Beef Bourguignon and a trip to Beaune

It was a wonderful weekend. Zach planned the trip -- rented a car and found an amazing hotel - on Thursday and we zipped off on Friday. Often short notice can mean stress and confusion, but our trip to Burgundy was nothing of the sort. It was peaceful and exciting, filled with new scenery and lots of opportunities to say 'bon appetit', which in itself should constitute a good trip.

Our hotel was nestled amongst the vineyards in a little town called La Bussière sur Ouche which is just between Beaune and Dijon. Initially we thought we'd spend our time in Dijon, but after doing some quick reading and learning that Beaune is a charming city and that there is a market on Saturdays, we changed our plan and headed south to Beaune.

Peak tourist season is long behind us and far ahead of us, which really made it seem like we had an authentic experience in little Beaune. We wandered through the market, bought a baguette and continued wandering through the streets, eating our baguette as we went. Unfortunately it was rather rainy and cold so we wandered ourselves right into a cozy little cafe called Le Bistrot Bourguignon. We were too early for lunch so we nestled with our books and a cappucino, which eventually turned into a glass of local red wine and to go with our second glass was the house special of Boeuf Bourguignon. And so since you couldn't be there with us (next time?) hopefully this post, and the recipe that follows, will help transport you, and your taste buds, to a little French village (now is a good time to pour yourself a glass of wine).

Beef Bourguignon is one of those dishes that can be made a variety of different ways, spun to your pleasure however you like it. I chose to use Julia Child's recipe from Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I borrowed (more like 'took' when you live 3000 miles away) one of my mom's copies of the book and there is only one post-it note peaking out of the pages, and it is firmly stuck to page 315, Boeuf Bourguignon, and that was reason enough for me to use Julia's recipe. And it turns out that was a great decision because her recipe is fairly simple and leads to a delicious, tender, and incredibly flavorful stew.

The scene at Le Bistrot Bourguignon was soul inspiring. We arrived at roughly 11:30 and there was already a group of people at the bar, market bags sitting on the floor or open on the counter, and everyone was talking and drinking white wine and enjoying themselves. We felt lucky to have happened on this convivial scene, but we remained to ourselves, in the corner, with a good view of everything that was going on.

There was red wine and gourgères and lots of people-watching as we nestled into our little corner of the restaurant. And of course there was beef bourguignon, served in a little coquette along side a pile of egg noodles. We both polished our plates and glasses and then set out for a mini driving adventure through the countryside. Just drivin' along and bam, a massive château appears in the distance. Jot this down as a you-know-you're-in-Europe-when moment. We drove through the stone town, up to the château and then walked around the perimeter since it was closed for the season. It is called Le Château de La Rochepot and it's definitely worth a driveby/walk around.
Sometimes rainy days make for better pictures. They give you a better sense of the atmosphere of a place. Sadly this picture of Zach is out of focus, but like a rainy day, I think it give the photo a sense of place, maybe even more so than if it was in focus.

I made Zach stop for photos shoots every once and awhile, but the one I was most adamant about was the stop for a cow photo-op. The pure white cows that dot the landscape are what give Beef Bourguignon its name; local eating at its best. I wish I had been able to bring some home, but with the lack of in-room refrigerator and a long drive back to Zurich it just didn't make sense. Perhaps next time we go we'll rent an apartment and spend the weekend cooking.

on to the recipe...
Beef Bourguignon

Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking

* note : since it is only the two of us and meat is a fortune in Zurich I only used 1 lb of meat and adjusted the recipe accordingly. The recipe that follows is the recipe as written by Child

* wine note : like the beef, the dish is traditionally made with ingredients from Burgundy, so a red wine from the region is a good place to start. Julia notes that you should use a full-bodied, young red wine, such as Beaujolais, Côtes du Rhône, Bordeaux-St. Emilion, or Burgundy.

For 6 people

- 6 oz chunk of bacon

- 1 tablespoon olive oil

- 3 lbs lean stewing beef cut into 2-inch cubes

- 1 sliced carrot

- 1 sliced onion

- 1 teaspoon salt

- 1/4 teaspoon pepper

- 2 tablespoons flour

- 3 cups red wine

- 2-3 cups beef stock or canned beef bouillon

- 1 tablespoon tomato paste

- 2 garlic cloves, smashed

- 1/2 teaspoon thyme

- a crumbled bay leaf

- 18-24 small white onions (or canned)

if not using canned...

