Boeuf Bourguignon / Beef Bourguignon

Boeuf Bourguignon / Beef Bourguignon

Boeuf Bourguignon is a classic French Beef Stew, originated from the Burgundy region of France. It is as famous as some classic french dies such as Canard a l'orange, Coq au Vin, Foie Gras, Blanquette de Veau.. and etc. Ahhhh.. the list goes on. The French and their world famous food.


Normally we have this dish during those cold winter days to keep us warm but I am so missing some Plat Mijotte (stew). I cooked this for lunch and everybody was happy for a change :)


What's good about this dish is you don't need to have the best cut of meat. I used Boeuf Joeus /Beef cheeks,  cut in bite size, let it swim in a good Bordeaux, add in some vegetables for some sweetness. Stir every now and then to mix in the caramelizes goodness into the sauce for a good 2 hours..Et Voila!! a good hearty dish no chi chi, just honest good food waiting for you  to wipe up every single drop of the sauce with a good country bread :)


This is why I like home food, stews, dishes doesn't involve too much of presentation and doesn't burn a hole in your pocket..just plain honest food!!

Ok..enough blah blah blah.. here we go....

What you need for 4 serving:

500g                 Beef chunk (cut into 2-inch cubes)
100g                 Lardon (salted pork/bacon cut into 1/2-inch chunk)
3                       Shallots (minced)
3                       Garlic cloves (minced)
2 large               Carrots (peeled and cut into 2-inch chunks)
10g                    Dried Cepes/Porcini mushrooms (Sliced and pre-soak in hot water and keep the soaking water)(optional: I used it to add flavour)
4 large               Fresh very ripe tomatoes (cut into cubes) or cans tomatoes
1/2 bottle           Red Wine (wine that you will drink with this dish) or just enough to cover the beef
1/2 cup              Fresh Parsley chopped
2                       Bay leaves
1 tsp                 Dried Thyme
3                       Cloves
500g                 Button mushrooms (cut those big ones into 4 and leaves the smaller ones whole)
some                 Pearl onions
1Tbsp               Flour

This is how:

1. In a large pot/cocotte, heat a little oil to fry those bacon chucks until brown and crispy. Remove it into a plate.
2. Now add your beef chucks by batches. You don't want to over crowd the beef chucks as you want to brown them all sides but not to cook them in their juice. Once all beef are browned put them with the bacons/lardon.
3. Now in the same pot add the shallots, half of the carrots, Cepes and garlic. Stir and scrape up all the brown bits.
4. Add in Beef chunks, bacon and pour in the wine and the mushroom water. It should just barely cover the beef. Also, bay leaves, thymes and cloves. Let it simmer for 30mins. Then add in the tomatoes and continue to simmer. Don't forget to adjust seasoning times to times. 
5. In another pan, heat some oil to fry the mushrooms. It will gives out some liquid, just pour this liquid into the pot and continue to fry until dry then add in the pearl onions. Set a side.
6. Once the beef are tender, add in the mushrooms, pearl onions and the other half portion of the carrots. Then sprinkle a table spoon of flour into the sauce and stir well, you can add in a table spoon of cream/butter but I didn't (try to eat healthy).
7. Continue to simmer until you get a thick sauce, tender beef and carrots then add in chopped parsley and check seasoning. 

Serve this with some boil potatoes, mash potatoes or some pasta and some good country bread. Fantastic one pot meal. This dish taste even better the next day so don't hesitate to cook a day in advance or cook more to enjoy the following day/days. 

Hope you like it!

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Temp-my-tummy

Ciabatta with Poolish

Ciabatta with Poolish

Last night I was asked to prepare something for tonight's "Apero" which is very often for the summer where we serve apperitif drinks with light finger food. Since it was Saturday night which was way too late to buy anything last minute after 8pm in France and it's the month of "Les Vacances" So if you don't have anything in your fridge, the only way to eat is at the restaurant/bar or bistro...or call a pizza.

I took a quick look at my pantry..mmm.. black olives, chips, tuna cans..and in the fridge? some colourful carrots, tomatoes, zucchini and capsicums. Fantastic!! I am set!! what is best with all these?? a good bread to go with, of course!!

I have a bread book call "Le Pain" from the library. There are a lot of recipes with Poolish..so a CIabatta with Poolish is my choice.

