Beef Bourguignon with Gnocchi

Directions

Stew

1Pre-heat your oven to 350° F.

2Heat a dutch oven on medium heat, once very hot, add a bit of oil and swirl. Salt the meat, put in the pan and then brown the on all sides, you’ll probably have to do this in two batches, once browned, remove and set aside. Make sure you hear that sizzle sound.

3Add the onion into the pan with a sprinkle of salt, as the onions start to release their juices you should be able to scrape the brown bits off the bottom of of the pan. Cook until the onions are translucent.

4Add the carrots and mix for a couple of minutes and then the celery. wait 2 - 3 minutes and add the tomato paste. You want to make sure you cook the tomato paste so that you kill any acidic flavor in the past. this takes about a minute constantly stirring.

5Add the meat back onto the pot and sprinkle the flour over the entire mixture, stir and let the flour get a little brown and fragrant. The flour will help thicken the broth.

6Once the mixture is toasted, add the wine and stir, removing any cooked parts on the bottom of the pan. add about ½ cup broth. You want your meat to be submerged about 80% and 20% above the liquid. Add another pinch of salt, a bay leaf, some thyme and a few parsley stems and the garlic. bring to a boil. Once it hits a boil, turn the heat off, cover and put into the oven for about 3 - 4 hours, checking every 45 minutes to see if you should add more liquid.

7When checking the stew, you’re wanting to make sure that there is still enough liquid in the pan as some of it will cook off. If too much as evaporated, you can add more broth or wine.

8After a few hours, the meat will become very tender, will rip apart easily, fall off the bone.

Gnocchi

1Take the cooked and peeled potato and grate it on the finest side of your grater. this will make sure there are no major lumps in your dough.

2Place the potato in a bowl and add the egg, salt and ½ cup of the flour. Start mixing lightly with your hand. Adding more flour as needed, you don’t want it to be sticky. The trick here is to not over mix it, you should be kneading the dough, you want it to just be fully combined.

3Keep adding flour until it’s no longer sticky and you can form it into a ball.

4Lightly dust your counter with flour, and take half the dough and roll it into a thin line, using a kitchen scraper or a knife cut the gnocchi into pieces and place on a floured baking sheet.

5Boil a medium-size pot of salted water, once boiling put the gnocchi in the water, it should take about 3 minutes to cook and you’ll know it’s done once it floats to the surface.

6Once cooked, remove and set aside to drain. heat a pan over medium heat with 1 tablespoon of oil, once hot, add the gnocchi, removing them around constantly, add ½ cup of the liquid from the stew and let that evaporate. Turn the heat off, add a tablespoon of butter and use a spoon to baste.

Garnish

1Cook the bacon until crispy in a small pan on medium/low heat. Remove the bacon and add the mushrooms into the bacon fat and let them sit there for a minute or two untouched so they brown up. Then add a pinch of salt, stir around, and cook the mushrooms until brown, about 5 minutes. Remove the mushrooms and add the onions into the same pan, add more oil if needed. Once they are warm add 2 tablespoons white sugar and toss them to coat, this will caramelize the onions, about 5 - 10 minutes.

2Put the bacon, mushrooms and onions out in 3 different dishes.

Plating

1You have two choices, you can serve the stew as is, in its sauce with the garnishes and gnocchi all mixed in. Or, you can strain the sauce so you remove everything and just have the gravy. If you do this open you’d serve everything separately, start by putting a piece of the beef in the bowl, place the gnocchi around it, sprinkle the mushrooms, bacon and onion around and top with the gravy.