BARLEY MISO BEEF BOURGUIGNON

Directions

1. PREPPING THE BEEF
2. Many traditional recipes for Beef Bourguignon call for the beef to be marinated in the wine overnight. Marinating the meat overnight gives it a richer deeper flavour and arguably helps with tenderising the meat. It is not essential however, the difference between marinated and non-marinated meat is subtle. I would argue that the dish is better for it, but marinating your meat is certainly not a deal-breaker for a delicious dish. If choosing to marinate your beef beforehand, please follow the below steps.
3. Season the beef generously with salt and pepper and place into a bowl or zip-lock bag. Add a small bunch of thyme and a bashed garlic clove and finally 100ml-200ml of the red wine, ensuring the beef pieces are suitably covered. TIP - Re-sealable zip-lock bags work extremely well for this and require less wine to cover the beef as it can be more easily manipulated in the bag.
4. Leave the beef to marinate in the fridge for up to 24hrs.
5. When ready to cook, remove the beef from the marinade about 30mins before, reserving as much of the wine marinade as possible, and pat-dry - you want the meat to not be too damp.
6. THE BEEF BOURGUIGNON
7. Preheat the oven to 160ºC/320ºF (FAN).
8. Place a large, casserole pan over a low heat and add the diced pancetta into the pan, gradually increasing the heat to high as the fat renders out of the pancetta. Once sizzling and the pancetta is starting to crisp, remove from the pan.
9. Return the casserole pan over a medium heat with a lug of olive oil. Add the beef pieces to the pan and brown on all sides. You may need to work in batches to do this. Once browned, remove from the pan.
10. Add in the onion, and diced carrot into the pan and cook for 3-4 minutes until starting to colour. Add the garlic and cook for a further 2 minutes. Deglaze the pan with a splash of the red wine, scraping off any fond at the bottom of the pan, before returning the lardons and beef to the pan and adding in the baby carrots.
11. Add the red wine (if you marinated your beef, you can add the reserved marinade as well) and miso paste to the pan and mix together. Top up with beef stock until the beef is almost entirely covered. You may need to add more or less stock than specified depending on the size of your pan. Add the thyme and the bay leaves to the pan, cover with a lid and transfer to the oven and cook for 2 - 2 ½ hours until the meat is tender and easily breaks apart.
12. Whilst the beef is cooking, prepare the mushrooms, this can be done after an hour or even two. Place a large frying pan over a high heat and add a splash of olive oil. Add the mushrooms, cut side down, to the pan and leave undisturbed for 2 minutes. This will help them take colour and develop flavour. Once the mushrooms are sizzling and the cut side has developed a golden brown colour, move them around the pan and cook for a further 2 minutes. Once cooked add to the casserole pan in the oven.
13. After 2 - 2½ hours, remove the casserole pan from the oven and remove the lid. The wine should have greatly reduced and formed a thickened sauce. TIP - If the sauce looks too thin, you can thicken it by mixing a pinch of flour with some butter and stirring into the sauce over a gentle heat.
14. Serve the Beef Bourguignon with pearl barley and pickled silverskin onions. Traditionally Beef Bourguignon is cooked and served with pearl onions - these baby onions can be troublesome to come by and a real pain to peel and prep en masse! We cheated and served ours with the very widely available, and very untraditional pickled silverskin onions. Widely available, we also think they work fantastically with this dish as the acidity really cuts through the rich sauce. ENJOY