This is my new favorite wine shop recipe! It uses a whole bottle of leftover red wine and a bottle of late harvest Zin instead of sugar. In this recipe I used Syrah, but you could mix the leftover red wines. I also used Christie Vineyards late harvest Zinfandel $15. As to be expected, this dish takes some work, including marinating the beef overnight, chopping, blending and braising for hours. The result is worth it - a really rich boeuf bourgignon that can be paired with an intense CA red, even a Petite Sirah!
INGREDIENTSIn a large bowl, mix the beef chuck chunks with the chopped onion, sliced garlic, thyme leaves, olive oil & red wine. Make sure the beef chunks are submerged. Cover & marinate in the refrigerator overnight.
Preheat oven to 350 F. In a heavy cast-iron braising pan, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil. Add the meat only. Cook on high heat, season with pepper & very light salt, browning the meat on all sides. Add the marinating mixture to the pan. Mix in 1 tablespoon of flour (add flour to 1 corner of the juice then mix well so it doesn't clump then mix the floured juice all around). Add in the saved thyme twigs. Place the whole braising pan in the oven, uncovered. Let it braise for 1.5 hours. You should see the juice boiling.
In a separate frying pan, fry together the bacon, carrots, celery until the bacon is cooked, season with pepper. Transfer to a glass bowl, add in the Port or late harvest wine. You want the liquid in the bowl to be deep enough that you can use a hand blender to puree the ingredients together. Return everything to the frying pan. Over high heat, add the pearl onions & mushrooms. Let the mixture boil in the pan until almost all the liquid is gone, stirring occasionally for even cooking.
Remove the braising pan from the oven. The liquid should be reduced by at least half by now. Add in the mixture from the frying pan. Reduce oven temperature to 320 F. Braise everything together for another 2 hours, stirring once in between to ensure all the flavors are blended. At the end, you want the liquids in the braising pan to completely reduce, so the dish becomes super intense.
Be prepared while you're cooking this, everyone who stops by will comment that the smell is absolutely delicious! Serve directly from the cast iron braising pan, remove the thyme sprigs & bay leaves, garnish with parsely if desired. Serve with a rich, red wine & a few slices of baguette (to mop up the juices).