I follow Julia's recipe completely, to the letter. I do not serve it over a starch, but use good garlic toast (from sourdough bread) to sop up the sauces. A good red wine goes with it. And a good green salad.

Yum!

We've had good threads on boeuf bourguignon but such is the feebleness of the GW search engine that they can't easily be found. Google search including "gardenweb".

I'll paste in a process I typed in an old thread.

"- Pre-heat oven to 300F. Get a roasting pan, or a dutch oven, or some other large pot.
- 4 lbs beef (prefer cuts w/ lots of fat and connective tissue, do not use expensive lean cuts, slice into large chunks, appx 4'' per side). If you can find some beef bones, pigs' feet, beef knuckles, get a couple pounds.
- Heat roasting pan over burners at high heat, add some oil, brown beef, turning to get all sides nice and brown. Add 1 med onion (roughly cut up), half of a little can of tomato paste, a couple slices of bacon (roughly chopped), a few gloves of garlic (no need to peel, just smash them a bit), and optionally a couple twigs of rosemary and some herbes de provence, and 1 [or 2] full bottle of red wine (but reserve 1/4 cup). Stir to sort of mix the tomato paste and beef. The beef should be mostly submerged in wine, though needn't be fully covered. Add more wine if needed. Also add the bones, feet, etc if you got them.
- Bring wine to boil, then turn heat off. Cover roasting pan with aluminium foil. Move pan to 300F oven. Leave in for 4 hours. Every 30 min or so, check to make sure the wine is not boiling hard - simmering or gently bubbling is okay - and stir/turn the beef so that every part gets submerged for a while. Otherwise you don't need to fuss over it, and the timing is not critical.
- After 3 hours, cut four large peeled carrots into 1'' pieces, add them to the pan.
- After 4 hours, oven off, remove pan from oven. The beef should be tender, not falling apart but can be pulled apart with fingers or two forks. The carrots should be cooked but firm and not falling apart. Remove the beef and carrot and keep warm - maybe in a warm bowl, covered with foil, parked on the counter for a while then back in the turned-off oven after the oven has cooled a bit.
- Pour all the liquid and etc in the pan, though a mesh strainer, into a pot. Discard all the solid stuff - the onion, garlic, bacon, herbs, bones, feet, etc. But you want every last drop of the liquid.
- The liquid shouldn't be too oily or fatty. If it is, spoon off some of the fat.
- Over medium heat, i.e. a medium boil, in the uncovered pot, reduce the liquid by at least 1/3 and more if you have patience. It make take an hour. You want about 2 cups. Go by taste and thickness - you want the sauce intensely flavoured and doing the proverbial ''coats a spoon''. Now add a splash from the reserved 1/4 cup of fresh wine, just to brighten the flavour a bit.
- Plate beef, spoon on plenty of sauce, add carrots, garnish with something green (parsley? chives? whatever's around), serve."

You can do this in a pressure cooker in much less time. If you have one, I'll try to find a post w/ that process.

This is a tried and true recipe from an old BFs mother... It normally serves 8 so multiply accordingly.

Alexa

Bouef Bourguignon

3/4 cup diced salt pork or bacon
3 lbs lean stew beef cut into 1 ½ inch chunks
1/4 cup brandy
1 tbsp flour
1 tsp salt
½ tsp pepper
1 ½ cups dry red wine
1 tbsp butter
2 med onions coarsely chopped
1 med carrot cut into pieces
1 garlic clove minced
bouquet garni
1 lb mushrooms quartered
½ lb pearl onions peeled

In a Dutch oven (or heavy lidded oven safe pot) cook the bacon until crisp. Brown the meat in batches in the hot fat until each piece is dark brown. Remove all meat and set it aside.

Add the onions to the Dutch oven and sauté until softened, scraping up browned bits of meat. Add all the meat back into the Dutch oven. Pour brandy over the meat and flame. When the flame dies down, add the flour, salt, pepper and red wine, carrot, garlic, bouquet garni and enough water to cover.

Bake in preheated 350 oven for about 3 hours until meat is very tender and sauce is dark brown. 30 minutes before serving time add mushrooms and pearl onions. Remove bouquet garni when serving.