To make the poolish:

150 gm      Flour
150 gm      Warm water
15gm         Yeast

Method:

1. Mix together Warm water, Yeast and Flour in a tub. Cover and rest for overnight if the kitchen temperature is about 20C. Mine took only 3 hours to be ripe as the temperature in the kitchen was at 38C!!! I even halfed the amount of yeast. So it is very important to check the dough but not the clock. This is what i have learnt from many bakers. The dough would tell you if it is ready, not the clock cause temperature and amount of yeast plays a big part in bread making. 
2. When the think paste looking dough turn into very bubbly, this means the poolish is ripe and ready to be use.

For the bread:

350gm       AP flour
350gm       T110 bread flour
12gm         Salt
600gm       Iced Water

1. Mix all ingredients and the poolish together to form soft dough. Rest for 20 minutes.
2. On a lightly oiled work surface, hand knead dough for 20 minutes.
3. Then place dough back into oiled tub for the first bulk fermentation with 2 stretch and folds at every 30min interval and another stretch and fold after 45min from the second.
4. Place the covered tub in the refrigerator for 18hours.
5. The next day, take out the tub, pour the dough out on lightly flour work surface, cut into 2.
6. Preheat oven to the maximum say 240C together with your dutch oven.
7. Shape into a boule and use your dough scraper gently lift it on to a floured patchment paper.
8. Cover and let rest until it is almost double in size. Mine didn't take too long about 80mins. Do a "Finger taste" and sift little flour on top of loaves.
9. Bake in the HOT Dutch-oven with cover on for the first 5mins. Pull out and slash then re-cover and back in the oven at 200C for 15mins.
10. Take off cover and continue to bake for another 20-25mins or until to your likeness.
11. Cool on rack.

Ciabatta with Poolish

We served this with homemade black olive tapanade, some grilled zuchini and capsicums with herbs in olive oil and some tomatoes feta basil salad. No meat!! Eating healty with maximum yum factor plus great companies.

Ciabatta top with grilled vegies

Life is good with just some simple treats!!

Sharing this with friends at Yeast Spotting, BYOB and My Meatless Monday host by My Sweet and Savory

Ratatouille, Sunflower seed Sourdough Bread

It's summer and I love the colour I can get from the market. Tomatoes, zucchini, aubergine, capsicum in all red, yellow and green robe. Seeing all these colourful veggies..my though went straight to Ratatouille. Easy. healthy and flavourful vegetable stew. Ratatouille is just a classic french vegetable stew. That's it!! Oh NO! it's a movie too!! Have you seen it? It's about a young garbage boy name Linguini befriended with a rat who make the best Ratatouille. Love this movie.. it brings out the romantic side of Paris and how French are when comes to their "Savoir faire"..

Anyway, I made my Ratatouille the other day and as usual there is a lot of liquid from the vegetables. So, I scope out a cup of the Ratatouille goodness and mix it to my bread :) Call me a crazy baker if you want.. Just love to experiment, always trying out new things.. sometimes good but other time..Yeekkk!! Lucky for this, it's a Yeahhhh.. how could it go wrong with all the colours and vitamins??  Not only it gives great colour but taste really good too.

Ratatouille Ingredients:

1kg                Very Ripe Tomatoes (roughly chopped up)
2 medium       Zucchini (Cut into small cubes)
1 medium       Eggplant (cut into small cubes)
4 medium       Capsicum (cut into pieces)
1 medium       Onion (cut into cubes)
3 cloves         Garlic (minced)
3 springs        Thyme
2 springs        Rosemary
3                   Bay leaves
Salt and pepper to season

1. In a pot heat a bit of olive oil to brown onions and garlic. then mix in the rest of the ingredients and cook slowly until everything turn soft, about an hour or so. Season with salt and pepper. That's it!
2. Usually, Ratatouille gives out a lot of liquid, to make it more concentrate.. I scope out most of the liquid to make soup and this time I use it for bread. Just cook the ratatouille until soft and almost dry. You can either enjoy it as a vegetable dish to go with any roast or as Pasta/pizza sauce.

By the end of summer, I would usually made a lot and freeze the extra for the winter months to come.

