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Welcome to Olympic Feasts at The Schell Cafe!
During the 2012 London Games, we’ll celebrate with meals and stories from around the globe.
I’m honored to have friends sharing special recipes each day during the feast.
Today, my friend Meg Earle shares a delicious Beef Bourguignon recipe (I’ve tried it!) and reminisces Christmas in Paris. Meg and Chip’s apartment was just a few blocks from where I lived many years ago in Paris. Reading her story transports me back to the 7th arrondissement, near the Seine in gai Paris. Pour a cafe au lait or pop la champagne and enjoy Paris!
“If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris…
then wherever you go for the rest of your life it stays with you,
for Paris is a moveable feast.” -Ernest Hemingway
{The Eiffel Tower at Christmas ~ Paris}
We moved to Paris in the summer of 2009 and lived there for two years. At the time of our move, our girls were one and two years old, and the second year I was pregnant with my third little guy. Paris and Parisians don’t make life easy for anyone, so even though our experience wasn’t all champagne and Chanel, it was still magical. Our first Christmas abroad we decided to stay put in lieu of packing up our not-so-great travelers. What could be more romantic than Christmas time in Paris?
{The view from our living room window after a night of snowfall}
What I hadn’t considered was that all of the other expats (aka…our friends) GO HOME for the holidays to be with their families, and that my husband would be WORKING up until Christmas. My romantic visions of being snuggled up on a banquette in one of the many wonderful restaurants in our neighborhood and sipping champagne with our friends wasn’t quite what happened, but it was still pretty wonderful.
The girls and I tried to wait to decorate the tree until Chip was home, but his work schedule was so busy that we finally got to work ourselves. We went to Gregory Renard, the tres fabuleux macaron shop around the corner from our apartment. They specialize in cacao and macarons, and their macarons are sublime. That night we listened to Christmas music, made chocolat chaud, conducted a macaron tasting (as if we hadn’t already been eating them weekly), decorated our tree, and decided then and there that would be our Christmas tradition.
{Amelia making tough decisions outside the window of Gregory Renard, our favorite stop on Wednesday afternoons, when French children have a half day of school. We stopped for any special occasion we could imagine.}
On the eve of Christmas Eve, Chip was finally home, and over a glass of wine we caught up and made a plan for our Christmas menu. On Christmas Eve, I headed to Rue Cler, a bustling and beautiful market street in our neighborhood, and bought a Le Creuset pot at my favorite kitchen store, along with flowers, cheese for a cheese plate and fresh vegetables. From there I headed to the butcher right around the corner from us (next to the cocoa and macaron store), waited in the long line as everyone picked up their pre-ordered ducks and geese, and asked what beef they would recommend for bourguignon. I breathed a sigh of relief as I saw the meat the butcher was reaching for and realized that a.) he had understood me, and b.) my on-the-spot pounds to kilo conversion was probably close enough.
{The cute butchers around the corner from our apartment. There was another butcher shop a block away, but these guys always had a line out the door}
Although we lived a block from the Eiffel Tower amidst beaucoup de tourists, you would never know it from the lack of English the butchers, storekeepers, and grocery store cashiers spoke. As I was paying the cashier and averting my eyes from the case with cow tongues and birds with feathers, the butcher came back over to me and quickly said, “Voulez-vous bluh, blue, bluh?” and I said, “Comment?” (I don’t understand?) He said it again, and I gave him my best I’m-really-an-American-and-I’m-really-trying-but-I-give-up look with a pleading smile. He looked at me, and clear as day, said “nose” as he pointed to his nose. I had NO IDEA what he was talking about, and I still don’t, but I replied cheerily, “Bien sur!” (of course I want a nose!) So he grabbed another hunk of something and threw it in with my meat.
From there I made a quick trip to the wine store (in between the butcher and macaron store) and hit our little G20 (“jhay-vingt”) across the street while Chip was on the next block getting foie gras and sauternes at his favorite duck/foie gras/wine store. My last stop was at the bakery under our apartment for a baguette and buche de noel. (I contemplated making one until I saw how beautifully the bakeries made them!)
{Boeuf Bourguignon prep, Christmas 2009}
On Christmas afternoon, after the morning’s festivities, I got to work in the kitchen while everyone napped. I opened the butcher paper and stared at the rather large piece of fleshy nose (?) from the butcher. And though I’m sure it would have added the perfect je ne sais quoi, I just couldn’t bring myself to throw it in with a beautiful mound of meat and decent bottle of wine.
