Sunday, January 16, 2011

little red



One of the very nicest things about life is the way we must regularly stop whatever it is we are doing and devote our attention to eating.

Luciano Pavarotti, My Own Story




Have I mentioned my little red pot?  It's my new favorite kitchen thing. I've had my eye on a lovely Le Creuset cast-iron Dutch oven, for the last several years, but just couldn't rationalize forking over three hundred bucks for a pot.  Just before the holidays, my local Aldi store had Dutch ovens for $39. Can you believe it? My red beauty is just as nice, and I love it even more because it was such a bargain.

I promised a chicken recipe from my new I Know How to Cook by Ginette Mathiot, but I must post this recipe, from the same book, first.  Last year's film Julie and Julia sent everyone scurrying to make this dish, but I would venture to say Julia Child most likely learned to make Beef Bourguignon from Ginette Mathiot. I served this rustic delight with crusty bread for sopping and a glass of Merlot. The slow-cooked beef melts in your mouth and the scent wafts through the house all day. Heaven.




Beef Bourguignon


1 Tbsp oil
3 oz. pearl onions  (I used regular, chopped)
3 1/2 oz. small bacon cubes  (I used sliced, chopped)
1 1/2 pounds stewing beef, cut in pieces
1/4 cup flour, scant
1 1/4 cup any stock, hot  (I used beef broth)
1 1/4 cup red wine
1 bouquet garni  (these are so fun, I used fresh rosemary and sage)
salt and pepper  (I left out the salt, since the stock and bacon added enough)
4 oz. mushrooms, chopped  (I left them whole)


In a heavy pan over medium heat, heat the oil and pay fry the onions and bacon cubes until browned.  Remove, add the meat and brown on all sides.  Sprinkle with flour, stir until browned, then add the hot stock. Add the bacon cubes, onions, wine and bouquet garni and season with salt and pepper.  Simmer gently on low for 2 hours, add mushrooms and cook for 30 more minutes.

Note:  I doubled the recipe, since we love leftovers at the manor.  I baked it all afternoon at 250 degrees in my little red pot, instead of simmering on the stove top.

82 comments:

  1. How very funny and similar we two are. I've been eyeing Le Creuset. I've seen it for 40% off here BUT choked. Maybe one day. Mario makes some nice cast iron stuff. I got one of his little red pots. It's great for reheating an individual size portion of pot roast etc... Love it!

    Happy New Year!

    David

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  2. What a special recipe! I just sounds absolutely scrumptious! Oh and look at your Le Creuset cast-iron Dutch oven, it's awesome! I want one!

    Nancy

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  3. Nancy, Little Red, is my $39 bargain pot!

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  4. Tess,

    Delicious look!

    (And a steal of a price!)

    Trulyfool

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  5. tess the very first meal i made for the first "come over to my place date" with she who was eventually to become my wife, was beef bourguignon. how was i to know that she was a vegetarian?! steven

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  6. Uh-oh. I hope you had some tossed salad and scrambled eggs handy!

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  7. When we bought our new smooth-top electric range, the salesperson told us that cast iron pots would scratch it. I'm pretty sure something with an enameled outside would be ok, but I'm not sure I want to chance it. My vintage Dutch oven and cast iron pans are now just used in the oven.

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  8. oo...i like this recipe and it looks great too...passing it on to T...

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  9. I've coveted the Le Creuset Dutch ovens for years but, like you, am put off by the price. What a find your Little Red is!

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  10. I too wanted a red Le Creuset but had to be satisfied with Martha's version on sale at Macy's, very inexpensive. Actually I love it so much, and it cooks soups and stews so well, I've just bought a second smaller one to keep the big Dutch guy company on the stove! Tell Kathy G. they don't scratch the smooth tops as long as you don't drag across the glass. Also, don't use metal utensils or bang things on the top edge or you will get chips in the enamel.

    Your stew looks good - I made a similar one yesterday for my DH (I'm vegetarian) using Jamie Oliver's recipe with a bottle of Guiness ale - smelled wonderful and apparently tasted great too. Can it be our red pots???

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  11. le creuset is wonderful and I LOVE the colors--my best friend forever has an cool orange dutch oven that is at least 20 years old--such a steal for a great investment and I am certain you will make many a great meal in your neat little ferrari red pot --enjoy!

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  12. Mary, yes! Our little red pots make all the difference in the world. They have magical qualities. They do!