Listen to Alexa!...great recipe.
I think serving chicken marbella and boeuf bourginon.... with a good French baguette....or 2 or 5 or 6...LOL!
And a big green salad would be all that's necessary
If you really think a starch is necessary, I would serve simple oven roasted potatoes.... Idaho Russets, peeled, tossed in olive oil, sprinkles with salt and pepper....and some herbs if you want....but it's not necessary....and roasted in an open pan at 375 for about an hour until browned. Turn half way through cooking.
Sounds like a nice party...
Linda C

As with any dish, your personal preferences and time budget will dictate the variation you choose.

You asked which wine. I guess a French Burgundy would be appropriate, obviously. As a practical I think any full bodied red wine works. Merlot, Cabernet, Syrah, Pinot, Two Buck Chuck, etc.

The main thing is, a boeuf bourguignon should have an intense sauce with plenty of flavour from the bourguignon, or whatever wine you use. I thus recommend using plenty of wine. Long cooking will mellow the sharp raw wine. Water has no flavor, so I disfavor it.

The sauce should have some thickness, so that it coats the beef on the dish rather than forming a watery puddle requiring a soup bowl. This dish should never require a bowl. That means a thickener like flour, or a reduction. Time permitting, I always choose reduction.

Finally, or is it firstly, I don't like lean beef for a slow cooked dish because it can turn out dry. I've had bad luck using "stew beef", which is usually random chunks of beef from different cuts which cook at different rates so that one piece is tender and the next tough. Use a chuck roast or similar rather fatty cut. With long enough cooking, the fat will all melt and the connective tissue will turn to gelatin. You can even add gelatin via my favored pig's feet and cow tendons, or simply a few packets of unflavored powdered gelatin.

I personally think the recipes that involve lean beef, flour, and not much wine are meant to be "quickie" versions. No enough time to break down connective tissue: use lean meat. Not enough time to reduce a sauce: add flour. Not enough time to cook out the bite of raw wine: use water.

I can't comment on your cuts of meat.
Long and slow is the ticket. Don't add too many carrots or it will be too sweet and in fact, become boeuf aux carottes! It should be served with either mashed potatoes or noodles. If you want to call it a daube de boeuf - a Provencal dish, then you can serve it with polenta. There are as many recipes for this type of universal dish as there are people. French beans go well with this dish.

I serve BB on dishes not in bowls.

Although rice is not the typical starch, if you wanted to do rice as the starch it would work well with both the chicken and the beef.

I agree that bread and a salad are the only sides you need and work well with both.

As to Islay's caution on the carrots....I might also add watch what kind of onions you use. I recently made a small pot of chicken soup and used carrots and celery and onions....but the onions were Vidalia onions....because that what I had. With the carrots and the sweet onions, the soup was unplesantly sweet.

I concur with Islay on the carrots. The recipe I posted calls for 1 med carrot for the 3 lbs of beef - I think that is plenty! And Linda makes a good point about the sweet onions too....... I always use standard yellow onions for this one along with the tiny white pearl onions.

Alexa

Oh, upon re-reading, I see the process I posted above omits the penultimate step, which is to retrieve the beef and carrots and place them in the sauce to coat and warm, before plating. Sorry about that, and about all the typos - I must have been tipsy when I wrote the original post.

Thanks for all the pointers!

So chuck roast, lots of wine, regular onion and not too many carrots. Got it!

Rethinking the chicken mirabella as they both seem too saucy to be served together; either / or, maybe, but perhaps not together....not sure what to do because I love them both!

Now for appetizers and desserts!

Thanks again. tp

If you are having 30+ people then I think the two dishes are fine. People will generally want one or the other. As one who does not care for beef the chicken would be appreciated as an alternative.

It never occurred to me that anyone would choose both. That
is not a plate that would appeal to me.

Me either, that is why I was rethinking my choices. Initially I was going chicken mirabella because I made it last week per the post here and it was wonderful. I started doubting my choice there because I don't know the crowd very well and it is, though wonderful to me and my family, a distinct flavor for chicken that some may not...expect or perhaps like. I just became concerned about serving it to a crowd I didn't know....plus DH likes beef and I came up with the alternative so I could make it ahead. Sorry to ramble. As you can tell I'm still working through my menu and my plan.