Here's what and how for the bread:

500gm           Bread flour
350gm           Ratatouille broth
100gm           Sourdough starter (100% hydration)
50gm +10gm Sunflower seeds (pre-soak, this is important so that you will not have burn seeds, like mine.)
5gm               Salt (I use less salt as the Ratatouille is already with salt)

1. Mix and knead all of the dough ingredients except the 10gm of Sunflower seeds to make a soft, smooth dough.
2. Cover the dough, and let it rise for 2 hours or more depend on your kitchen temperature, or until it's nearly doubled in bulk.
3. Do 2 stretch and fold at 30mins and 60mins.
4. Sprinkle some Sunflower seeds in your Benetton and let rise for about an hour or 2, until noticeably puffy.
5. Do the finger test by pressing lightly into dough: dough that springs back immediately and leaves no indentation indicates under proofing. If the dough springs back somewhat but still leaves a discern indentation then it's proofed properly - with just enough rise left to give you some nice oven spring. But if the indentation just stares back at you you've probably let it ferment too long.
6. Bake in a preheated 200°C oven for 10 minutes, with steam.  Then another 20 - 30mins or until bread turn golden red and sounds hollow when tapped at the bottom.
7. Cool on a rack.

This bread goes very well with some scramble eggs, you can use it for brochetta too. I love it toasted and spread with some creamy goat cheese and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

Sending this to Yeast Spotting  and BYOB

 

Easy Burger Bun

This is the first time I made my own burger bun following the recipe from King Arthur, you can find the detail recipe here. I must say it is really easy to follow as there is a section of tips from their baker plus many other notes. It has been declared by many bakers that it is The Best burger bun. Which I must admit that it is really very easy to follow and the result is good. Not only the crust is soft, the crumb is moist and lightly sweet.

Proofed waiting to go in to the oven

Ingredients:

• 3/4 to 1 cup lukewarm water
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 large egg
• 3 1/2 cups AP flour
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
• 1 tablespoon instant yeast

Method;

1. Mix and knead all of the dough ingredients to make a soft, smooth dough.
2. Cover the dough, and let it rise for 1 to 2 hours, or until it's nearly doubled in bulk.
3. Punch down the dough to degaz, and divide it into 8 pieces. Shape each piece into a round ball, sprinkle some sesame seeds and let rise for about an hour, until noticeably puffy.
4. Brush the buns with about half of the melted butter.
5. Bake the buns in a preheated 375°F oven for 15 to 18 minutes, until golden. Remove them from the oven, and brush with the remaining melted butter. This will give the buns a satiny, buttery crust. 
6. Cool the buns on a rack.

You can see from the picture below that some of the sesame seeds had fallen out. This is the mistake I did by not putting the sesame seeds first before I brush on the melted butter. Otherwise, they really taste great.

Have a try.. homemade burger is anytime better then those bough from fast food outlets..

Sending this to Yeast Spotting


Just out of oven

Le Miget or Migé

Le Miget au Lait

Today, we have a very hot summer day just like another summer day should be but since we have had enough of those wet, cold days since May.. it is actually very very hot for a change. Plus, we spent the day at the beach feeding ourselves crazy with ice creams, when came home for dinner, we were not that hungry anymore thus Miget was proposed.

Le Miget or migé  is a traditional drink/summer soup of this region - Pay de la Loire. This is a dish even a five-year-old can prepare,  very refreshing for any hot summer nights where one feels more thirsty then hungry.

There are two variation of Miget. Miget au Vin (with wine) or Miget au lait (with Milk) for kids.

Here's what and how:
(for 4 servings)

1. For Miget au Vin, You will need some old bread (only the crumb, cut in cubes), 1 bottle of any low alcohol red wine (about 8%), 5 or 6 cubes of sugar and a glass of cold water. If you want a Miget au Lait, just replace wine with milk.
2. Place bread cubes in a salad bowl together with 5 or 6 cubes of sugar, slowly pour in the wine then the cold water.
3. Chill it in the fridge for about 30minutes and serve.

This soup is normally sweet (but not too sweet) but my MIL prefer it to be savoury, so she replace sugar with salt in her Miget au lait. Me? I had Miget au lait..verdict? not bad at all.. very refreshing and with all the bread cubes in there it can actually be a light meal.. No butter, oil and pot/pans to wash up.. yeyyy!!

Personally, I have been told that the French doesn't put ice cubes in their wine but today, FH was the one who prepared introduce me to this soup and he had the Miget au Vin, cold water was mixed in. I gave him that Tst tst tst disapprove look and there we had a good conversation of wine as soup and wine as wine to drink..

