Autumn is here. The weather is getting cooler and the sun is setting sooner. We spent 10 minutes Saturday morning watching Guillaume Brahimi make beef bourguignon, so I immediately put it on the menu plan for the week. Last night I made it, and I decided to document the whole process (because I am bored in quarantine). The full recipe’s online if you want to make it yourself…

Ingredients! Chuck steak, speck, red wine, carrots, leek, shallot, onion, celery, mushrooms, potatoes (for the mash), thyme, bay leaves, and parsley. No, I didn’t use $100+ worth of wagyu like Guillaume did. Mine’s just the normal stuff from the supermarket. And I’m also using box wine…

First step – browning the beef in batches!

Next you add the chopped veg and cook it down.

Guillaume suggests briefly boiling the red wine “to reduce the acidity,” so that’s what I did. (The Snook, who studied chemistry, thinks this is nonsense. But in the kitchen, I do what the French chef says.)

Also having a cheeky drink myself. I do enjoy a good Banrock! (That’s a Moominmamma tea towel a friend brought me back from Finland last year.)

Combining it all together – beef, veg, wine, speck, herbs…

And now leaving it to cook for 40 minutes…

While that was happening, I made a “carrot puree” by boiling five whole carrots until they were soft and then smooshing them up with the hand blender.

The final step is to add the carrot puree and mushrooms, and then cook for another ten minutes. The puree really thickens it up!

Finished stew, with parsley added as well.

I served it with mashed potatoes on the side! Really savoury and delicious on a chilly Autumn night…