- 1 1/2 tablespoons butter

- 1 1/2 tablespoon olive oil

- 1/2 cup beef stock

- herb bouquet - 4 parsley sprigs, 1/2 bay leaf, 1/4 tsp thyme, all tied in a cheesecloth

- 1 lb mushrooms

- 4 tablespoons butter

- 2 tablespoon olive oil

- egg noodles or potatoes for serving

Preheat the oven to 450º

Begin with the bacon. Remove the rind and cut the bacon into sticks roughly 1/4-inch thick and 1 1/2-inch long. Simmer the bacon and the rind for 10 minutes in 1 1/2 quarts of water. Drain and dry.

Heat the tablespoon of olive oil in whatever oven-friendly bakeware you intend to make the stew in. Sauté the bacon in the oil over moderate heat until the bacon is lightly brown on all sides, about 2-3 minutes. Remove the bacon from the pan and set aside. Keep the bacon fat/oil in the pan.

Dry the beef cubes using paper towel. The beef won't brown unless it is dry. Sauté the beef in the bacon/oil a few pieces at a time, until nicely browned on all sides. Set aside with the bacon.

In the same fat brown the carrots and onions. Once browned pour out the fat.

Return the beef and bacon to the casserole and toss with salt, pepper and flour. Continue to toss until the beef is lightly coated in the flour, this will form a nice crust over the beef when it is in the oven. Place the casserole in the oven. Stir and toss the meat after 4 minutes. Return to the oven for another 4 minutes. Remove the casserole and turn the oven down to 325º

Stir in the wine and enough stock so that the meat is barely covered. Stir in the tomato paste, garlic, herbs and bacon rind. Bring to a simmer on top of the stove then cover the casserole and place it in the oven, regulating the heat as needed so that the liquid maintains a slow simmer. Allow it to cook for 3-4 hours until the meat is easily pierced with a fork and is tender.

While the beef is cooking prepare the onions and mushrooms. For the onions bring the butter and oil to bubble in a skillet, add the onions and sauté them over moderate heat for about 10 minutes. Toss the onions so that they brown evenly. Once browned pour in the stock, salt and pepper to taste and the herb bouquet. Cover and simmer slowly for 40-50 minutes until the onions are perfect tender but still retain their shape.

For the mushrooms...working in two batches, place a skillet over high heat with 1/2 the butter and the oil. When you see the butter foam subside add 1/2 the mushrooms (only as many as will fit). Toss and shake the pan for 4-5 minutes. As soon as they have browned lightly remove from heat and start with the second batch.

When the meat is tender strain the contents of the stew into a colander set over a pot (you want to save the liquid). Return the beef and bacon to the casserole (we kept the carrots and onions) and add the mushrooms and onions. Simmer the sauce for a minute or two. You should have roughly 2 1/2 cups of sauce. The sauce should lightly coat a spoon. If it is too thick add some stock and if it is too thin rapidly boil it down. Pour the sauce over the meat and vegetables and then pour yourself a glass of wine. Serve the meat with noodles or potatoes

Although we didn't leave the apartment on Sunday, except for that last dash to the store for tomato paste, we had quite the productive day of cooking, eating and tree decorating. Our tree is so mini, but when you have to carry it home on the tram you're limited to little trees.

Phew, this was a fun post to put together. And extra fun and special because all of the photos are film photos...as in I took a roll of 35mm film to get developed this morning and then ran to the store to pick it up this afternoon. I hope you enjoyed it...because there will be one or two more mini Burgundy posts.

christmas cookie

For as long as I can remember my mom has made Aunt Julie's sugar cookies. The key to Aunt Julie's cookies is to roll the dough really thin, as thin as you can, and then bake until just golden around the edges and sprinkle with sugar while they are still hot. They are superb cookies. At least we like to think so. We trade them amongst the family--my aunt Sarah will make some, pile them in a tin, wrap it with ribbon and gift it to my dad and my mom will make some and pile them in a tin, wrap it with ribbon and give it to my grandmother--they are family heirlooms that we make and eat every year at Christmas.

So as you can see these aren't Aunt Julie's cookies. It's just that it's not quite time for crisp sugar cookies. They are timed for the arrival of reindeer on rooftops. In the meantime I decided to make a different type of twinkling cookie, a molasses ginger cookie. This recipe is from Heidi Swanson's Super Natural Everyday. I was struck by the dark cookie with the chunky demerara sugar shell. These cookies are a wonderful mix of sweet outer crunch and chewy flavorful cookie. The molasses flavor runs deep, through the chocolate, the apricot and the ginger, which all act as punctuations to the long meandering molasses sentence.