Sharing this Yeast Spotting

Roast Lamb Shoulder

Roast Lamb Shoulder 

Today for lunch we had roasted lamb shoulder with garlic, rosemary and thyme. We don't have lamb very often as some family member doesn't like the strong odour..but this is the smell that we the lamb lovers long for. Ahh.. plus the smell of rosemary, thyme and of course garlic. Plenty of garlic gloves, a glass or two of Bordeaux and some sourdough bread to soak up the juice.


In Asia or I should say Malaysia, we normally have lamb or mutton in curry which is so tender and tasty with all the spices and the hours to slowly simmer in low heat. Since, I'm in France and being married to a Frenchman, does change my eating habit or it's the weather? I long for some roast. That's why i did this simple yet tasty dish.

Roasted Lamb Shoulder and vegetables

Here's what you need and how:

1         Lamb shoulder
some   Rosemary spring
some   Thyme
Sea salt and pepper for seasoning
Olive Oil
Lots of garlic cloves

For the vegetables:

1           Courgette (cut in wedge)
2           Medium onions (wedged)
1           Red pepper
200g     Noirmoutire new potatoes (you can use any new potatoes)



How? easy!! Just rub a good amount of sea salt and pepper all over the lamb, using a knife make a few slash all over the lamb and insert garlic gloves in these holes then sprinkle a good amount of rosemary and thyme and sit it on top of a bed of vegetables..red peppers, courgette and potatoes or whatever your choice is.

Add a little water (a table spoon or 2 is more then enough, as the vegetables will gives out water) so the meat would stay moist and arose some olive oil all over the dish. Cover with aluminium foil before you pop it in a full blast oven. Bake for an hour (mine lamb was 1.3kg) covered with foil and extra 10minutes each side under grill without foil to give it a good tan.

Remove from the oven, cover it with the foil and let it rest for 15mins while you prepare the gravy. For the gravy, pour out the stock and scrub out all the caramelized bit into a bowl. In a sauce pan, heat a table spoon of lamb fat (which float on top of your stock) , mix in a table spoon of flour then pour in the stock and simmer til thicken to make gravy.

Crisp, tender yet moist..

Put the dish in the middle of the table, slice in front of everyone and enjoy!!


Simple, no fuss balanced diet...
Quelle bonheur!!


I’m linking this post to.. 

1. Cook like a Star organised by Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids. 

2. Recipe Box organised by  BizzyBakes 



Potato Bread



Potato bread

 What to do with extra mashed potatoes?? well, I used it to make gnocchi and potato bread. You can find the recipe for Gnocchi over here. It was a great way to use up extra mashed potatoes other then just potato leek soup. Also, a great way to have an adrenaline rush by making Gnocchi by hand, from scratch and trying to get lunch ready before 12.30pm. Packets of flour, water bottle, spoons, wooden spoons, folk, scale.. you can imagine the kitchen which was more like a crime scene then a place to relax.

I have friends who join gym to exercise and to destress. But for me, kitchen is my gym. for I hand-knead all my breads..unless I bake a "No-knead' bread. Kitchen is where I destress and times to times where I want to have some adrenaline rush.. I run a few projects at the same time.. Just to work out my cardiac muscles :)
OK enough of the blah blah blah.. back to this wonderful potato bread.

This is what you need and how:

1 cup                  Mashed potatoes
4 cups                 Flour (about)
2 cups                 Warm water ( or the water that you boiled your potatoes)
10g                      Salt
11g                      Yeast

1. In a mixing bowl, mix together salt and flour, make a well in the middle.
2. Dissolve the yeast in warm water and stir into the flour. Mix well and then add in the mashed potatoes. 
3. Mix in enough flour to make a dough that can be kneaded by hand. It is normal that the dough is stickier then a normal bread dough.
4. Turn dough out onto floured board and knead it until smooth and elastic. It's sticky but you will be rewarded with beautiful loaf.
5. Place dough in a greased bowl and let rest for about 1 or 2 hours or until it double in size.
6. Turn out dough cut and preshape, rest for 20min. 
7. Then shape into a loaf. I have one loaf in bread pan and the other.. a boule but it quickly lost it's shape. So a bread pan is highly recommended.
8. Bake at 200C with stream for 25 to 30 mins or until bread sounds hollow when the top is tapped on.
9. Remove from loaf pans and let cool.

The kitchen smelled roast potatoes.. and the loaf stay soft.

Sharing this with Yeast Spotting and BYOB