Brian Lagerstrom Beef Bourguignon (Slow Cooker)

Source video by Brian Lagerstrom on YouTube. This recipe was adapted with strict source-fidelity rules and is marked for human review.

Brian Lagerstrom's beef bourguignon is a two-step braise: dry heat for colour, then wet heat to break the beef down. The original runs in a Dutch oven for around three hours at 148C, then rests overnight. Adapted for the slow cooker, the chuck still gets a hard roast on a sheet tray to build fond, then the wine, stock, tomato paste and demi-glace do their work over six to eight hours on Low. The braising liquid is strained and reduced separately on the hob to a syrupy glaze, with cremini mushrooms and chunky carrots added as garnish.

Ingredients

• 2.5 kgbeef chuck roast, cut into 5 to 8 cm chunks, large lumps of fat trimmed
• olive oil
• salt

• 750 mldry red wine
• 1 largeonion, peeled and roughly chopped
• 1 largecarrot, roughly chopped, unpeeled
• 2 stalkscelery stalks, roughly chopped
• 1 headgarlic, cut in half across the equator
• fresh thyme
• 2 leavesbay leaves
• 1500 mlbeef stock
• 25 gtomato paste
• 42 gdemi-glace
• 240 mlwater

• 4 packetspowdered gelatin, bloomed in cold beef stock (add late)
• 480 mlbeef stock (add late)

• 4 largecarrots, roughly chopped into chunks at least 2.5 cm across (add late)
• 500 gcremini mushrooms, cut chunky, 3 to 7 pieces per mushroom (add late)
• 25 golive oil (add late)
• salt (add late)

• 6 mediumYukon Gold potatoes, peeled and diced roughly 2.5 cm (add late)
• 4 tbspbutter (add late)
• salt (add late)

Method

1. Heat the oven to its hottest setting, around 287C. Cut the beef chuck into 5 to 8 cm chunks, trimming any very large lumps of fat. Toss with a long squeeze of olive oil and a strong pinch of salt, then spread the chunks on an unlined sheet tray.

   ~10 min

2. Roast the beef for 15 to 20 minutes until well coloured all over. Meanwhile, roughly chop the onion, carrot, and celery; halve the head of garlic across the equator; gather the thyme sprigs and bay leaves.

   ~20 min

3. Pour the bottle of red wine into a wide pan with the chopped onion, carrot, celery, garlic, thyme and bay. Bring to a simmer, then reduce the heat and cook for 15 to 20 minutes to drive off the alcohol and concentrate the flavour.

   ~20 min

4. Stir the beef stock, tomato paste and demi-glace into the reduced wine and mirepoix. Taste and check it is savoury.

   ~5 min

5. Tip the roasted beef into the slow cooker. Splash about a cup of water onto the empty roasting tray and scrape up the fond with a wooden spoon, then pour the lot into the slow cooker.

   ~5 min

6. Pour the wine, stock and mirepoix mixture over the beef in the slow cooker. The beef should be roughly covered.

   ~5 min

7. Cover and cook on Low for 6 to 8 hours or on High for around 4 hours, until the beef is tender but the fibres still hold together.

8. Lift the beef out of the braising liquid onto a tray. Strain the liquid through a fine mesh sieve into a wide pan, pressing the mirepoix to extract every drop, then discard the solids.

   ~10 min

9. Skim any obvious fat off the top of the strained liquid. Bring it to a steady simmer on the hob and reduce for around 30 to 45 minutes, until it tightens to a glossy, sticky sauce.

   ~45 min

10. Bloom 4 packets of powdered gelatin in 480 ml of cold beef stock for 5 minutes, then stir into the reducing sauce. Continue reducing.

    ~5 min

11. Boil the diced Yukon Gold potatoes in salted water until tender but not falling apart, around 25 minutes. Drain and keep warm with a lid on the pan.

    ~25 min

12. Heat olive oil in a wide non-stick pan over medium-high heat, add the chunky mushrooms with a generous pinch of salt, and cook for around 12 minutes until lightly golden and no longer swollen with water.

    ~12 min

13. When the sauce has reduced by around two-thirds, add the chunky carrots and continue reducing for 15 to 20 minutes until tender.

    ~20 min

14. Add the cooked mushrooms to the sauce. When the liquid is reduced to roughly a fifth of its original volume and the bubbles look large and syrupy, slide in the beef and spoon the sauce over to glaze.

    ~10 min

15. Smash the warm potatoes with the butter and a pinch of salt using a wooden spoon, leaving some chunky bits.

    ~5 min

16. Plate a dollop of smashed potato, top with a few pieces of glazed beef, carrots and mushrooms, then spoon over the glossy sauce.

    ~5 min

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