So about the molasses. Expats will often do crazy things to find some semblance of home , like spending $12 dollars on a small jar of molasses. It's just the way things go here. You want it, you need it, and you finally found it hidden on the bottom shelf so you buy it. But as so often is true, the product just doesn't live up to your expectations: the molasses I bought was too strong, which I learned sampling a cookie from the first batch. I adjusted for the second batch, substituting dark muscovado sugar for a good chunk of the molasses, hoping that the molasses in the muscovado would shine through, and it did, wonderfully.

These pictures are from a recent trip to Freiburg, Germany, for the Christmas markets. Christmas markets are ever present this time of year. Little wooden huts are set up in rows, evergreen garlands are hung from the roofs, and lights are strung from hut to hut. It's wonderfully festive, seemingly homegrown and super duper charming. These little elf villages, as I like to think of them, spring up all over Switzerland, Germany, Austria and Eastern France, and while the wares might be a bit repetitive and sometimes hokey it's always a treat to walk through them. On this trip I spent more money on food - bratwurst, cookies, glühwein - than I did on Christmas goodies, but the food still put me in the Christmas spirit!

Ginger Cookies

adapted from Heidi Swanson, Super Natural Everyday

*note: I had to adapt the original recipe because the molasses I found here was very strong. I substituted some of the molasses with dark muscovado sugar. If you live in the states, you can go with the original (1/4 cup molasses) but be sure the molasses tastes good, not harsh, before using.

- 1/2 cup / 70g demerara sugar

- 6oz / 170g bittersweet chocolate (64%) chopped into chip size pieces

- 2 cups / 230g spelt flour (dinkelvolkohrmehl) or whole wheat pastry flour and I think all purpose flour would be fine as well

- 1 tsp baking soda

- 1 1/2 tbsp ground ginger

- 1/2 tsp salt

- 1/2 cup / 115 g unsalted butter, cut into small cubes

- 3 tsp unsulphured molasses

- 3 tbsp dark muscovado sugar

- 2/3 cup / 100 g fine grain natural cane sugar

- 1 large egg, well beaten

- 1 cup plump dried apricots, minced (after measuring)

Preheat the oven to 350ºF/180ºC and line a baking sheet with parchment paper

In a large bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, ground ginger and salt.

Heat the butter in a small saucepan until just barely melted. Stir in the molasses, dark muscovado sugar. The mixture should be warm, but not hot. If it is hot to the touch, let it cool until just warm. Once cool whisk in the egg. Pour this mixture over the flour mixture and add the chopped apricots and chocolate and then stir until just combined. Chill the dough for about 30 minutes, until the dough has firmed up a bit.

Pour some of the demerara sugar into a bowl. Use a tablespoon to scoop the dough, split that tablespoon into two smaller pieces, and roll each into a ball. Roll each ball in the bowl of demeara sugar, using pressure if needed to make the sugar stick to the dough.

Place the cookies on the baking sheets a few inches a part. Bake for about 7 – 10 minutes until the cookies puff up, darken a bit and crack. Cool on a wire wrack.

And a little something funny for your Friday...look closely at this photo, at the center buttress (no pun intended, but perhaps it will give you a hit of what to look for)....at the gargoyles. Do you see what I see? The gargoyle on the left on the center buttress is facing the wrong way! Its butt is sticking out, towards us, and between the cheeks is a rain spout, so when it rains, water pours out of this gargoyles butt. seriously?! medieval humor?

On that note I hope you have a wonderful, glittering, weekend. And not to worry, I will post Aunt Julie's cookies soon!

thanksgiving...part two

So for our first Thanksgiving I contributed stuffing and that flourless chocolate cake I posted about last week, and for our second Thanksgiving I made my mom's sweet potatoes with marshmallows, maple glazed carrots, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, and an apple streusel pie-cake thingy. There was also turkey, mashed potatoes, dressing & stuffing (yes they are different), corn casserole, salad, sage muffins, pumpkin cheesecake and a chocolate torte. Phew. It was a feast. I think we outdid ourselves in an effort to make up for a holiday spent away from home. We made all of our family staples, plus more.

I'm guessing you might be tired of Thanksgiving fare. It's time to trim the tree. But before all of the ornaments are on, I thought I would sneak these photos into the mix.

