Week 1 [8/16-8/22] : Boeuf Bourguinon pg. 315

We traveled to Boston on Wednesday, August 19th. We went out shopping for our ingredients that night at Roche Brothers, which is Wellesley Hills version of Wegmans. Shopping together was a lot of fun and we divided up the list and went searching. On Friday morning, which was the day we were making the beef, Dad went to the wine store for us to get the wine we needed.

We started at 2:00 p.m. I started by boiling the bacon and Mom and Sar started on some prep work, cutting the beef, mushrooms, carrots, onions, and peeling the pearl onions. They also washed and dried the beef, which is all very time consuming. After the bacon was boiled, it needed to be browned. Everything needed to be browned, separately, in small batches. This, again, is very time consuming. It is also a little dangerous and I got grease splatters a couple of times.

By 3:30 we had all of the initial work done and added the wine, ready for the dish to go into the oven. My dad came back with two different Bordeaux wines, so part of our decision making process was sampling them both to decide which went into the stew and which one we would drink with the dinner. We all agreed that one of the Bordeaux was smoother than the other so we wanted to drink that one with dinner.

While the stew was in the oven, I finished the mushrooms and the onions which were actually two separate recipes: Oignons Glaces A Brun (Brown-braised Onions), on pg. 483, and Champignons Sautes Au Beurre (Sauteed Mushrooms), on pg. 513. Both were very easy recipes.
The stew was ready at around 6:15 and we were ready to eat at around 6:30. Our complete menu was: Beef Bourguinon served over buttered noodles, Fresh Broccoli, French Bread, and Bordeaux wine.

The meal was absolutely, completely delicious. It was a gourmet treat. There were no leftovers, which is what I predicted. Eating our meal were: Mom, Dad, Sar, Ed, Kimberley, Hayley, Max, and Connor.

We came up with a rating scale for our dishes:

1) Taste: 5
2) Ease of preparation: 2-3
3) Presentation: 5
4) Price: 4-5 (Pretty pricey ingredients)
5) Would we make it again: Mom and Sar said "No", I said "Yes"

This was a great experience, made better by the fact that we were together. We talked a lot about how to do various things listed in the recipe. Our confidence might not have been as strong if we had not been together. If I make this dish again I would do a lot of the prep work the day before and break it up as it is a lot of work.