Alright, here is the first country and the beginning of my journey!

This is Boeuf Bourguigon (beef burgundy) a traditional dish from France and more precisely the burgundy region. It is a beef stew with red wine (burgundy wine). Alongside the the beef I made some spaetzle (a sort of pasta) which is a side we eat a lot in my native region of Alsace. This is an awesome meal to make when you have people over. It serves about 6 people and once the pot is in the oven you don’t have to worry about it until it is ready to serve.

A little bit about France:

• Capital: Paris
• Population: about 66.7 million
• Area: 643 801 km²
• Currency: Euro

The boeuf bourguignon also goes well with fresh tagliatelle or sauteed potatoes.

So without further ado here are the recipes for boeuf bourguignon and spaetzle!

Boeuf bourguignon

Ingredients:

• 2 pounds of chuck roast cut in 2 inch cubes
• 2/3 of a bottle of red wine, preferably burgundy wine but pinot noir will do. Don’t take an expensive wine but don’t go with the cheapest you can find either
• 3 slices bacon, chopped
• 2 carrots cut in 1-2 inch slices
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 large garlic clove
• 10 crimini mushrooms, medium in size, cleaned and sliced
• Salt and pepper
• 1 cup frozen pearl onions, defrosted and drained
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• Beef stock
• Bouquet garni (sage, fresh thyme, parsley or any herbs)

Directions:

Heat a large saute pan on high heat. Once the pan is hot add bacon and cook until crispy.

Remove crispy bacon bits with slotted spoon or tongs.

Add 1 1/2 tablespoons butter to the pan and melt into bacon drippings.

Add mushrooms to the pan and turn to coat evenly with butter and bacon drippings.

Season the mushroom with salt and pepper.

Saute mushrooms 2 to 3 minutes and add pearl onions to the pan.

Continue cooking onions and mushrooms together for 2 to 3 minutes, then transfer to a large pot that can go in the oven.

Add remaining butter and some oil to the pan, then add meat to the very hot pan and brown evenly on all sides.

Once the meat is browned add it to the large pot.

Deglaze the pan with the wine and add to the large pot.

Add bouquet garni, garlic, tomato paste and carrot in the large pot.

Add beef broth until the meat is immersed in the liquid.

When the sauce boils, put the pot in the oven at 325F for 4 hours.

After 4 hours use a sieve to separate the sauce from the rest of the ingredients. Put the sauce in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Mix 1 tablespoon of flour per cup of sauce with some butter until it turns into a paste.

Add the paste to the boiling sauce and stir to thicken.

Put the sauce and the rest of the ingredients back together and serve.

Notes:

If you want to make the dish a little more fancy you can replace the brown mushrooms with morels which makes this dish taste even better.

Spaetzle

Ingredients:

• 500g of flour
• 6 large eggs
• 10cl of milk
• 8-10cl of water
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 30g butter

Directions:

In a large mixing bowl, put the flour and dig a whole in the center. Pour in the 6 eggs and the salt.

Slowly mix the eggs and the flour together.

Progressively mix in the milk at room temperature while stirring with the spoon.

Add the water while stirring and stop when the mix is homogeneous, elastic and slightly runny.

Boil some salted water in a large pot.

Make sure you work in batches don’t use the whole dough at once as they only need to cook for 1 to 2 minutes.

Now there are multiple ways of making the spaetzle, number one you can load the dough in a pouch and press the pouch over the boiling water and cut little pieces as they come out. The end result should look like this:

Another way to make them is to use your cutting board and a knife like this:

The third and easiest way is probably  to use the tool that’s made for it but it might be hard to find. It looks like this:

You just put the dough on top and push it by going in circle with the red plastic peace. But it is hard to find this specialized tool.

Once the spaetzle are in the pot let them cook for 1 to 2 minute and remove with a slotted spoon into a large bowl. Add some butter in the bowl in order to prevent them from sticking together. If they stick together you can just a little bit of water to get them moist and break them appart with your hands.

To finish in a large hot pan put some butter and grill the spaetzle until slightly brown.

All done!!! You can now serve the boeuf bourguignon with spaetzle!

Bon Appetit!