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  13. ***Now*** you've got my attention. Mmm.

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  14. mmmmm, mmmmm, I can smell it now. Utterly perfect! Bon apetit!

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  15. Thank you for the recipe. I'm sure Bear will enjoy it. Sounds positively delectable.

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  16. Yes, or years I have lovingly stroked the colorful Le Creuset's as I pass them in the specialty stores. And now, am I supposed to go to bed without a snack after seeing this photo (which I think I an smell)?

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  17. Oh, how delicious. And your photos are just gorgeous -- and so is the red pot.

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  18. I have several true Le Creuset pots; all of the orangy/red variety. I also have one cheepo version EXACTLY like yours, but blue. I think I use the cheepo one far more than the others, and it is just as good. Perfect for Boeuf Bourguignon or Coq au Vin; two of my standard favourites!

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  19. Oh my goodness! That is most delicious looking thing I've seen in a long time. I want it, and I want it now...
    Yum and thanks!

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  20. Looks incredible. I am home sick with a wretched cold and I want you to courier me some of this right now!!! Please??

    Blowing you a kiss, (once it crosses the border it will have no germs on it whatsoever!)

    Hugs,
    Suzanne

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  21. Willow, may I add that when making both BB and C au V, I use quite large pieces of smoked bacon. The bacon then becomes very much part of the finished dish, rather than just flavouring. Of course this depends on the availability of bacon in 'slabs'! No problem here in France.

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  22. Wow. This looks gorgeous! I love the little red pot, and using whole mushrooms is a fab idea.

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  23. I do like your red pot. And good for you to wait till it was a bargain.
    This recipe is so great. It looks so good. I like that you post the original recipe with notes of changes you made.

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  24. Judging from the size of him, Pavarotti must have made dozens of regular stops throughout his last days!

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  25. sounds delicious for sure. love yr red pot. years ago my Mom gave me a cast iron soup/stew pot that I love. however, it is just plain old silver colored. but I tell my son, this is one of the best things you will inherit from me.

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  26. LOVE your Little Red! I wish you a long, savory relationship :-)

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  27. your bargain red pot looks surprising like mine which i found at a tag sale many years back for next to nothing. it is my favorite pot as i love making soups and stews especially when company calls is well used. many people make some remark thinking it's a le creuset - which always makes me giggle! i don't know if i always correct them - what would they think if they knew it was a used pot that i picked up for a couple bucks.

    your recipe for beef bourguignon sounds (and looks!) delish! i know what i'll be pulling out my little red pot to make this week for family dinner! time for beef - last week we had roast chicken.

    love the quote though i'd amend it to include cooking!

    thank you.

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  28. I have a big old red enameled cast iron Dutch oven from Dansk (I worked for Dansk for 11 years) that I've had for over 10 years now. I've cooked some great meals in that baby! It and my wok are my favorite pieces of cookware.

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  29. Sadly, I have unfriended you on Facebook. Blogs and Facebook don't really mix and, as a frequent poster there, you take up a lot of room, which might be filled by my real life friends. I shall go on following you here with great expectations and frequent joy.

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  30. Beef Bourguignon definitely looks better in a red pot!

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  31. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  32. Wonderful post! Do you think, the little red pot in a woman's kitchen, might be related to her red shoes in her closet?

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  33. I have some red Le Crueset that was given to me as a gift, thank goodness! I have a red pot just like this and it cooks up the most wonderful things.

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  34. Looks delish! :) Lord Thomas of Wellington

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  35. Sounds great, Tess! I have a very similar recipe--I don't usually bake it, though, and using the le creuset to do so is a good plan. I'll have to try that--it sounds like simple fare at its best. Yum! I can almost smell that now.

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  36. The dinner looks divine. I have a cast iron dutch oven my aunt picked up for me at a friend's yard sale many years ago. It looks a little worse for wear but that makes it more beautiful to me. I made a luscious "chicken simmer" in it just the other night. Comfort food, like that you make in a dutch oven, is my favourite.

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  37. Cro, it's not so easy to find a "slab" of unsliced bacon in these parts, but I'm going on a quest for some!

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  38. Okay, I want that red pot. LOL! It's gorgeous, Tess. I'll have to cruise Marshall's where they sometimes have Le Creuset on sale. I mainly use cast iron pots and skillets that were handed down to me from my Aunt who got them from my grandmother. Not only does the food taste amazing, but it has love in every bite.

