Jamie Oliver Beef Bourguignon (Slow Cooker Adaptation)

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

Jamie Oliver's expression of beef bourguignon uses beef cheeks (or any stewing beef) marinated overnight in red wine with carrots, celery, onion, garlic and bay. The meat is floured, browned and slow cooked with the marinade until it falls apart, then finished with a garnish of bacon lardons, shallots and mixed mushrooms. Served with mashed potatoes and greens. This version has been adapted from Jamie's 4 hour oven braise to a slow cooker method.

Ingredients

• 1.4 kgbeef cheeks (or stewing beef), cut into 2 inch chunks
• 4 wholecarrots, cut chunky
• 4 wholecelery sticks, cut chunky
• 4 wholegarlic cloves
• 1 wholelarge onion, cut chunky
• fresh bay leaves
• ground cloves
• black pepper, freshly ground
• burgundy or other red wine
• olive oil (not extra virgin)
• plain flour, for coating the beef
• 2 tspEnglish or Dijon mustard
• water

• smoked streaky bacon, cut into lardons (add late)
• shallots, peeled, left whole or halved (add late)
• mixed mushrooms (chestnut, button, oyster), sliced or quartered, oyster mushrooms left whole (add late)
• fresh flat-leaf parsley, stalks finely sliced, leaves chunkier (add late)

Method

1. Cut the beef cheeks into roughly 2 inch chunks. Place into a large bowl with the chunky carrots, celery, onion and garlic cloves.

   ~10 min

2. Add the bay leaves, a generous pinch of black pepper and a pinch of ground cloves. Do not add salt at this stage as it will draw moisture from the meat.

   ~2 min

3. Pour over enough red wine to fully submerge the meat and veg. Cover and marinate in the fridge overnight.

   ~5 min

4. The next day, drain the marinated meat and veg through a colander set over a bowl, keeping the wine.

   ~5 min

5. Toss the drained beef chunks in plain flour to coat lightly.

   ~3 min

6. Heat a thin layer of olive oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Brown the floured beef in batches, leaving gaps so it sears rather than boils. Transfer to the slow cooker as each batch is done.

   ~15 min

7. In the same pan, add the drained marinated vegetables and fry for 5 to 10 minutes until softened and starting to colour, scraping up the sticky brown bits from the bottom of the pan.

   ~10 min

8. Stir the mustard through the vegetables, then pour in the reserved red wine marinade and bring to a simmer, scraping up everything from the base of the pan.

   ~5 min

9. Tip the vegetables and wine over the beef in the slow cooker. Top up with just enough water to come up to (not fully cover) the meat.

   ~3 min

10. Cover and cook on Low for 8 hours or High for 5 hours, until the beef breaks apart under light pressure from your finger.

    ~480 min

11. Near the end of cooking, heat a frying pan over a fairly hot heat and fry the bacon lardons until the fat renders out.

    ~5 min

12. Add the peeled shallots and fry until golden, then add the mixed mushrooms and cook until coloured, keeping the oyster mushrooms whole to show off their shape.

    ~8 min

13. Finely slice the parsley stalks and roughly chop the leaves. Stir through the mushroom and bacon mixture at the last minute.

    ~2 min

14. Spoon the bourguignon into bowls and top with splurges of the mushroom and bacon garnish. Serve with mashed potato and greens.

    ~3 min

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