Boeuf Bourguignon

SACRÉ BLEU.

Ingredients

• 2lbs. beef shoulder, cut into 1.5" pieces
• 4 onions, thinly sliced into rainbows
• olive oil
• 2tbsp flour
• 1c red Burgundy wine
• 6 carrots, cut into 1" pieces
• 1 clove garlic
• a bouquet garni (a bunch of parsley and thyme tied together)
• .5tsp thyme
• 3 bay leaves
• black pepper
• salt
• chopped parsley

In a large Dutch oven, heat some oil to nearly smoking. Salt and pepper the beef. Working in batches, sear the pieces of beef until you get a nice brown caramelized sear. You want to work in batches, because if you crowd the pan, you won't be able to get the sear you need.

Anyway, remove the beef and add all the onions. Turn heat to medium-high and cook until they're translucent and wilted. Add the flour and cook another couple minutes. Add the wine and deglaze, then add the carrots, garlic, bouquet garni, thyme, and bay leaves. Add water to cover everything by a centimeter or so. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring frequently, then reduce to a low simmer for two hours, checking every 15-20 minutes to scrape up the bottom and make sure nothing is sticking. You may have to add water in the middle if it's cooking down too fast - it's a stew, after all. When it's done, adjust the salt. Serve over crushed boiled potatoes, and top with chopped parsley.

Thoughts: We actually served over some roughly smashed yukon gold potatoes with rosemary and wilted greens. This was pretty fantastic. I don't think I'd do anything differently. Oh yeah - we took the carrots out half-way through when Claire was afraid that they would get too soft. We added them back in at the end.

Claire says now that she thinks she liked the idea, but she also wants to try other recipes. WHATEVER.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Update: Add a bit more thyme. Also, don't need the bouquets garnis. Double the wine, and add some beef stock along with the water. Also, when you add the water, make sure to add the beef back in - somehow we left that out of the recipe.

Carrot Top Pesto

It turns out these things aren't toxic!

Ingredients

• 1 bunch carrot tops, chopped
  
• 1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped
  
• 1 tsp dried basil
• 1/3 cup olive oil (about; we just eye-balled it)
• 1 cup parsley, chopped
• 1/8 cup Parmesan cheese, shredded or powdered or what-have-you
  
• garlic powder, to taste
• salt and pepper, to taste (you'll need a lot of salt)
• water, if you need it
  

Put everything except the olive oil in a food processor. Slowly add the olive oil through the hole in the top. You may not need all 1/3 cup, or you may need more. Scrape down the sides of the food processor periodically. Add seasonings to taste.

Thoughts: Easy to do. Pretty tasty -- carrot tops taste a lot like parsley, as it turns out. I kept hearing they were bitter, but they aren't really. You could also try adding some toasted walnuts to this. I bet it would be good.

Disaster Index: 2/10 pretty good