    I've never tried that recipe or cooked with wine, but I may try this one. It sounds delish!! Thank you for sharing it.

    Blessings,
    Marion

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  39. My mouth is watering! Your pictures are, as usual, fabulous. I could almost smell and taste your creation...and I love your little red pot.

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  40. I love the red pot, so awesome...and the food, omg I want I want I want:)

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  41. The BEST!!

    Beef Bourguignon cooked in a cast iron pot. I just love the photograph especially the way the side of the pot are coated with goodness. What a wonderful day - I can smell it now!

    Thanks for this glimpse of goodness and for that wonderful quote!

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  42. Little Red's pot of delights invites to lips and tongue and heart. I am salivating!

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  43. Looks, and must smell and taste, like heaven.

    Our wonderful discount store started a line of cast iron ware too, for super cheap. I wonder if they'll last the way Le Creuset do? At that price, they're worth a shot, and at least a couple of decades, I think!

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  44. On top of everything else,
    Tess, you ought to charge
    for food photography.
    Damn, your pics looked
    so scrumptious I found
    myself licking the screen.

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  45. ...Glenn licking the screen. Too funny, thanks for the laugh!

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  46. Suza, daahling, packing some in dry ice and shipping immediately! Hope you're feeling better soon, my friend. x

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  47. Life without a Dutch oven just isn't worth living.

    'so much depends
    upon

    a red Dutch
    oven

    glazed with beef
    juices

    beside the white
    mushrooms.'

    With apologies to WCW. Ha!

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  48. William Carlos Williams is smiling, Gerry! (and so am I)

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  49. You must have a fabulous camera because your food images looks so real - like I could eat right off of the screen-- yummm this one looks delicious.

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  50. Layers, thank you. I owe it to my trusty little Canon PowerShot and a steady hand!

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  51. Tess, I can just taste this fabulous recipe with crusty bread and a nice Pinot!!

    Come and join my Giveaway from Blydesign!

    xoxo
    Karena
    Art by Karena

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  52. I'm sure the fact that the beef bourguignon was cooked in your wonderful bargain $39 red pot made it all the more delicious. Were you sampling the dish as it simmered on the stove all day? My mom used to make a spagetti sauce that cooked slowly, all night, and I remember sneaking into the kitchen several times to steal spoons of the delectable sauce during the wee small hours.

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  53. My mum used to cook matchless bouef bourguignon in a little red pot. One of my childhood favourites. Good to know that the relationship between pot colour and dish prevails!

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  54. Tess, now this is comfort food! Nothing better than the aroma of good food made with the ingredient of love, wafting through the house on a snow day.

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  55. I love your pot. I must get to Aldi. I almost made it last fall when you posted about a caramel apple you found there. Great recipe! Wonder if they have any of those pots at my local Aldi?

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  56. I have a red oval pot very similar to yours and it is MY favorite cook pot. I also have an orange round one a bit smaller that I also love. Like you I wanted Le Creuset cookery, but just could not justify it. Luckily I found Cuisinart pieces at T J Maxx for much less. I think my big one was around $89 and the smaller one $49. I have not regretted that purchase for a second.
    I did, however, buy a blue one at a local store for $29 and the interior popped when it got hot. It was not cast iron but had an enamel coating inside. I may put a plant in it rather than toss it.

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  57. Excuse me, while I wipe Glenn's lick marks from the underside of the screen...

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  58. I think that pot was a spectacular investment-the beef looks gorgeous--inspiring me to do a little cooking today!

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  59. Great looker, good food, may I come over? ;-)

    IKEA carries a line of heavy cast iron pots which cost a fraction of a certain brand name, but are also "Made in France"! I own two and use them almost daily, for slowly simmering pasta Bolognese to quickly frying steaks (the pots pack such heat, a steak sears immediately, two minutes on each side and then a long rest in a 220F oven, perfect every time).

    Amend that "almost daily" - right now, at finals time, I hardly ever have time for a cooked meal. ;-)

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  60. Oh, oh, oh...some crusty bread and some red wine and I'm yours!

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  61. My mother inherited a little red pot from her mom and now it is mine. I have never used it but I think that your recipe's ingredients are first on the list for our next trip to the grocery store. Yum that looks divine. P.S. I am calling it your recipe because the alterations you made seem like they are winners. Oh and BTW I can't speak for your area but here we have a butcher and all you have to do it tell him what you want and he will get it for you. You might check with a store that actually employs a butcher if you want the bacon cut that way. Although I don't think it would matter that much. In the famous words of Emeril "Pork Fat Rules" any way you slice it...