Thanks for your thoughts. I wonder if 'most' people try to sample everything presented or peruse what is available and make a choice...beef or chicken....I like the choice and wouldn't take both either, just not sure about others. Too many choices?? Thanks, Chase.

A baked salmon filet (sliced onions, fresh dill, white wine, wrap in foil, uncover for the last 10 min) could be an easy alternative to the chicken. Or a spanakopita, lasagna, pasta a la vongole (clam). Just thinking out loud there. Any vegetarians?

Perhaps you should consider a vegetarian option for the second dish - especially as you don't know this crowd too well.
This Spiced moroccan pie sounds good and would look impressive.
BBC Good Food

The perfect showpiece to your Christmas Day meal - and it's suitable for veggies
5 stars 44 ratings
Ingredients
Ingredients

2 tsp each coriander and cumin seeds
1 tsp paprika , plus extra for dusting
� tsp ground cinnamon
150ml/� pint olive oil
900g squash , peeled and cut into small chunks (about 2cm)
12 shallots , quartered
4cm/1� in piece root ginger , finely chopped
140g whole blanched almonds
140g shelled pistachios
75g pack dried cranberries
6 tbsp clear honey
225g pack fresh spinach
400g can chickpeas , drained and rinsed
2 garlic cloves
1 tsp ground cumin
3 tbsp lemon juice
4 tbsp chopped fresh coriander
100g butter
8 large sheets of filo pastry
lemon wedges to serve

200g carton Greek yogurt
6 tbsp milk
3 large sprigs mint , leaves chopped
2-3 tbsp harissa paste

Recipe by Angela Nilsen
Tested

Moderately easy

Serves 6
Prep 1 hr 30 mins
Cook 35 mins
Method

Preheat the oven to fan 180C/ conventional 200C/gas 6. Dry fry the seeds briefly in a small pan over a medium heat until toasty - don't let them burn. Grind coarsely using a pestle and mortar (or a bowl and the end of a rolling pin), then mix in the paprika, cinnamon, 1⁄2 tsp salt and 4 tbsp oil. Tip the squash into a roasting tin, pour over the spiced oil and toss. Roast for 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, heat 2 tbsp of oil in a frying pan, add the shallots and cook, stirring, until they start to brown. Stir in the ginger and 100g/4oz each almonds and pistachios.When brown, toss in the cranberries, 2 tbsp honey, and the spinach so it wilts. Take off the heat and stir into the squash, when it comes out of the oven. Set aside.
In a food processor, whizz the chickpeas with the garlic, cumin, remaining oil, lemon juice, 2 tbsp water and salt and pepper to make houmous. Stir in the coriander.
Melt the butter in a small pan. Put a loose-bottomed 28cm quiche tin on a baking sheet and brush with some butter. Keeping the filo covered with a damp cloth so it doesn't dry out, lay one sheet over half of the tin so that it hangs over the edge by about 10cm. Lay another sheet on the other side, so it overlaps the first in the centre and hangs over the opposite edge. Brush with butter. Lay two more filo sheets in the opposite direction in the same way and brush with more butter.
Build up two more layers in this way, so you use a total of eight sheets of filo. Pile half the squash mixture in the centre of the pastry. Spread over the houmous and then the rest of the squash mixture.One at a time, bring the edge of each filo sheet up to the centre to cover the filling, creating voluptuous folds as you go. Brush carefully with more butter. (If making a day ahead, cover now with cling film and chill. To reheat, remove the pie from the fridge, heat the oven, then bake for 35-40 minutes.)
Bake for 30-35 minutes, until crisp and golden. Just before the pie is ready, reheat any remaining butter in the pan, tip in the rest of the nuts and fry until golden. Spoon in the 4 remaining tbsps of honey and, when it melts, take off the heat and pour over the pie. Serve with Harissa yogurt sauce (mix the yogurt and milk together to make a thin sauce, stir in the herbs and season. Swirl in harissa to taste) and lemon wedges.

Per serving

987 kcalories, protein 21g, carbohydrate 82g, fat 66 g, saturated fat 15g, fibre 7g, sugar 13g, salt 1.64 g

Recipe from Good Food magazine, Vegetarian Christmas 2006.
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