Crockpot Beef Bourguignon

I'm going to start of by saying this is NOT a dump and go recipe. I'm sure you could make it into a dump and go recipe, but I cannot guarantee the results will be even close to the same. Even though it takes a little longer, its still an incredibly easy recipe. The main reason I put this in the crock pot instead of letting it sit in a dutch oven is so the beef chunks could become fall apart tender.

I will throw a meal in the crock pot any day of the week, but Sundays are my favorite days for crock pot meals. Germans take their Sundays as a day of rest seriously. Almost nothing is open and you cannot perform any type of activity that might cause too much noise for your neighbors. Like mowing your lawn, or if you live in an apartment vacuuming. I have done my best to embrace this lifestyle. I make sure dinner is in the crock pot, clean the kitchen and then, spend time with the family. I try to make sure most of the major house chores are accomplished before Sunday. We usually go for a nice long walk as a family in the afternoon and as soon as we get home, dinner is ready.

The reason I say this isn't a dump and go recipe is because there's a fairly decent amount of prep work that has to go into everything before you toss it in the crock pot.

The beef is first. You can get a rump or chuck roast and cut it down to smaller pieces or you can buy stew meat. In Germany I buy Rinder-Gulasch, which is stew meat. Right from the packaging I take a paper towel and dry the chunks off. Then I toss it in a mixture of cornstarch, salt and pepper. The cornstarch helps give the beef a nice crust. I'll brown all the beef in small batches before tossing into the crock pot.

Its time consuming but work with the beef in small batches and don't crowd the pan. You can achieve a much nicer brown crust on the beef when there is space between the individual pieces.

After you're done with the beep add it to your crock pot and start on the bacon. I chopped them into slivers not much wider than my pinky and tossed them all into the pan still stuck together. I don't follow my principle of not crowding the meat when it comes to bacon because when you're frying small pieces it will take FOREVER. I also will wait till they're cooked a little before attempting to separate them with the spatula, so much easier this way. As the bacon finishes cooking remove it from the pan and place it on a paper towel to let it soak up some of the grease. Leave the rest of the bacon grease in the pan, you're going to use it. You might want to keep a close eye on your bacon if you have tiny (or large for that matter) people in your house popping in and out of the kitchen looking for snacks.

Add about a tablespoon of butter to the pan with the bacon grease and then pop your mushrooms in too. I didn't slice them thin, I removed the stems and quartered them. Removing the stems isn't a mandatory step, I do it and I'm not even sure why if I'm being honest here. Typically I would advise to follow the same rule of thumb for now crowding the mushrooms so they'll brown nicely, but this is another perfect example where I ignore my own advise.

Remove the mushrooms from the pan and add them to the crockpot. Next you're going to take your bottle of wine (make sure you buy two bottles before you make this recipe, that way you have one to drink while making it and the other to use for cooking) and pour enough to cover the bottom of the pan to scrap up any residual bits of bacon or remaining beef pieces. After that go ahead and finish pouring in the bottle. Add the garlic and tomato paste. Once will mixed and fragrant add the beef broth.

While the liquid simmers a bit, cut up the carrots and onions. I sliced my carrots at an angle, visual appeal you know. Gotta make it look good. Add those direct to the crock pot along with a healthy heap of salt and pepper. Tie together your sprigs of fresh thyme for easy retrieval prior to serving and add them to the pot too. Transfer the wine and broth from the stove top to the crockpot. Give everything a good stir and cook on low for 6-8 hours.

When its time to serve you can thicken the mixture by either adding 2 tablespoons of flour direct to pot, or you cause use cornstarch. Cornstarch is my personal favorite. I mix three tablespoons of cold water with one tablespoon of cornstarch then mix it into the crockpot.

I added some dried parsley to the top of each bowl and served warm with a side of bread.

The whole family can enjoy this recipe. My youngest daughter only has four maybe five teeth on the top and three on the bottom. After sitting in the crockpot for several hours the beef is so tender she can easily chew it. My oldest daughter loves the rich flavor so much she'll ask for seconds. It is a very rich flavored dish, so serving it with some mashed potatoes to balance it out might not be a bad idea.

https://www.etsy.com/de-en/shop/WanderfulLifeByDana