Who doesn't like beef bourguignon? It sounds like a classy dish but in reality it is simply great comfort food. I know you will enjoy it. Actually, it is so good the scents of all the ingredients together will make you hungry right after you cook the bacon, before the other cooking steps!

The origin of this recipe is mixed. Marie used to make a yummy beef bourguignon but I never found the recipe for it. I also made this dish many times so what I provide here is likely a mixture of Marie's and my thoughts and preferences. Whatever the origins, this stuff is truly delicious.

I learned the finest way to enhance the taste of this dish is to roast a 3 to 4 pound top round roast at 350 degrees F for roughly 45 minutes per pound in a covered skillet. Make sure the lid remains in full contact with the skillet during roasting. If necessary you can separate the sections of beef from each other with a butcher knife after the first two hours of roasting to guarantee the lid fits the skillet tightly. After roasting, the beef will be dark and easy to slice across the grain and separate into shreds of beef that are quite tender and tasty. Do so on a cutting board. As for the skillet, it will contain wonderful flavoring from the browning of the meat during roasting. You simply use some beef broth or water after removing the roasted pieces of beef and use a wooden spoon to stir the broth/water with the beef drippings to obtain a delicious beef base for the sauce of the beef bourguignon. Fabulous taste!

If instead you prepare the dish starting with cut pieces of raw beef as shown in the recipe below then you will have a very good dish but not perfection. Your choice.

Ingredients: (4 or more servings)

4 thick slices of dry cured hickory smoked bacon

3 tablespoons of butter for sautéing

8 ounces of canned, sliced mushrooms (drained net weight)

1 tsp. of sea salt

3/4 tsp. of pepper

1 cup of diced sweet onion

3 large cloves of garlic, diced

2 or more pounds of lean sirloin or other grilling beef, all fat removed, cut into pieces 1/2" by 1/2" by 3/4", or, use the shredded roasted beef and drippings described earlier.

3 tablespoons of all-purpose flour

1 cup of burgundy or merlot or pinot noir or cabernet sauvignon wine

1 1/2 cups of beef broth

2 tsp. of Better Than Bullion® beef seasoning base (or twice that if you make this dish starting with raw beef)

1 tbsp. of cornstarch

Bouquet of 3 or 4 sprigs each of sage and fresh thyme tied with kitchen string (or 1 tsp. each of dried herbs)

1 lb. of wide egg noodles

3 tablespoons of soft butter to use with the cooked noodles

1/4 cup of chopped fresh parsley

Directions:

Set the oven at 200 degrees F and put individual wide, shallow serving bowls or plates into the oven. Then put in the dishes you plan to use for serving the beef burgundy and the noodles. Later, this pre-warming of the dishes will keep the food delightfully warm while it is being eaten.

Heat a large deep skillet with a heavy bottom over medium high heat. Add the bacon slices to the skillet and fry them normally. Remove the bacon and set it aside to cool.

If you have more than 2 tbsp. of melted bacon fat remaining in the skillet, discard the excess.

Add 1 1/2 tablespoons of butter to the skillet and melt it in the bacon drippings. Add the diced onion to the skillet and turn the pieces to coat them evenly with butter and bacon drippings.

Break up the bacon into small pieces, put them in a dish and set it aside.

Season the onions pieces with salt and pepper. Sauté them for 2 to 3 minutes and then add the mushroom slices and the diced garlic to the skillet. Continue cooking 2 to 3 minutes longer, then transfer the mixture to a plate and return the skillet to the heat.

If you are starting with cut up raw pieces of beef then follow the next two steps. If instead you are using the shredded roasted beef and the juices from adding beef broth/water to the beef drippings, then simply mix the cornstarch into the juices, along with the Better Than Bullion® seasoning base and proceed from there with adding the flour to the browned beef as you will see below.

Add the remaining sautéing butter to the skillet and melt it on high heat, then add the raw pieces of beef to the very hot skillet and brown them evenly on all sides, keeping the meat moving by stirring. Then remove the skillet from the heat.

Add the cornstarch to the beef broth and mix it briefly with a spoon. Then add the Better Than Bullion® beef seasoning base and stir until it is mixed into the beef broth.

Add the flour to the browned meat in the skillet, mix well and cook for 2 minutes on medium high heat.

Add the wine to the skillet slowly while stirring. When the wine comes to a boil and you have scraped any drippings to get them mixed in, add the beef broth and cornstarch mixture and the bouquet of fresh sage and thyme sprigs (or dry herbs) to the skillet.

Mix well and then cover the skillet. When the liquid boils, reduce the heat to very low. Cook covered for 5 minutes.

Remove the lid and add the mushroom, onion and garlic mixture and the bacon pieces. Mix that with the other skillet contents.

Simmer the beef bourguignon on low heat with the cover off until the sauce thickens a bit, about five minutes, stirring to assure nothing sticks to the bottom of the skillet. Remove and discard the herb bouquet.

Cover the skillet and set the heat to very low on a small burner to keep the contents warm but not boiling.

Prepare the noodles per package directions.

Toss the hot egg noodles with the butter reserved for the noodles and the parsley.

Place a bed of noodles in each individual serving pre-warmed wide and shallow bowl and ladle the beef burgundy over the noodles.

Serve the beef bourguignon with glasses of the wine you used in the recipe.

Enjoy? No ... Moan with pleasure!