Beef & Mushroom Bourguignon

Ingredients

• 1100 g beef shin or chuck steak, cut into 5cm chunks
• 5 garlic cloves, minced
• 300 ml beef stock
• 2 tbsp plain flour
• Crusty sourdough bread, to serve
• 300 g pearl shallots, peeled and left whole
• 400 g chestnut mushrooms, halved
• 2 tbsp tomato purée
• 6 fresh thyme sprigs
• 500 ml full-bodied Burgundy-style red wine
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 25 g unsalted butter
• 200 g smoked bacon lardons
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tbsp brandy
• fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped, to serve

Method

1. Heat the oven to 160°C fan. Pat the beef chunks completely dry with kitchen paper — water means steam, and steam means no browning. Season generously with salt and pepper before they hit the pan. Heat the oil in a large ovenproof casserole over a high heat until it shimmers, then brown the beef in three batches for 3–4 minutes per side until deeply mahogany. Don't crowd the pan; all at once and the meat boils in its own juices instead of building the fond that flavours the entire dish. Lift each batch out to a plate.
2. Drop the bacon lardons into the same casserole and fry over a medium-high heat for 4 minutes until the fat renders out and the edges turn golden. Tip in the pearl shallots and diced carrot and cook for 4 minutes more, stirring through the bacon fat, until they take on colour at the edges. Lift out and set aside with the beef.
3. Add the butter to the pan. Once it stops foaming, slide in the mushrooms and fry over a high heat for 5 minutes, stirring only occasionally, until they're golden and every drop of moisture has cooked off — wet mushrooms will never brown. Add the crushed garlic and cook for 30 seconds, just until fragrant. Don't let it burn; bitter garlic will haunt the whole pot. If you're using the brandy, pour it in and let it reduce to almost nothing, about 30 seconds.
4. Scatter the flour over the mushrooms and stir for a full minute to cook off the raw taste. Pour in the red wine in slow additions, stirring constantly so the flour loosens into a smooth sauce. Add the beef stock, tomato purée and rinsed lentils, then drag your spoon across the base of the pan to lift every brown stuck bit into the liquid — that's the flavour you spent step one building.
5. Return the beef, bacon, shallots and carrot to the casserole along with any juices on the plate. Nestle in the thyme sprigs and bay leaves. The beef should sit mostly but not entirely submerged. Bring to a gentle simmer on the hob, cover with a tight-fitting lid, and transfer to the oven.
6. Braise for 2.5–3 hours, checking once at the halfway mark, until the beef yields with no resistance to a fork — if it fights back, give it another 20 minutes. If the sauce still looks thin at the end, lift the lid and return the pot to the oven for 15 minutes to reduce and gloss up.
7. Fish out the thyme stalks and bay leaves. Taste the sauce, then taste again — the wine and stock have been reducing for hours, so adjust the salt and pepper now, at the pot, not at the table. The sauce should be glossy and cling to the back of a spoon. It improves dramatically overnight if you have the patience.
8. Spoon the bourguignon over buttered mash, egg noodles or alongside crusty bread, scatter the chopped flat-leaf parsley generously over the top, and finish each bowl with a thread of extra virgin olive oil so the sauce gleams.