I was right, but man, it was complicated! I think it took nearly an hour to pull all the bits and pieces together - skinning the pearl onions, slicing the regular onion and carrot, drying the beef bits, double-browning the beef, etc. So many techniques I was totally unfamiliar with! But they all made sense. And even though El Duque professes not to like French food, he asked for seconds, so I figure it's a successful Sunday night dinner.
Here's how I did it:
Well, first, I basically followed the recipe.
1. Got a pound of beef, pre-cut.
2. Got a half pound of mushrooms, pre-sliced.
3. Bought fresh (not frozen) pearl onions, and peeled 8.
4. Bought a regular size bottle of Gallo Burgundy. (El Duque was NOT happy, as he's a wine snob, but fortunately, it worked fine.)
5. I didn't have beef broth, but I did have beef bouillon cubes, so I put one to work. Worked fine.
6. I followed the recipe pretty carefully - blanched the bacon, browned the beef in the bacon fat on the stove top, then tossed it in flour and browned it in the oven, etc. Although I made a few booboos - I put the bacon and the beef in the oven to brown with the flour (only should have put the beef), and didn't realize that I needed to put the browned sliced onion and carrot into the mix when the casserole went into the oven. The first didn't affect the ultimate taste of the stew, and the second was easy to fix - I got the veggies in only about 10 minutes after the stew went into the oven.
7. When I realized I had to cook the mushrooms and the pearl onions separately from the stew, I got inspired. I had blanched the bacon in a 10 inch frying pan, and decided to use the same frying pan, with the bits of bacon grease, to brown the mushrooms.
8. I also realized that I really had put too much liquid in the stew. And there was lots of nice flavor on the bottom of the frying pan when I was done browning the mushrooms. So instead of washing it off, I put the requisite oil and butter into the pan, browned the onions for the 10 minutes the recipe required. I then took a baster and pulled about half a cup of liquid from the stew and put it into the frying pan so that the onions could braise. As there were only 8 onions, I braised them for 35 minutes instead of 45, and it worked out great. They could have been braised even for 30 minutes, and it would have been OK. And the sauce that resulted was really lovely.
9. The stew was pretty much ready after only about an hour and 15 minutes to cook, rather than 3 hours! Some time I'll try cooking it longer, as I could see the flavor of the sauce could have infused the meat more, but I really didn't want us to eat at 9 pm.
10. When I strained the sauce from the stew, I realized that I could use the thick sauce from the braised onions and mix it with the stew's sauce and make a really thick and marvelous sauce. And it worked! I might use it as a base for the next time I make this dish, or some other beef stew ... or I might just use it as a sauce for noodles.
Next time I make this, I'm probably going to use a lot more pearl onions. Those babies were GOOD. I also might make the full recipe, so that we have leftovers. (Yep, El Duque requested.) And I'll definitely start it a few hours earlier, so that we can eat earlier!
Next challenge: Coq Au Vin. I'd love to try it during the week, but I think it's going to be next Sunday.
