Dinner & a Movie
Julie & Julia
This sweet treat of a film parallels the lives of the doyenne of French cooking in America, Julia Child played by the captivating Meryl Streep, with a culinary disciple she has never met, Julie Powell. Based on a true story, Julie sets about writing a blog as she cooks her way through Child's behemoth Mastering the Art of French Cooking with all its 524 recipes in just 365 days. Directed by Nora Ephron, this fim is a food-lover's celluloid dream.
In honour of Ms. Child, why not cook up our simplified version of her most famous recipe?
Beef Bourgignon
Ingredients
- + 4 slices bacon chopped
- + 1 cup onions chopped
- + 2 medium carrots cut into 1/4-inch slices
- + 1/2 cup celery finely chopped
- + 2 pounds lean stew beef cubed
- + 1/2 cup beef stock
- + 1/2 tsp salt
- + 1/4 tsp black pepper ground
- + 2 tsp parsley dried
- + 1/2 tsp thyme dried
- + 1/2 tsp rosemary dried crushed
- + 1 tbsp flour all-purpose
- + 1 tsp tomato paste
- + 1 1/2 cup mushrooms chopped
- + 1 cup Burgundy or dry red wine
Method
In a large saucepan over high heat, cook the bacon until crispy. Drain bacon grease into separate pan and sautee onions, carrots, and celery in the bacon grease for five minutes, until the vegetables turn soft. Transfer them to a bowl with a slotted spoon and set it aside.
Add salt and pepper to beef and brown it in the remaining bacon grease. Once all sides of the beef are browned, sprinkle the parsley, thyme, rosemary, and flour over the beef. Stir in the tomato paste and cook for 1 minute.
Add bacon, mushrooms, cooked vegetables, wine and beef stock into the pan with the beef, and cook mixture over low heat, covered, for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until sauce is thickened and meat and vegetables are tender.
