May 16

May 16 The French cooking secret no-one tells you (plus a bonus recipe!)

I guess my love of European (i.e. not British) cooking began many years ago, when I dated a man with an Italian mother. His father was Egyptian, and very conservative, food-wise; his mother had a repertoire of Italian classic dishes that she wheeled out every weekend without fail, lest there be an uproar at dinner-time.

They weren’t fancy dishes at all, and ones that you find reproduced all over the world. A simple lasagne al forno, roast chicken with rice, and rolled beef flank with tomato sauce, served with roast potatoes and salad.

I knew for a fact that her shopping list looked like any other person’s – no special ingredients or fancy fare. She wasn’t Yottam Ottolenghi or Nigella for sure.

But I can still taste her food, as if it were yesterday. The creaminess of the pasta and its crispy flanks in the glass serving dish. The unctuous rice flecked with fresh tomato and rich with olive oil and butter, set against the pearly white flesh of the chicken, perfectly moist and with lemon scented skin. The thin twirls of meltingly cooked beef; a cheap cut, but slow roasted alongside waxy potatoes, all crunch, garlic and herby rich sauce.

You’ll find versions of these dishes in many cookbooks. I’ve attempted many of them myself, but never with much success. Whether it’s Nigella, Delia or Elizabeth David, I’ve yet to find satisfactory recipes that capture the richness and simplicity of these savoury treats I remember.

So, I’ve been wondering lately why that is. What is it about French, Italian and Spanish cooking (leaving aside the quality and freshness of the raw materials) that makes it so special, and that turns ordinary ingredients into truly stellar cuisine?

And dear readers, I think I have come up with the answer.

When you understand what makes a great French dish so special, and when you watch a French cook at work, you understand that the secret ingredient is time. Each part of the process is treated with reverence and care, and the recipe proceeds in separate steps, each part requiring patience, love and devotion.

To illustrate my hypothesis, I give you the humble beef bourguignon.

Now this dish is, in theory, nothing special; just beef in red wine with a couple of mushrooms. But done well, it is a wonderful thing; with ribbons of fresh tagliatelle or mashed potato on the side, it should be rib-stickingly good.

And indeed, if you search for a recipe, you’ll find many of them – it’s a popular dish. But look more closely and you see that there are simply not enough STEPS to make anything like as good a BB as the French would expect.

All that seems to be required are the essential ingredients (beef, little onions, carrots, red wine, mushrooms), a bit of browning of the meat, bung it all in a casserole and voila!

Now, when I’ve tried this method, all I’ve ended up with is a hearty beef stew with a tang of red wine, and scaldingly hot vegetables. Nice, but you know, not quite right.

So, my friends, I’ve reproduced a recipe for boeuf bourguignon, as good as any maman makes, and requiring a number of steps to accomplish. Take your time, then sit back with a glass of rouge and enjoy.

Slow Boeuf Bourguignon

Serves four

Prep time: 45 minutes

Marinade: 24 hours

Cooking time 2.50 hours

Ingredients

900g stewing steak (ideally flank), cut into large (4cmx2cm cubes)

3 tablespoons cooking oil

100g carrots

One yellow onion

2 cloves of garlic, crushed

10g butter

100g small, round Spring onions (scallions)

100g button mushrooms

One bottle red wine (burgundy by preference)

Bouquet garni

100g lardons, or dry cured bacon, smoked or unsmoked

1 teaspoon caster sugar

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

Method

Step One. The marinade:

In a stainless-steel pan, heat the wine until boiling point, then set light to the surface of the wine to burn off the alcohol. Take the pan off the heat and leave to cool. Coarsely chop the carrots and yellow onion and combine with the beef. Add the wine and marinate in the fridge for 24 hours. I like to do this in a large freezer bag as it ensures a good distribution of the marinade around the meat.

Step Two. Browning the beef:

Drain the meat and vegetables, reserving the marinade in a separate bowl. Heat the oil in an ovenproof casserole, then brown the meat for 5 minutes (in batches if necessary). Take out the meat and set aside, then gently cook the vegetables in the same oil for around 4 minutes. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Step Three. Cooking the bourguignon:

Heat your oven to 200 degrees C (gas 6/7).

Pour off the fat from the casserole and discard, then put the meat and veg back in, add the garlic, bouquet garni and the marinade. Bring to the boil and let it bubble away for 5 minutes or so, season with salt and pepper.

Take off the heat, cover with a lid and cook in the oven for 2-2 ½ hours. During this time, stir several times, and be sure to add a bit of water if the cooking liquid seems too concentrated – it should nearly cover the meat.

Step Four. Make the sauce:

Take out the pieces of meat from the casserole and the bouquet garni. Run the cooking liquid and vegetables through a liquidiser or use a stick blender to make a sauce. Then pass this sauce through a fine sieve so it’s completely smooth. Add back to meat in the casserole.

Check the seasoning and keep warm

Step Five. Caramelizing the onions (yes, really):

While the beef is cooking, peel and wash the onions. Leave a little bit of the stalk on. Put them in a casserole with 10g butter and the caster sugar, cover with water and place a circle of greaseproof paper on top, cut to fit. Bring to the boil and then turn down the heat and simmer until the water has evaporated. Once all the water has gone, take off the paper and let the onions colour in the butter and sugar that remain in the pan until caramelized.

Season with salt and pepper. Add the balsamic vinegar and let this reduce totally so the onions are glazed with a nice sheen. Set aside.

Step Six. Preparing the bacon/lardons:

Cut the lardons/bacon into small strips, then add them to a pan of cold water and bring to the boil (this makes them less salty). Then fry them off in oil in a pan until nice and brown. Pat off the grease with kitchen towel.

Step Seven. Preparing the mushrooms:

Peel and quarter the mushrooms. Sauté them in a little oil in a shallow pan. Season them and pat them dry as before.

Step Eight. Assemble your dish:

Heat up your beef in sauce in the casserole. Add the garnish of lardons, mushroom and onions. Serve really hot in a shallow dish with yummy mashed potatoes or fresh pasta.