The Best Beef Bourguignon

Week 100. I didn't plan to notice, but the number caught me — one hundred weeks since I started writing, one hundred weeks of this life documented in food and family and the small, daily act of standing in a kitchen and making something from nothing. A hundred Mondays. A hundred dinners. A hundred Saturday mornings. If you told the woman in week one — the married woman with the strained smile and the refrigerator casserole and the husband in the garage — that by week 100 she'd be divorced, cancer-free, lead vet tech, and making chicken tikka masala on Tuesday nights, she wouldn't have believed you. She wouldn't have believed any of it. And she wouldn't have believed the hardest part: that she'd be happier. Not easier-happier. Not unburdened-happier. But real-happier, the kind of happiness that comes from knowing exactly who you are because everything that wasn't you has been stripped away.

Lily had her third riding lesson. She's progressing fast — Janet says she has natural balance and an instinctive communication with the horse that you can't teach. "She talks to Daisy with her body," Janet said. "Most adults can't do what she does." I nodded and didn't say what I was thinking, which was: she's a Dawson. She's been talking to horses her whole life. She just finally has one to talk to.

Mason came home from school with a project: a book report on a book about Jane Goodall. He read it in two days and wrote his report in careful first-grade handwriting and presented it to me at the kitchen table with the formality of a doctoral defense. His thesis: "Jane Goodall was brave because she went into the forest by herself and wasn't scared of the chimpanzees." I asked, "Were you scared when you read about the chimpanzees?" He said, "No, because I was at home and you were here." There it is. The whole theory of courage: you're brave when you know someone is waiting at home. Someone is always waiting at home for Mason. That someone is me.

I scheduled the reconstruction surgery for May. Spring, as planned. Dr. Kendall will do the first stage — the expander placement. The second stage, the permanent implant, will be later in the year. Two surgeries. Two recoveries. But chosen. Elected. Mine.

New recipe #8: beef bourguignon. Julia Child's recipe, or my approximation of it, because Julia used a bottle of Burgundy and I used a $7 bottle of whatever red was on sale, because authenticity has limits and my budget is one of them. The beef braised for three hours and the kitchen smelled like France and ambition and butter, and the result was rich and deep and absolutely worth the effort. Mason said, "Is this fancy?" I said, "Yes." He said, "Are we fancy now?" I said, "We're getting there." And we are. One bourguignon at a time.

So yes — beef bourguignon. Recipe number eight. The one that made Mason ask if we’re fancy now. I won’t pretend I followed Julia to the letter — my Burgundy was a $7 bottle from the sale rack and my Dutch oven has seen better days — but three hours of braising later, the kitchen smelled like something earned. A hundred weeks in, I wanted a recipe that felt like arrival, something slow and deliberate and worth every minute of the wait. This was it.

Prep Time: 30 minutes | Cook Time: 3 hours | Total Time: 3 hours 30 minutes | Servings: 6

Ingredients

3 pounds beef chuck roast, cut into 2-inch cubes
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
6 ounces thick-cut bacon, diced
1 large yellow onion, diced
3 carrots, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons tomato paste
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 bottle (750 ml) dry red wine
2 cups beef broth
1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves (or 1 teaspoon dried)
2 bay leaves
8 ounces cremini mushrooms, quartered
1 cup frozen pearl onions, thawed
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
Fresh parsley, chopped, for garnish

Instructions

Brown the bacon. Preheat oven to 325°F. In a large Dutch oven over medium heat, cook the diced bacon until crispy, about 5–7 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside, leaving the drippings in the pot.
Sear the beef. Pat the beef cubes dry with paper towels and season generously with salt and pepper. Working in batches so you don’t crowd the pot, sear the beef in the bacon drippings and 1 tablespoon olive oil until deeply browned on all sides, about 3–4 minutes per side. Transfer browned beef to a plate and set aside.
Cook the aromatics. Add the remaining olive oil to the pot. Add the diced onion and carrots and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion is softened and lightly golden, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and tomato paste and cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly.
Build the braising liquid. Sprinkle the flour over the vegetables and stir to coat. Cook for 1 minute. Pour in the entire bottle of red wine and the beef broth, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the pot. Add the thyme, bay leaves, seared beef, and crispy bacon. Stir to combine and bring to a simmer.
Braise in the oven. Cover the Dutch oven with a tight-fitting lid and transfer to the preheated oven. Cook for 2 hours 30 minutes, until the beef is very tender and the sauce has thickened.
Prepare the mushrooms and pearl onions. About 20 minutes before the stew is done, heat the butter in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add the quartered mushrooms and pearl onions and cook until golden brown, about 8–10 minutes. Season lightly with salt and pepper.
Finish and serve. Remove the Dutch oven from the oven. Discard the bay leaves. Stir in the sautéed mushrooms and pearl onions. Taste and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper. Ladle into bowls and garnish with chopped fresh parsley. Serve with crusty bread, egg noodles, or mashed potatoes.

Nutrition (per serving)

The Best Beef Bourguignon — One Hundred Weeks of Getting Fancy