After a few requests....the Apple Streusel Pie Cake Thingy recipe...(in all its enormous glory). I came to joking that if there were any Turkey-day leftovers that we could just feed them to the 'thingy'. It's pretty darn good, and certainly very very apply. Maybe the next time I make it I'll add some batter to the apples to really give it a cake-pie identity, more like a cake in a pie I guess.

The recipe comes from Sarabeth's Bakery, by Sarabeth Levine

*note, as I look at the recipe again I see that I was only supposed to make/use 1/2 of the dough recipe, but I made and used the entire thing. No wonder this was such a monster. I've included the whole recipe so you can make this pie baby too. Or you can make all the dough, use 1/2 and save the other 1/2 for another pie.

the dough.

this dough is different, because instead of cutting cold butter into flour you actually cream the butter, which results in a more tender, less flakey crust.

- 14 tbsp / 1 3/4 sticks unsalted butter, at cool room temperature

- 1/3 cup whole milk

- 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

- 1 tbsp superfine sugar

- 1/4 tsp sea salt

- 1/2 tsp vanilla bean seeds (why the heck not?)

beat the butter on high speed until smooth, about 2 minutes. With the mixer running slowly add the milk, occasionally stopping the mixer and scrapping down the sides. The mixture should be smooth, fluffy, shiny, like buttercream frosting

mix the flour, sugar and salt together in a small bowl. With the mixer on low add this flour mixture to the butter and incorporate just until the dough forms a mass on the paddle. Knead a few times on a lightly floured work surface.

Refrigerate for about 30min - 1 hr, until chilled, but not hard. (or chill as long as you want, up to a week, and let it warm up a bit before rolling)

the filling

- 4 lbs / 2kg of granny smith, cox orange, or your favorite baking apple, peeled and cut into 1/4 inch thick slices (I might have used more....I can't remember. just go with your gut)

- 2/3 cup superfine sugar

- 3 tbsp all purpose flour

- 2 tsp maple syrup

- 2 tsp lemon juice

- 1 tsp cinnamon

- seeds from a vanilla bean, about 1/2 tsp

the streusel

- 1/3 cup plus 1 tbsp flour

- 1 tbsp superfine sugar

- 1 tbsp light brown sugar

- 1/4 tsp cinnamon

- 2 1/2 tbsp unsalted butter, melted

- 1/8 tsp vanilla bean, or extract

making your pie/cake thingy

mix the pie filling ingredients in a bowl.

for the streusel mix the flour, sugars, and cinnamon in a bowl and the butter and vanilla in another bowl. pour the butter mixture over the flour mixture and stir until evenly distributed (you made not need all of the buttter). Using your fingers crumble the ingredients, making a range of crumb sizes.

Preheat the oven to 350ºF/180ºC. Grease a spring form pan. (The recipe calls for a normal pie plate, but with all that dough and all of those apples, I just didn't see that working out - I went for the American mantra of bigger is better)

Lightly flour a work surface and roll out the dough. I used an 9" spring form pan, so the dough was big enough to cover the bottom, go up the sides, and hang over the edge a few inches. You don't want it to be too thin because you need it to be sturdy when you take the springform off. Transfer the dough to your pan, spreading out on the bottom and flattening out up the sides. Trim the edges so they are even (I made a mini tart from the trimmings). Heap the apples in the crust, mounding them high in the center. Bring up the edges of the dough, pleating the dough as needed -- the center of the filling should still be visible. Sprinkle your streusel over the exposed apples. Brush the crust with egg (beaten with a touch of water).

Bake the pie for about an hour, or until the juices bubbling out are thick and the crust is golden brown. Let the pie cool on a wire wrack. Use a knife to cut around the edges, and wiggle the spring form off. Once you know you can remove the springform, put it back on so that the pie can cool in the form - it needs all the strength it can get. After the pie cools the apples kind of sink away from the top of the crust. I'm not sure how to prevent that - any tips?

* * * * *

It was a lovely meal! And how about that view?

Okay now on to Christmas cookies and figgy pudding.

flourless chocolate cake...with raspberries

This cake brings good tidings, to you and you and you and me. I imagine, writing this only a week after I made it, that I will always remember this cake. I will remember it because it is amazingly rich and fudgy and spotted with raspberry sweetness, but also because it was the cake that marked the end of our first Thanksgiving abroad. A Thanksgiving that also happened to be the first one that Zach and I spent together. There was no need to discuss whose family we would grace with our presence because we simply couldn't get back to the states for the holiday. Instead, we spent Thanksgiving with what we consider to be our new family, the group of friends we have made here in Zürich. And it was wonderful.

