Julia Child’s recipes I just have to share

Julia Child’s famous Boeuf Bourguignon Recipe

• One 6-​ounce piece of chunk bacon
• 3 1/​2 table­spoons olive oil
3 pounds lean stew­ing beef, cut into 2-​inch cubes
• 1 car­rot sliced
• 1 onion, sliced
• Salt and pepper
• 2 table­spoons flour
• 3 cups red wine, young and full-​bodied (like Beaujolais, Cotes du Rhone or Burgundy)
• 2 1/​2 to 3 1/​2 cups brown beef stock
• 1 table­spoon tomato paste
• 2 cloves mashed garlic
• 1/​2 tea­spoon thyme
• 1 crum­bled bay leaf
• 18 to 24 white onions, small
• 3 1/​2 table­spoons butter
• Herb bou­quet (4 pars­ley sprigs, one-​half bay leaf, one-​quarter tea­spoon thyme, tied in cheesecloth)
• 1 pound mush­rooms, fresh and quartered

Cooking Directions:

Remove bacon rind and cut into lar­dons (sticks 1/​4-​inch thick and 1 1/​2 inches long).

Simmer rind and lar­dons for 10 min­utes in 1 1/​2 quarts water. Drain and dry.
Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
Sauté lar­dons in 1 table­spoon of the olive oil in a flame­proof casse­role over mod­er­ate heat for 2 to 3 min­utes to brown lightly. Remove to a side dish with a slot­ted spoon.
Dry beef in paper tow­els; it will not brown if it is damp. Heat fat in casse­role until almost smok­ing. Add beef, a few pieces at a time, and sauté until nicely browned on all sides. Add it to the lar­dons.
In the same fat, brown the sliced veg­eta­bles. Pour out the excess fat.
Return the beef and bacon to the casse­role and toss with 1/​2 tea­spoon salt and 1/​4 tea­spoon pep­per.
Then sprin­kle on the flour and toss again to coat the beef lightly. Set casse­role uncov­ered in mid­dle posi­tion of pre­heated oven for 4 min­utes.
Toss the meat again and return to oven for 4 min­utes (this browns the flour and coves the meat with a light crust).
Remove casse­role and turn oven down to 325 degrees.
Stir in wine and 2 to 3 cups stock, just enough so that the meat is barely cov­ered.
Add the tomato paste, gar­lic, herbs and bacon rind. Bring to a sim­mer on top of the stove.
Cover casse­role and set in lower third of oven. Regulate heat so that liq­uid sim­mers very slowly for 3 to 4 hours. The meat is done when a fork pierces it eas­ily.
While the beef is cook­ing, pre­pare the onions and mush­rooms.
Heat 1 1/​2 table­spoons but­ter with one and one-​half table­spoons of the oil until bub­bling in a skil­let.
Add onions and sauté over mod­er­ate heat for about 10 min­utes, rolling them so they will brown as evenly as pos­si­ble. Be care­ful not to break their skins. You can­not expect them to brown uni­formly.
Add 1/​2 cup of the stock, salt and pep­per to taste and the herb bou­quet.
Cover and sim­mer slowly for 40 to 50 min­utes until the onions are per­fectly ten­der but hold their shape, and the liq­uid has evap­o­rated. Remove herb bou­quet and set onions aside.
Wipe out skil­let and heat remain­ing oil and but­ter over high heat. As soon as you see but­ter has begun to sub­side, indi­cat­ing it is hot enough, add mush­rooms.
Toss and shake pan for 4 to 5 min­utes. As soon as they have begun to brown lightly, remove from heat.
When the meat is ten­der, pour the con­tents of the casse­role into a sieve set over a saucepan.
Wash out the casse­role and return the beef and lar­dons to it. Distribute the cooked onions and mush­rooms on top.
Skim fat off sauce in saucepan. Simmer sauce for a minute or 2, skim­ming off addi­tional fat as it rises. You should have about 2 1/​2 cups of sauce thick enough to coat a spoon lightly.
If too thin, boil it down rapidly. If too thick, mix in a few table­spoons stock. Taste care­fully for sea­son­ing.
Pour sauce over meat and veg­eta­bles. Cover and sim­mer 2 to 3 min­utes, bast­ing the meat and veg­eta­bles with the sauce sev­eral times.
Serve in casse­role, or arrange stew on a plat­ter sur­rounded with pota­toes, noo­dles or rice, and dec­o­rated with parsley.

Julia Child’s Lobster Steamed in Wine and Herbs

(We put our Lobsters to sleep in the freezer and slipped off the rub­ber bands before cook­ing. Servings: Serves 6)

• 3 cups dry white wine or 2 cups dry white vermouth
• 2 cups water
• 1 large onion , thinly sliced
• 1 medium car­rot , thinly sliced
• 1 stalk cel­ery , thinly sliced
• 6 sprigs parsley
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/​4 tsp. thyme
• 6 pep­per­corns
• 1 Tbsp. fresh or dried tarragon
• 3 live lob­sters, 2 pounds each (We used 6 x 1.5 lob­sters and cooked for same time)

Directions:
Simmer wine, water, veg­eta­bles, herbs, and sea­son­ings in the ket­tle for 15 min­utes. Then bring to a rolling boil and add the live lob­sters. Cover and boil for about 20 min­utes. The lob­sters are done when they are bright red and the long head-​feelers can be pulled from the sock­ets fairly eas­ily.
We served with melted but­ter and cold may­on­naise, a sim­ple green salad of arugula and avo­cado with a lemon gar­lic dress­ing and but­tered noo­dles along with plenty of white wine.