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  62. you are an absolute freak.
    you write so brilliantly i don't dare comment, you are a fab photographer,
    and continue to amaze me with your food!!!

    renee xx

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  63. Not to plug my "Fourth Dimension" blog, but I can honestly SMELL the goodness of that baked dish, coming right out of my monitor. Ummmmmm!
    Serious!

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  64. And I LOVE the fact that the little red pot might match your little red shoes in the closet-GRIN!!!!

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  65. Tess, your beef Bourguignon looks so scrummy and delicious I'm hyperventilating!!

    Jeanne
    x

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  66. Thank you so much. I've had my eye on the Le Cruset too, but some of the them are the same price as a camera lens.

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  67. Love a good Dutch Oven and like you, don't see why I have to pay thru the nose to have one that works. I might add a bright red one works best of all!

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  68. I so agree. There's just something magical about that bright red color that gives it that extra scrumptiousness.

    Steve, my favorite winter shoes are a pair of bright red clogs!

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  69. I don't know why I've never made this for my family.
    Thank you for the nudge. I made it once , in my little attic apartment in university , for friends . They were duly impressed. I snuck home butter and other bits from the restaurant where I was working at the time.
    I'd completely forgotten.
    Perhaps that explains why I've never made it.
    BB baggage. :)

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  70. It's just gone half four int he afternoon here in GB. I AM STARVING! And you post a beef recipe! Salivating at those yummy photos doesn't even begin to describe how I feel. :-)

    I love, love, love you red pot. You could even have a go at changing Prince's 'My Little Red Corvette'. :-)

    Greetings from London.

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  71. Um. WOW. I'm on my way out the door to find my own little red pot.

    I'm on the "Julie and Julia" bandwagon now!

    Beautiful post and photos, Tess!

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  72. ....i love little red...i have little blue :-)

    me too...i just couldn't fork over 300 bucks for a pot... i saw little blue at a Marshalls...all shoved in the back of the kitchen section for about 30 bucks...and i have LOVED it ever since. it sits out on my stove...i can't put it in the cupboard...love looking at it....

    and that is one gorgeous dish, my friend

    if it ever cools off...i am making this

    :-)
    happy to visit today with you

    love,
    kary and teddy
    xxx

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  73. I got a pot very much like that for a wedding present in 1971 (cast iron coated in enamel?) I still use it and it is one of my favorite things to cook stew in.

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  74. I stopped eating beef more than twenty-five years ago, and until now, I have not been tempted to return. But oh that beef bourguignon you have prepared! This is going to put me to the test. I suppose occasional recidivism is no great vice. All things in moderation, I say, including some beef bourguignon and a wonderful merlot.

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  75. Yes! It's cast-iron coated in velvety enamel. It cooks like a dream!

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  76. George, not to worry. Coq au vin is coming up soon!

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  77. That recipe sounds delicious. And the best thing about cyber-recipes is the zero calories attached to them. LOL. Have a great new year, Roland

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  78. Oh, my, this looks good, a hearty combination of robust ingredients including that bacon....served in delightful cookware.

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  79. Hello Tess,
    What a lovely blog - and a gorgeous looking BB. I'm going to try it with some german spek bacon that I get from our local farmers market.
    My Toy Boy loves to make stews, so maybe it will become his task!
    Also love the quote by Janet Frame - I'm from New Zealand and visited her birthplace a few months ago - it's real small town New Zealand.
    Arohanui,
    Lesley

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  80. My trusty flame colored Le Creuset pot is over 30 years old and has signs of many delicious slow cooked meals ....I will have to add this one to its repertoire...sounds easy and delicious.

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  81. I have always added bacon to my BB I seem to remember getting that from a French cookery book a million years ago!

    When I cooked for a living, we used the French Le Creuset cast iron pots on the recommendation of Elizabeth David - what a delight they are! Heavy, but a delight.

    I had some Le Creuset at one time - won't be buying any in the near future though. You got a bargain - well done! And your recipe looks delicious.

    As an aside, sometime when I make a casserole, towards the end of cooking I top it with slices of garlic bread and pop it back in the over for a while!

    Oh and I recall serving BB one night to be asked 'Er, why is there a tea bag in here?'. Pleb!

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Inject a few raisins of conversation into the tasteless dough of existence.
― O. Henry (and me)