Boeuf à La Bourguignonne

A French traditional beef stew which is super mega giga terra delicious. Well, it's quite pricey for me to prepare a "traditional" beef stew that requires a bottle of wine. Some ingredients are not available in regular Indonesian supermarket or traditional market. I need to buy the "pearl onions" online - but that didn't stop me to make this stew. Even so, this stew is not as expensive as a Coq Au Vin which requires not only a bottle of wine but also a Brandy for the flambé technique. Upon preparing this dish, I have prepared my mental for hundreds of epic techniques and long hours of cooking (it took me 3 hours, I finished a movie), pursuant to Chapter 7 page 315 of Mastering the Art of French Cooking book. Despite hundreds of steps and techniques, the book always tells us the reason behind those steps. Why we must brown this and that? why we must pour this onto the sieve? etc. To really comprehend the cooking, I also watched the video of The French Chef hosted by Julia Child. Compared the steps from the 1963 to 1970s videos of her. Slightly different with the book, the videos showed: (i) the déglacier technique prior to pouring the wine and broth into the casserole, and (ii) the beurre mannié technique - so I add those methods. I used Pinot Noir for the red wine because bourguignon means burgundy and Pinot Noir is a Burgundy (and Julia also instructed a Burgundy). While waiting for the slow-cook beef in 3 hours, we can cook the pearl onions and mushroom. I also prepared the side veggies (Julia suggested broccoli but I love Bok Choy) and mashed potato. It is also true that it gains flavor when reheated. So delish.

As mentioned before, Indonesian cook is way more complicated, so if you're used to cook Indonesian food (especially Sumatran dishes), this one feels so light because it's a simple countryside traditional beef stew. However, so many precious things I learned from this stew that can also be applicable to my other cooking. I even started to like sauté mushroom because in this stew, sauté mushroom is one of the ingredients. She told us how to do it properly and why - now I really like sauté mushroom. In the French Chef videos, Julia Child also provided many knowledge that beneficial for our cooking in her own funny and pleasant ways, so I don't feel like being lectured by a gastro snob (I dislike them, gastro snobbish).

All and all, the result is absolutely satisfying because Julia knows the best. For the love of good food, happy cooking and eating everyone. Don't forget to firstly review the required ingredients (including where to find it) and your kitchen equipment. In this borderless era, we can get almost anything online.