Barbara Feldman: Julia Child's Beef Bourguignon

Julia Child's Beef Bourguignon

It was Sunday morning, and I was tempted to go to the beach with my girlfriends, but I couldn't shake the idea of making Julia Child's beef bourguignon. I had just finished her book "My Life in France" and the night before we saw "Julie & Julia." On top of all this, I learned that Saturday (August 15) had been Julia's birthday. That cinched it for me.

On the way back from the store, I decided to twitter the whole adventure. Although I may have annoyed quite a few of my regular Twitter readers (sorry guys!), I had great fun snapping pictures with my phone, and using Twitpic.com to post them along with short captions.

The only Julia Child cookbook in my library is the out-of-print "From Julia Child's Kitchen" which chronicles, in a charming, chatty style, all the recipes she demonstrated for the color version of her famous PBS television show "The French Chef."

If you want to try this yourself, there are many versions of this recipe online, none looked EXACTLY like the one I used from the book, but here's a "Julia Child beef bourgignon" search to get you started.

The cost of this dish was mainly in time (about 6 hours) and wine. I used 3.5 pounds of beef chuck, because that's what Julia recommended for flavor (and price!), which cost about $5.50. I cooked with a Byron Pinot Noir 2007 (under $22) and served it with a Foley Pinot Noir Santa Rita Hills 2007 (about $35). I chose the Pinots because they are burgundies and "bourguignon" means "burgundy." Clever, no?

I served my masterpiece with egg noodles, steamed broccoli, and crusty French bread. My friends supplied pecan bars and a black forest cake for desert. We had a lot of fun. The stew was very tasty. And I learned a few tricks to help with my plain, old, regular beef stew recipe. But I doubt I will be cooking this six-hour chef d'oeuvre again any time soon.

Enough rambling. Here are my tweets and twitpics.

All that's left of the boeuf bourguignon.

Finished sauce meets the beef, onions and mushrooms.

Mushrooms and pearl onions cooked and waiting for the beef.

Beef ready to go into oven.

After drying each piece, beef is browned in hot oil that is not smoking.

Yesterday was Julia Child's birthday. Today I am twittering my way through her boeuf bourguignon.

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