beef bourguignon

Beef or Boeuf?

After watching Julie & Julia while spending a weekend away in the Catskills last weekend, I was inspired to take my new Le Creuset dutch oven for a spin and make an attempt at Julia Child's Beef ("boeuf" if you're fancy and/or French) Bourguignon. I was going to actually go out about buy her cookbook, but it was too wordy and daunting, so the recipe below is compiled from different variations I found online (most of which were very confusing). Keep in mind this thing takes around 5 hours start-to-finish, though you're only active for about an hour of that time. Great for a lazy, rainy day. Here's what you'll need:

filet mignon w/ pepper cream sauce

When I studied in Rome in college, I indulged in amazing Italian food morning, noon and night. However, every once in awhile I'd get a craving for a really awesome steak. There was a small place in Trastevere that served an amazing filet with this creamy peppercorn sauce. I've tried a bunch of recipes that sounded the same, but nothing's been quite as good - until now! This was super easy to do. Here's what you'll need:

• Coarsely crushed black peppercorns
• 2 (6 ounce) beef tenderloin filets, 1 1/2 inches thick
• Salt
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 1/3 cup beef broth
• 1/2 cup heavy cream

Place the peppercorns into a shallow bowl. Sprinkle the beef tenderloin filets with salt on both sides, and coat both sides with crushed peppercorns.

Melt the butter with the olive oil over high heat in a non-stick skillet until the foam disappears from the butter. Gently place the steaks in the pan, and cook until they start to become firm and are reddish-pink and juicy in the center, about 3 minutes per side. Remove the steaks to platter, and cover tightly with foil.

Pour the beef broth into the skillet, and use a whisk to stir the broth and scrape up any dissolved brown flavor bits from the skillet. Whisk in the cream, and simmer the sauce until it's reduced and thickened, about 8-10 minutes. Place the steaks back in the skillet, turn to coat with sauce, and serve with the remaining sauce.

I made these with roasted red potatoes, and the extra sauce was even amazing on those.

Bon chappétit!