Boeuf bourguignon serves up a meal fit for company

For as long as I've been a cook, I've been making boeuf bourguignon — the classic French wine-braised beef stew with mushrooms, lardons and baby onions. There's something so deeply soulful about the dish, which simmers for a couple of hours in the oven, filling the kitchen with an incredible aroma.

Those transporting scents always deliver on their promise: Beef bourguignon, a dish that coaxes maximum deliciousness from humble ingredients, is a dreamy dish to serve to friends — with good red wine and a loaf of crusty French bread for soaking up the fabulous, richly flavored sauce.

It's impressive enough for any important occasion (a major birthday or holiday, dinner with the boss, even Valentine's Day) — or no occasion at all.

Maybe it's just what you want to eat on a cold winter evening with a fire blazing in the fireplace. It's a dish that never shows off, but always thrills. And while it may look like a lot of steps, it's no more complicated or time-consuming than making Texas chili.

And because you can completely make it ahead — even the day before — it's the ideal (stress-free!) dish to serve at a dinner party, along with boiled or roasted potatoes or buttered noodles.

I must have originally learned to make beef bourguignon from Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking," but over the years, I've played with the recipe, trying to answer the questions that inevitably nip at a cook's heels.

After so many years, and so many versions — abetted by a recent round of reading and more playing — I think I finally have my be-all-and-end-all version.

For the beef cuts, I had to abandon my beloved Julia, who calls for "lean stewing beef."

What you want is a fattier cut, like beef chuck, which will become super-tender as its collagens break down through its long braise. Lean stewing beef becomes hard and tough.

From Anne Willan, author of many wonderful cookbooks and head of La Varenne cooking school in Burgundy, I gleaned the idea of using a combination of chuck and beef shank. In her fine recipe in "The Country Cooking of France," Willan calls for boneless beef shank. Why not keep the bone to cook in the stew, I thought, as it adds body and flavor?

I read with great interest Serious Eats' thorough story on how to make a great beef bourguignon, and pulled from it other great ideas. Author Daniel Gritzer concludes: Browning bite-size cubes of beef dries out their surface too much. I simplified and cut the meat into largish chunks (around an inch and a half is ideal), and browned just one side of the cube well, then a quick sear on another side.

Here's the way it'll go, in a nutshell. Brown the meat, then lightly cook your aromatic vegetables and a little garlic. Deglaze the pan with a little wine, then add back the meat, the shank bone, the rest of the bottle of wine, a little chicken broth and a bouquet garni.

It's more time than work, and the payoff is nothing short of awesome.

Serves 6.

Note: From Leslie Brenner.

• 2 tbsp. flour

• 1 tsp. salt, divided

• 1 3/4 lb. beef shank (including the bone), the meat cut off the bone (reserve the bone) and cut into (more or less) 1 1/2-in. cubes

• 2 tbsp. olive oil, more as needed

• 3 carrots, peeled and cut into big chunks

• 3 ribs celery, cut into big chunks

• 1 medium onion, cut into big chunks

• 1 bottle red wine

• 1 to 1 1/2 c. chicken broth

• Bouquet garni: 4 to 5 branches fresh thyme, 2 bay leaves, 10 peppercorns and a small handful of parsley tied into cheesecloth

• 6 oz. slab bacon, cut into lardons (rectangular bars about 1 in. long and 3/8-in. wide)

• 1 lb. white or cremini mushrooms, trimmed and cut in half or quarters, depending on their size (if they're very small, you can leave them whole)

• Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

• 2 to 3 tbsp. roughly chopped Italian parsley for garnish

Directions

Heat the oven to 300 degrees. In a large bowl, combine the flour and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Add cubes of beef and toss well to coat them.

Heat the olive oil in a large Dutch oven until it is hot but not smoking. Add as many beef cubes as fit comfortably in 1 layer. Brown them about 3 minutes on 1 side, then start turning them and searing another side for about another 2 minutes. They won't be browned on all sides, but that's good (about 5 minutes total is what you want). Transfer them to a bowl and brown the rest, along with the shank bone, adding a little more olive oil if necessary.

Now add the rest of the wine, 1 cup chicken broth and the beef chunks and bone, and stir to combine. The meat should be nearly covered by liquid; if not, add a little more chicken broth. Add the bouquet garni.

Bring the liquid to a boil over high heat, turn the heat to medium-low and let simmer about 5 minutes. Cover the Dutch oven and place in the oven and let braise 1 hour and 45 minutes, stirring it now and then and adding more chicken broth if necessary, until the meat is starting to be very tender. Remove from the oven and let it cool a bit while you prepare the garnishes.

Meanwhile, in a large sauté pan or skillet, cook the bacon over medium heat until fat is rendered and lardons are browned on the edges. Use a slotted spoon to remove them to a small bowl.

Add the mushrooms to the fat and cook them over medium heat, adding a little olive oil if they look too dry, until they start to release their water, about 12 to 15 minutes. Use the slotted spoon to transfer them into a bowl. Add the pearl onions, shake them around in the pan (adding a little olive oil if necessary), and cook them 15 minutes or so, shaking the pan now and then, till they're golden. Remove from heat and reserve.

Skim as much fat as you can off the top of the braised beef. Use tongs to remove the beef chunks to a bowl and reserve; discard the shank bone and the bouquet garni. Strain the braising liquid into a bowl, pressing on the vegetables to release as much liquid as possible, and discard (or snack on) the vegetables.

If you're going to serve it right away and feel that the stew needs thickening (I usually don't do this, and you certainly won't need to do it if you're going to chill it overnight), bring it back to a simmer over high heat and cook it rapidly 5 or 10 minutes, uncovered, to thicken it.

Serve immediately, garnished with chopped parsley, or refrigerate overnight, then reheat on the stove. Serve with buttered noodles, potatoes or rice.

Nutrition information per serving:

Calories480Fat27 gSodium795 mg

Carbohydrates18 gSaturated fat9 gTotal sugars8 g

Exchanges per serving: 1 starch, 1 medium-fat protein.