My Favourite Bourguignon with Dumplings Recipe
I would like to share my favourite Bourguignon recipe, refined and varied over the years. While the French often use wild boar or venison, I use beef.
I've used this as the base for winter pies without the dumplings and topped with puff pastry. You could also use a slow cooker for this one.
My Favourite Bourguignon with Dumplings Recipe
Amanda
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Category
Dinner
Cuisine
French fusion
Servings
4
Prep Time
1 hour
Cook Time
3-4 hours
This is my favourite dish for winter.
Ingredients
-
Olive oil for cooking
-
2 rashers of bacon roughly chopped
- 2 large onions, sliced (red for sweetness or brown if you prefer)
- 1 kg beef trimmed and cut to 4 cm pieces (chuck steak won’t dry out like fillet)
-
Sea Salt
-
Freshly Ground Black Pepper
- 2 large carrots sliced
-
1 x 750ml bottle of red wine (you don’t have to use all of it - save a glass?)
- 2 cups of beef stock
-
400g tinned chopped tomatoes
- Bouquet garni (8 or so flat leaf parsley sprigs, a bay leaf, 1 teaspoon thyme, 2 whole cloves or allspice and 3 large cloves crushed garlic) – I suggest you use a muslin bag or just chop them up and add as they might be difficult to find afterwards.
- 24 shallots peeled (you can substitute a chopped leek or another 2 brown onions if you prefer)
- 400g mushrooms, peeled and with stalks removed
- Dumplings
- Depending on how many you want to make and apologies in advance as I just make these and never wrote down how much to use, I suggest you use roughly:
- 3 cups SR Flour
- 1 beaten egg
-
150g Tablespoons butter (more butter = less milk and vice versa)
-
Sea Salt - (to taste - a couple of teaspoons)
-
Pepper (only a little - teaspoon at the most)
-
⅓ cup milk (you might not need all of this, depending on how much butter you use)
-
To taste – I often sift in some powdered beef stock and herbs. You could try one of the following to make your dumplings taste more amazing
-
Olsson’s Red Gum salt - suggest 1 teaspoon or to taste
-
Olsson’s Great White salt rub - suggest 1 teaspoon or to taste
- Beurre Manié
- ¼ cup plain or all-purpose flour
- 2 Tablespoons of butter
Directions
- Heat a little of the oil over a medium heat in a large frying pan and sauté bacon to brown slightly, then set aside.
- Saute the onions in the same pan for 4-5 minutes or until they caramelise (so over a very low heat). If you add a little butter or ghee to the pan, the onions are less likely to spit and will caramelise without burning. Remove and set aside.
- Working in batches, brown the meat in the pan. If you try to brown all the meat at once it will just boil and won’t really brown nicely, so don’t let the pieces touch if you can help it. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
- Transfer the meat to a large casserole or baking dish and mix with the onion and bacon. I sometimes use a big pot instead if simmering on the stove instead of using the oven.
- Take most of the fat and oil from the frying pan, add the carrots and brown them over a medium heat. Add these to the meat.
- Deglaze the pan with 2-3 tablespoons of the wine, pouring that and the rest of the bottle of wine into the baking dish with enough of the stock to almost cover the meat. Stir in the tomatoes and bouquet garni. Bring to a simmer over a medium heat on the stove, cover and then simmer very slowly over the lowest heat on the stove or in your oven at about 150 degrees C /300 degrees F for about 3 hours.
As soon as you have your meat and vegetables simmering, make your dumplings!
Sift the flour and other dry ingredients into a mixing bowl. Rub the butter into the flour. When combined, add a beaten egg and combine. Slowly mix in milk until you can ball up your dumplings to about the size of a golf ball (they will get bigger in the pot), without them being too sticky or too dry. You don’t want them to disappear in the pot and you do want them to absorb some of the stock and wine already simmering away. Mine are usually pretty sticky.
One by one, gently and slowly place your dumplings on the top of your simmering bourguignon. When you’re done, recover the post as it continues to simmer (this is why I prefer the stovetop method). Your dumplings should float around on the top so turn them occasionally after they start to cook.
- Make your Beurre Manié
- Mix the plain flour and butter and set aside for afterwards.
- The rest
- Now, sauté your shallots and mushrooms in a little more oil in a frying pan over a low heat until they are just cooked and set those aside.
- Once your long simmer is done, you can remove the bouquet garni (good luck with finding it) unless you just popped your herbs in chopped up. If you used a baking dish, remove from the oven, pop back on the stove. Stir in your mushrooms and shallots and the Beurre Manié to thicken your sauce – you may need just a little heat to make that happen.
- Serve and ensure that you share your dumplings.
Recipe Note
You can add other vegetables to taste - potatoes will thicken it naturally so you may not need the Beurre Manie. No particular wine recommendations, however, I usually use a claret for flavour. It's also lovely served on a bed of mashed potato.
I sometimes substitute a leek for one of the onions in the stew.
Also feel free to use up those cherry tomatoes in the fridge but prick them before adding or you'll burn the roof of your mouth later.