In truth we had two Thanksgivings, one on Thursday and one on Saturday, and both were wonderfully festive, full of laughter, gratitude and a lot of stuffing.

Behold the magic ingredient, nine eggs. Yes nine. Nine yolks whipped into the creamed butter and then nine whites, beaten into stiff white peaks, and folded into the chocolatey batter.

Our first Thanksgiving on Thursday, where this cake made its appearance, was at my friend Jess's apartment. It was an impromptu dinner. Her parents were in town and we all wanted to celebrate. She and her mom roasted a few chickens and whipped up some potatoes and green beans and I made some stuffing and this cake. Chocolate cake is not typical Thanksgiving fare, but Jess is gluten free, and so apple pie and pumpkin pie just wouldn't do. Besides we were already breaking tradition with our chickens we might as well throw a kink in it with chocolate, which really only makes sense considering we live in Switzerland.

Anyway back to my point about nine eggs. Jess's mom mom knew right away that there must be a lot of eggs in this cake. She is from Lima, Peru, and apparently there is a similar, traditional, cake made with eleven eggs. I'll have to try that one next.

Flourless Chocolate Cake

via The Gluten Free Girl

apparently this recipe is from the Macrina Bakery in Seattle Washington - that doesn't mean anything to me, but perhaps it will mean something to you.

* A note about the raspberries - I know, I know, they aren't in season right now and I almost skipped buying them, but then I found a little package for 2chf and grabbed them, and I'm so glad I did, they are essential. Don't skip them, hunt them down. Or print this recipe and save it for a summer day.

ingredients

- 10 oz/285 g bittersweet chocolate (about 65%)

- 9 eggs

- 12 tablespoons unsalted butter

- 3/4 cup granulated sugar

- 1/4 cup dark unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted

- 2 cups fresh raspberries

- powdered sugar (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350º F / 180º C. Butter a 9" springform pan.

You will need to set up a double-boiler to melt the chocolate so find a heat proof bowl (stainless steal or pyrex) that fits perched on top of a pot, without touching the bottom of the pot. Pour 2 inches of water in the bot, bring to a boil and then place your bowl on top of the pot, making sure it does not come in contact with the water. Put your roughly chopped chocolate into the bowl and stir gently until the chocolate has melted. Remove the bowl from the pot, and turn off the heat.

Separate the egg yolks from the whites, placing each in separate bowls. If you only have 1 mixer, like I do, then poor the whites into the bowl of your standing mixer and beat with the whisk attachment until medium-stiff peaks form. Scoop out this mixture into another bowl so that they will be ready to use and you can use your mixer. Clean out the bowl of your mixer.

Combine the butter and sugar in the bowl of your standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on low for a couple minutes and then turn to medium for five minutes, which will cream the butter. Once the mixture has lighten in color and texture add the egg yolks, two at a time, mixing entirely before adding more eggs. Then mix in the cocoa powder, mixing completely.

With a rubber spatula fold in the melted chocolate. Then slowly fold in the egg whites, making sure each scoop is incorporated before adding more. Keep stirring until you no longer see white streaks. Pour the batter into the spring form pan. Scatter 1 cup of raspberries over the top of the cake. Push the berries down into the batter, until you can't see them.

Place the pan in the oven and bake for 45 minutes. Take it out of the oven and let it cool on a wire rack for 30 minutes. The center will collapse, but don't worry, that's okay. If you want to use powdered sugar let the cake cool completely before sprinkling. Serve with the remaining raspberries.

This cake lingered in our kitchen, not because it's not amazingly good, but because it's the type of cake that you eat by the sliver. It's rich and fudge-y and as such is a cake to savor, not to devour. The fact that it seemed to get fudgier as the days went by and not hard and stale also added to it's lingering personality, which happens to be a well suited personality for a two-person home.

And how about that cat, almost floating on the porch railing?!

I hope you all have a nice weekend. Zach has surprised me with a road trip to Dijon. We had our hearts set on going to Paris this weekend to visit our friend Tala, but then the trains were sold out and the flights were expensive and at bad times. Ugh, but not to worry we are still going to Paris, just in a couple weeks and since we had had our hearts set on getting out of the city this weekend we are off for a little adventure.