Hey, if you read my text blog yesterday at webcookingclasses.com, you’ll know that I went and saw that movie Julia and Julie. And I have all the respect in the world for Julia Childs and love Stanley Tuchi , he was in my other favorite, the food movie, The Big Night. You should see that one instead. But anyway, 20 something year old Julie Powell decides that she’s going to cook every recipe in a Julia Childs’ cook book. Not this one, the other one. And you know what it works. Every recipe comes out perfectly, this is the first time. She learns to cook only from following recipes. It’s fantastic. It’s Hollywood. It’s the direct opposite of everything I’ve been talking about for 2 years now. You can't learn to cook from following recipes anymore than you can learn Japanese by reading a Japanese novel. Basic cooking methods behind all these recipes. So to prove my point, what I’m going to do today, and it’s been a long time since I’ve cook exactly from a recipe. I’m going to find the beef burgonoign recipe. It’s the centerpiece of the movie, and it comes out perfectly for her. Oh, as they say “beef burgonoign”.
Alright, beef burgonoign to me and you. I’m going to use it directly out of this recipe book. Follow the recipe exactly, and let’s see how I do. But, you know, it would be unfair in the stainless steel kitchen. So, mister magic eraser man, give me the home kitchen. Let’s get rid of the chef hat and the coat. At the home kitchen it’s much more fair for this comparison. Because my 60,000 BTUs stove would be different story. And plus I’d be compelled to be a chef and forget the cookbook.
So let’s take a look at this beef burgonoign recipe to begin with. And imagine I’m Julie Powell, a 20 something year old woman in New York who’s going to make beef burgonoign perfectly the first time. So let’s decipher the recipe.
Alright, first of all in this cookbook, beef burgonoign or “beef burgonoign”, there’s a master recipe. It’s a sub recipe. So we go over here and we find that the master recipe is zinfandel of beef. For 6-8 servings. Well, gee, it’s just Heather and I, just my wife and I, we don’t need 6-8 servings. So what I’m going to do is make it two servings. So when I say 3-4 pounds of boneless beef stew, now I got to do some math. Right. To change all the stuff, when I come down here, the burmani. Three table spoons of flour and two tablespoons of soften butter. So what is a quarter of 3 tablespoons? That’s like one of my test from culinary school. A quarter of 3 tablespoons. 3 teaspoons in a tablespoon. 3 teaspoon in a tablespoon. So that’ 9. Here’s a great one. It calls for 2/3rd of a cup of slice carrots. And I’m making a quarter of this recipe. What is the quarter of 2/3rd of a cup? What’s that, like two tablespoons? I’m supposed to do two tablespoons of sliced carrots.
First the recipe says dry the meat on paper towels and they’re absolutely right about this. Because wet meat will steam, wet meat will not brown. Step one, dry the beef. The recipe reads, film a frying pan with a 16th of an inch of oil. Okay. Should I get my ruler? The recipe reads, when very hot but not smoking, brown as many pieces of meat. Well, how do I know. Yeah. It seems very hot, and no, it’s not smoking. So, okay. Recipe reads turn frequently to brown all sides. Cook 3-5 minutes. Well, you know, I think it’s going to take me 3 minutes to turn each of these little pieces of cube. Oh, for goodness sake.
Alright, exactly 4 minutes. It doesn’t tell me what I was looking for, but 4 minutes. The recipe reads, turn out of the casserole. Turn in the sliced vegetables. So let’s go ahead and add our onions. I think it was like four carrots, there you go. Stirring and tossing for 3-4 minutes until brown. Let’s set the timer again. Alright, that’s 3 and a half minutes. They said lightly brown, that’s looking a little burnt to me. But I’m going by the recipe.
Then the recipe says to add a cup of liquid, but I’m doing a quarter of the recipe. So I guess I need a quarter of a cup of liquid. A little bit of wine and a little bit of beef broth to equal up a quarter of a cup. In the pan, swish around to release the burnt bits. The recipe says and pour over the beef in the casserole. Recipe reads, add the garlic. And the recipe says 4 more cups of liquid. But I’m doing a quarter of the recipe. So we will add a cup of wine and beef stock.
Alright, I’ve got everything in the casserole like the recipe told me to. And you know what, I’ve been back and forth to this cookbook. Reading it line by line, I’m exhausted. I’m trying, I mean, I’m really trying to cook this by the recipe. But I know your frustration. I understand. I’m an hour and 40 minutes in to this and I’ve still got 2 and a half hours of cooking to do.
Alright, now the exciting part, finishing the stew. Pour the contents of the casserole into a colander set over a sauce pan. Wash out the casserole and return the pieces of beef to it. After I washed it? Okay. You should have about 3 cups, boil it down and remove from the heat. And then thicken with my burmani, my flour and butter put together. So let’s go ahead and try and do all that. I’m counting about 6 pans right now. We’ll, I don’t know, 5 hours into it.
So pour it through the colander. Press. Oh, I’m suppose to take the beef out. I’m going to stand here with tongs. Pick each beef, whatever. Press it through. And return that to the casserole. And my burmani, add that in. Whisk, and thicken. Alright, once my liquid has thicken to the point where I would like. It goes back over the beef.
And there’s the Julia and Julie beef burgonoign. 4 and a half hours or so, and lot’s of math and back and forth for the recipe. But let’s see what we got. Let’s take a look and take a taste. Little bit of that gravy. Get yourself a fork. Not bad looking huh? Nice aroma, beef aroma. It’s good. It taste very good. That long cooking process help tenderize the meat. Bring the flavors together. And actually the result is pretty good. I taste a little bit of that burnt flavor from when I burnt the onions. But, I’m also counting 6 pans, hours worth of work. It’s no wonder your frustrated by recipes. Come to webcookingclasses.com tomorrow for my written blog. My text blog, and I’ll tell you how I would do this the Chef Todd style, with one pan and a lot less than 5 hours. Webcookingclasses.com, read it tomorrow.
Transcription by:
Scribe4you Transcription Services