Beef Bourguignon

I like to cook and am always on the look-out for a new recipe I might try. I'm not daringly adventurous in my cuisine, in fact I'm just learning to move beyond meat and potatoes with salt and pepper for spices. I have had some fun and some successes, so that inspires me to keep trying. The other day I ran across a recipe for Beef Bourguignon. The recipe didn't look intimidating. I had most of the ingredients and it seemed within my abilities, so I began cooking. I got out my 33 year old Dutch Oven (has seen many, many stews and roasts!) and began sauteeing garlic and onion. Mmmm....smelled so good! To that, I added my previously browned beef. Then I poured in almost a whole bottle of red wine for the meat and vegies to simmer in. It seemed like alot, but hey, who am I to question a recipe? (I think the recipe called for the cook to finish off the bottle, so I did.) While that was cooking, I carmelized the small white onions. They started out pearly white, but ended up beautifully brown and sweet. After the onions, I sauteed the mushrooms in butter until they were tender and then added both the onions and mushrooms to the stew.

It actually turned out to be very good. The wine helped to tenderize the beef and added a zip of flavor that was different than ordinary beef stew.

I did some research on-line and found in Wikipedia that Beef Bourguignon is one of many examples of French cuisine that originated as a simple peasant dish. This method of slowly simmering the beef in wine originated as a means of tenderizing cuts of meat that would have been too tough to cook any other way. I find it interesting that, over time, some of the best foods, inventions, and ideas have come from people having, by necessity, to "make do". Survival depended on their ability to be creative and industrious and we enjoy the fruits of that ingenuity today. Makes me wonder what I could do if my survival depended on my own ability to "figure it out".

Just wondering.............. For now, I'll continue to browse through cookbooks and magazines and glean from others' experience and knowledge!

(How do you like my Zen fish?)