a traditional slow-cooked dish signed by a starred chef

A flagship of Burgundian gastronomy, beef bourguignon is a standard-bearer of French culinary heritage in the four corners of the world. A comforting and regressive dish, it offers the best of its region of origin in the same dish, combining its famous red wines and Charolais beef. It is on these same wine-growing lands, in Seaulieu, that the starred chef Bernard Loiseau settled in 1982, taking over the reins of a hotel-restaurant formerly operated by chef Alexandre Dumaine and which he renamed Le Relais de Bernard Loiseau . An enthusiastic, passionate and popular figure in French gastronomy whose death on February 24, 2003, would shake up the world of gastronomy and the country. He will leave behind an immutable culinary heritage, perpetuated by his wife, Dominique Loiseau. For our part, this Sunday, we’re trying our recipe for traditional beef bourguignon.

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Bernard Loiseau’s beef bourguignon recipe

The ingredients

• 1.8 kg of beef paleron
• 200g carrots
• 200 g button mushrooms
• 200 g half-salted breast
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 20g butter
• 1 bouquet garni
• 1/2 tsp. tbsp powdered sugar
• 3 tbsp. tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 2 onions
• 1 l of red Burgundy
• 10 cl of oil
• 200 g of pearl onions
• Mill pepper
• Sel

The steps

Preparing the broth

Prepare the marinade 24 hours in advance. In a stainless saucepan, boil the red wine and flambé. Then let cool completely.

Vegetable preparation

Meanwhile, peel the carrots and large onions. Roughly slice them. Trim the meat (if necessary) and cut it into pieces of approximately 70g (3 to 4 cm section). Place the carrots, onions and meat in a large deep dish. Cover everything with red wine and place the container in the refrigerator for 24 hours.

Cooking beef

Cook the beef bourguignon. Drain the meat and vegetables separately. Collect the wine. Heat 3 tablespoons of oil in an ovenproof casserole dish and brown the pieces of meat for 5 minutes. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper. Then add the marinated vegetable garnish. Leave to cook for another 4 minutes.

Seasoning

Discard the cooking fat from the casserole dish. Add the red wine, crushed garlic cloves and bouquet garni. Bring to a boil, then skim. Season very lightly with salt and freshly ground pepper (be careful not to add too much salt as the sauce will reduce as it cooks and therefore become tougher!).

Cooking beef bourguignon

Cover the casserole dish and put it in the oven at 200°C (th. 6-7) for 2.5 to 3 hours. During this cooking, stir several times with a wooden spatula. If, during cooking, the sauce seems too concentrated, add a little water so that the cooking liquid reaches 3/4 of the height of the pieces of meat. Remove the pieces of beef from the container as well as the bouquet garni. Pour the cooking liquid, containing the carrots and onions, into a blender and run it for a long time. Then pass the sauce through cheesecloth (fine sieve) and collect it in the casserole dish. Check the seasoning of the sauce. Then add the pieces of meat. Keep warm over very low heat.

Cooking and Glazing the Onions

Prepare the aromatic garnish (while the beef is cooking). Peel, wash and “glaze” the small pearl onions: put them in a saucepan with 20 g of butter and cover them with water. Add 1/2 tablespoon of powdered sugar. Cover with parchment paper cut into a round (to the diameter of the pan). Bring to a boil and reduce over medium heat. When the water has evaporated, remove the sheet of parchment paper, let the pearl onions brown in the remaining butter and sugar to properly caramelize the onions. Season them with salt and freshly ground pepper at the end of cooking.

Preparing the bacon

Add the balsamic vinegar and let reduce completely. Reserve the glazed pearl onions, that is to say covered with a thin shiny film. Remove the rind and cartilage from the half-salted breast. Cut it into bacon pieces. Blanch the bacon, i.e. immerse it in cold water and boil for min. Heat 1 tbsp. tablespoon of oil in a pan to sauté the bacon. When they are well colored, drain them on absorbent paper.

Preparing the mushrooms

Peel and wash the button mushrooms. Drain them and cut them into quarters. Saute them with 1 tablespoon of oil in a pan. Season them at the end of cooking, then drain them on absorbent paper.

Finishing and installation

Reheat the beef bourguignon one last time over high heat. Add the bacon and mushroom garnish, as well as the pearl onions. Serve hot in a deep dish, accompanied by mashed potatoes or macaroni gratin.