{Amelia and baby Edward the day Edward came home from the hospital, Thanksgiving 2010}
The following November brought us the blessing of our baby boy, Edward. Shortly after that began a blur of chaos that found me back in the hospital with a complication, big sisters with a mean brochiolitis that required breathing treatments at all hours, and a precious bird of a baby who was failing to thrive and required us to weigh and chart ever gram gained and consumed. In swooped grandparents pre-Christmas, armed with American high-cal formula and by Christmas (I think) we were finally back on track. I don’t remember a whole lot from that Christmas, but I can see the macarons and hot chocolate in the pictures my dad took of us decorating our tree, and Chip tells me the boeuf bourguignon was delicious.
{Chip, Amelia, and Margaret decorate our tree, Christmas 2010}
The following year we were living in Geneva and were able to continue our Christmas traditions that we’ll carry on to our new life now in Houston. This year we won’t have Paris, but we’ll be surrounded by our family and friends, and that brings the most magic of all.
Beef Bourguignon
Ina Garten
I had intended to use an authentically French bourguignon recipe, but when I saw how much easier Ina’s recipe was and read the rave reviews, I couldn’t resist. I adapted it some by using fewer pearl onions, more tomato paste, less butter, and rice flour in lieu of all-purpose flour, and it is delicious every time. It is even better the next day and freezes well. (And be sure to make a stop by the 7th arrondissement for your foie gras, cheese, baguette, and buche de noel.)
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon good olive oil
- 8 ounces dry cured center cut applewood smoked bacon, diced
- 2 1/2 pounds chuck beef cut into 1-inch cubes
- Kosher salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 1 pound carrots, sliced diagonally into 1-inch chunks
- 2 yellow onions, sliced
- 2 teaspoons chopped garlic (2 cloves)
- 1/2 cup Cognac
- 1 (750 ml.) bottle good dry red wine such as Cote du Rhone or Pinot Noir
- 1 can (2 cups) beef broth
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves (1/2 teaspoon dried)
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature, divided
- 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1 pound frozen whole onions
- 1 pound fresh mushrooms stems discarded, caps thickly sliced
For serving:
- Country bread or Sour Dough, toasted or grilled and rubbed with garlic clove
- 1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley, optional
Directions
Preheat the oven to 250 degrees F.
Heat the olive oil in a large Dutch oven. Add the bacon and cook over medium heat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the bacon is lightly browned. Remove the bacon with a slotted spoon to a large plate.
Dry the beef cubes with paper towels and then sprinkle them with salt and pepper. In batches in single layers, sear the beef in the hot oil for 3 to 5 minutes, turning to brown on all sides. Remove the seared cubes to the plate with the bacon and continue searing until all the beef is browned. Set aside.
Toss the carrots, and onions, 1 tablespoon of salt and 2 teaspoons of pepper in the fat in the pan and cook for 10 to 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onions are lightly browned. Add the garlic and cook for 1 more minute. Add the Cognac, stand back, and ignite with a match to burn off the alcohol. Put the meat and bacon back into the pot with the juices. Add the bottle of wine plus enough beef broth to almost cover the meat. Add the tomato paste and thyme. Bring to a simmer, cover the pot with a tight-fitting lid and place it in the oven for about 1 1/4 hours or until the meat and vegetables are very tender when pierced with a fork.
Combine 2 tablespoons of butter and the flour with a fork and stir into the stew. Add the frozen onions. Saute the mushrooms in 2 tablespoons of butter for 10 minutes until lightly browned and then add to the stew. Bring the stew to a boil on top of the stove, then lower the heat and simmer for 15 minutes. Season to taste.
To serve, toast the bread in the toaster or oven. Rub each slice on 1 side with a cut clove of garlic. For each serving, spoon the stew over a slice of bread and sprinkle with parsley.
Serves 6.
Joyeux Noel!
Love,
Meg (& Kristin)
Anne@Chasing Maybes says
Meg, I love this — “of course I want a nose!” Just stumbled upon it as I was reading through my blog feed, you stinker :). Miss you lots, and loved this little window into your time in Paris. xoxo