A Beef Bourguignon Adventure with Julia Child
I know it's been a long time since my last post, and I apologise profusely for that for any who've been waiting for me to post! (Doubt it, since I'm not really that interesting. *winkwinkhinthint*) BUT I have my reasons.
Number 1, I have housing problems. Half resolved, still stressing over it.
Number 2, I had romantic problems. All resolved now, though.
Number 3, I had stupid dead phone problems. Resolved now, thankfully.
And how much like me is it to have tandoori chicken roasting in the oven when I'm blogging about last week's Beef Bourguignon adventure?
Yeah, figures.
So, Snuffpeet came over to KL last weekend for Good Friday. My gift to her was to cook beef bourguignon, because I am the chef in the family. (Read: Because my sister cannot cook)
SO!
I went to Tesco to get ingredients this time around, because let's face it. I'm a student on a budget, and if I keep buying expensive ingredients at Jaya Grocer (Not that expensive, but definitely a dent when compared to Tesco), I am going to be fat and poor, as opposed to just fat.
The details of my mad rampage around Tesco are a blur to me right now, but the things I remember picking up are as follows:
1) Beef, because this is BEEF BOURGUIGNON. But really, the huge-ass chunks that I picked up were... huge. HUGE. Like, you could wallop a person over the face with it, and it'd cover the entire face.
2) Herbs! I had to get parsley and thyme, fresh, and OH MY GOODNESS they smelt WONDERFUL.
3) Mushrooms, I got two kinds; swiss brown mushrooms and portobellos. Mmm.
4) Red wine, I got some from Chile.
And I needed a caserolle (read: fireproof pot) for the oven-stewing period.
SO, I lugged all that back to my place (read: William carried my stuff for me), and then sped off to fetch Snuffpeet at the old railway station where her bus had stopped.
Guess who was an hour late. Whoo.
Due to my lateness and the fact that we had a late lunch (sushi at Zanmai!) at around... 5-ish, we decided to save the beef for the next day. So that night, we headed out to dinner at Sunway Giza with couz Rozz, where I decided to substitute the bay leaf with oregano instead. (Bay leaves are so hard to find in bloody Malaysia)
That night, I had a moment of panic when I realised that I had a bottle of wine to open, and no corkscrew. But this was remedied by means of an ice-pick and a lot of brute strength.
Wine bottle = 0
Emmy = 1
I win.
The next morning, I woke up bright and early to cook beef bourguignon for lunch. I'd prepared some of the ingredients the night before, cut the beef into cubes as per instructed, sliced the schrooms to specification, and so on and so forth.
Another moment of panic surfaced as I was frying the beef. Julia said to dry the beef with paper towels, to ensure that they would brown properly.
She never said anything about the paper towels sticking onto the beef. Ugh.
BUT I managed, anyway, and got it all good, fried, and yummy. Stirred the beef cubes in with the bacon, and OH MY GOOD LORD it was good at this point. I couldn't help feeling self-satisfied as I poured red wine into the stew and watched it simmer. It was... mmm. And then I added the beef stock, and it was magic. Sheer, wonderful magic.
Whilst the stew was cooking in the oven, I worked with the onions and herbs. The herb bouquet, comprising parsley, thyme and oregano smelt -amazing-, and that, plus the combination of beef stock made the onions AMAZING. I swear, I could've lived on those onions alone.
And I died a little inside when I threw that herb bouquet away. Should've just ground it into dust and tossed it into the stew.
Anyhow! Some hours of careful cooking later, the final result that greeted my eyes, alongside the wonderful wonderful scent, was this.
You can see everything in that second picture; onion, carrot, mushroom, BEEF.
Snuffpeet and couz Rozz loved it. William liked it as far as I could tell.
Brought leftovers to uni on Tuesday, and Christine almost licked the container. Leanna and Sue fought over it.
Yes, I am very self-satisfied right now. 8D
Number 1, I have housing problems. Half resolved, still stressing over it.
Number 2, I had romantic problems. All resolved now, though.
Number 3, I had stupid dead phone problems. Resolved now, thankfully.
And how much like me is it to have tandoori chicken roasting in the oven when I'm blogging about last week's Beef Bourguignon adventure?
Yeah, figures.
So, Snuffpeet came over to KL last weekend for Good Friday. My gift to her was to cook beef bourguignon, because I am the chef in the family. (Read: Because my sister cannot cook)
SO!
I went to Tesco to get ingredients this time around, because let's face it. I'm a student on a budget, and if I keep buying expensive ingredients at Jaya Grocer (Not that expensive, but definitely a dent when compared to Tesco), I am going to be fat and poor, as opposed to just fat.
The details of my mad rampage around Tesco are a blur to me right now, but the things I remember picking up are as follows:
1) Beef, because this is BEEF BOURGUIGNON. But really, the huge-ass chunks that I picked up were... huge. HUGE. Like, you could wallop a person over the face with it, and it'd cover the entire face.
2) Herbs! I had to get parsley and thyme, fresh, and OH MY GOODNESS they smelt WONDERFUL.
3) Mushrooms, I got two kinds; swiss brown mushrooms and portobellos. Mmm.
4) Red wine, I got some from Chile.
And I needed a caserolle (read: fireproof pot) for the oven-stewing period.
SO, I lugged all that back to my place (read: William carried my stuff for me), and then sped off to fetch Snuffpeet at the old railway station where her bus had stopped.
Guess who was an hour late. Whoo.
Due to my lateness and the fact that we had a late lunch (sushi at Zanmai!) at around... 5-ish, we decided to save the beef for the next day. So that night, we headed out to dinner at Sunway Giza with couz Rozz, where I decided to substitute the bay leaf with oregano instead. (Bay leaves are so hard to find in bloody Malaysia)
That night, I had a moment of panic when I realised that I had a bottle of wine to open, and no corkscrew. But this was remedied by means of an ice-pick and a lot of brute strength.
Wine bottle = 0
Emmy = 1
I win.
The next morning, I woke up bright and early to cook beef bourguignon for lunch. I'd prepared some of the ingredients the night before, cut the beef into cubes as per instructed, sliced the schrooms to specification, and so on and so forth.
Another moment of panic surfaced as I was frying the beef. Julia said to dry the beef with paper towels, to ensure that they would brown properly.
She never said anything about the paper towels sticking onto the beef. Ugh.
BUT I managed, anyway, and got it all good, fried, and yummy. Stirred the beef cubes in with the bacon, and OH MY GOOD LORD it was good at this point. I couldn't help feeling self-satisfied as I poured red wine into the stew and watched it simmer. It was... mmm. And then I added the beef stock, and it was magic. Sheer, wonderful magic.
Whilst the stew was cooking in the oven, I worked with the onions and herbs. The herb bouquet, comprising parsley, thyme and oregano smelt -amazing-, and that, plus the combination of beef stock made the onions AMAZING. I swear, I could've lived on those onions alone.
And I died a little inside when I threw that herb bouquet away. Should've just ground it into dust and tossed it into the stew.
Anyhow! Some hours of careful cooking later, the final result that greeted my eyes, alongside the wonderful wonderful scent, was this.
You can see everything in that second picture; onion, carrot, mushroom, BEEF.
Snuffpeet and couz Rozz loved it. William liked it as far as I could tell.
Brought leftovers to uni on Tuesday, and Christine almost licked the container. Leanna and Sue fought over it.
Yes, I am very self-satisfied right now. 8D