this dish

My friend B in Manila was telling me her sister made beef bourguignon over the holidays and she said it was pretty good. I've always been curious about its taste and that it uses 3 cups of very good full bodied red wine as specified in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking cookbook. I read that traditionally burgundy is the preferred wine but my husband suggested a certain 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon in his wine cabinet. It worked quite well and we were very happy with the results. Cooking with wine is not something we're familiar with in the Philippines. Some Asian dishes require rice wine or mirin in Japanese cooking. But this was the first time I used this amount of red wine in my cooking so I was excited to try the finished dish. I followed Julia Child's recipe and after a few hours of slow braising over very low heat (I tried this instead of cooking it in oven), I was rewarded with the most flavorful deep colored sauce and chunks of very tender slow braised beef. The quartered mushrooms were sauteed in butter and olive oil then added to the beef. It was a complete comfort food served over mashed potatoes. The rich sauce served as the gravy and life is good :-)