Boeuf Bouguignon... comme un chef (geddit?!)
400g/just under 1lb beef (I used casserole beef chunks cos stupid supermarkets don't sell shin or cheek, grr!)
4 carrots
1 onion, diced (should be shallots but again, these don't seem to exist in my Sainsbury's in country bumpkin land!)
1 beef Oxo cube
1 can of Baxter's beef consomme (yes, I used this instead of a beef stock, so sue me. It was delicious.)
Red wine (I emptied the can of consomme and then filled it up with wine, so it's about a 1:1 ratio of stock to wine)
Mixed herbs (OMG I used dried herbs instead of a bouquet garni, wtf!?)
Sage (I'm not giving you quantities because I just guessed and can't remember what I put in. Play it by ear.)
A shit load of black pepper (no need for salt because of the stock cube and consomme)
Plain flour
Olive oil (1 "glug")
Butter cut into cube-ish sort of shapes
~
Cheddar-y mash/pommes purees avec du fromage:
2 large white potatoes
Mature Cheddar cheese (use as much as you like, it's all personal taste)
A "glug" of full cream milk
Butter. None of this "healthy" olive oil mash malarky, we're cooking (vaguely) French food, damn it!
Black pepper
Chop the carrots and onion and fry it in olive oil and a bit of butter (yes, there should be celery in there too but it is "the debbil's vegetable" to quote Jess). Add some herbage and pepper.
Put some more herbage in the casserole dish (I got a cast iron one from Grandpa for my birthday, woop! It's shiny and red and pretty.). Dump the veggies into the pot.
Flour your beef (make sure you add black pepper in with the flour too and be generous with the flour) and seal it in the same frying pan. Deglaze your pan with a tiny glug of wine and then dump all that into the pot, too.
Pour your consomme on top and follow it with the red wine.
Leave it for, like, 3 hours or whatever.
Boil your potatoes then drain the water and mash them together with cubes of butter and grated cheese. Season.
You know what to do next. Serve with the same wine that's in the sauce. Say "zut alors" quite a bit.
