Sometimes it’s good to eat food that just sticks to your ribs. Bonus if it comes to your table so hot that it’s bubbling, screaming comfort. Enter Boeuf Bourguignon, the classic French dish. It’s what will to get you through this last month of winter. Bistro Joséphine Chez Dumonet in Paris has one of the best winter beef recipes around — satisfying and succulent.

The ultimate winter recipe and comfort food

If you’re in the mood for a winter dish, it’s hard to beat Boeuf Bourguignon. It doesn’t even matter whether or not you eat meat; the fragrance evokes comfort and warmth. When you cook this, your house will smell even better than when you have a fresh apple pie in of the oven. Joséphine Chez Dumonet in Paris is a classic French bistro, and the kitchen staff more than does this dish justice. A deep casserole is brought to your table, so white hot that it bubbles throughout your entire meal. You can recreate this in a traditional Dutch oven, and we suggest placing the finished Boeuf Bourguignon in the center of your table. You should serve this hearty stew on top of rice, noodles, or (as we like it) on fluffy-as-air buttered mashed potatoes. If you’d like to add a little German influence, it’s also delicious on quark spaetzle.

Serves 6

Ingredients

3 lbs top sirloin, cut into cubes
25–30 cippolini (pearl) onions
1 bottle of French red wine or Argentinian Malbec
4 multi-color large carrots, chopped
3 cups of beef or chicken stock
2 tablespoons of San Marzano tomato paste
1 pound of fresh button mushrooms, quartered
2 cloves of garlic
4 sprigs of rosemary
6 sprigs of thyme
2 bay leaves
4 sprigs of parsley
2 tablespoons of butter
3 tablespoons of flour
2 tablespoons of whole black peppercorns
Maldon sea salt
Black pepper
Olive oil

Directions

Like many good winter recipes, the key to the most tender Boeuf Bourguignon is to slow-cook it over the lowest heat. This will ensure that your beef falls apart, and you won’t even need a knife to cut into it. Also, while you want the high-quality lean meat, you also want fat marbling in your cut, so that the meat tenderizes as it simmers and cooks. We suggest going the top sirloin route, but always ask your butcher for his or her best recommendation.

Marinate overnight

Place your cubed sirloin in a ziplock bag and generously season it with Maldon sea salt, black whole peppercorns, three sprigs rosemary, two sprigs of thyme, and a few dashes of olive oil. Either use a vacuum sealer or the water displacement method to remove the extra air, and seal the bag. Place in the refrigerator and marinate overnight. This will make your meat extra flavorful when you cook it the next day.

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees

Brown and sear the ingredients to seal in the moisture and flavor

In a large Dutch oven, preferably cast iron with a heavy lid, heat about three tablespoons of olive oil over high heat. Remove your cubed beef from the bag and discard the marinade. When the oil is hot enough that a drop of water sizzles in the pan, sear your beef in batches, about one minute per side. This will brown the beef and seal in the flavor. Remove from heat and cover in a bowl so the juices don’t evaporate.

Next, in the same Dutch oven (do not rinse the pot), add another two tablespoons of olive oil. Along with a sprig of rosemary, brown your cippolini onions for about 3–4 minutes with one sprig of finely chopped parsley, Maldon sea salt, and fresh pepper. Set aside in a bowl and and cover with plastic wrap. In the same Dutch oven (again, no rinsing!), turn up the heat to high, and brown the mushrooms for about 4–5 minutes. Set aside in a bowl, uncovered until ready to combine with the stew. Add two tablespoons of the finest chopped parsley.

In the still-unrinsed pan, brown the carrots and sliced onions over medium heat. Season lightly to taste with Maldon sea salt and pepper. Cooking time will be about three minutes. Add in the seared beef and its juices and stir for another minute. Combine the flour with melted butter and add it to the pot.

Add your liquids

Now it’s time to add your wine and stock, which should just cover the ingredients. Bring it to a boil, and immediately transfer the Dutch oven to your gas or electric oven for one hour. Before the last 40 minutes of cooking, add in the cippolini onions and continue to cook everything uncovered. Once the stew is nice and thick, add in the mushrooms for the last 10 minutes, and let the dish simmer.

In this version, you want to keep the liquid, but make sure that it’s nice and thick. Depending on how much the liquid thickens in the last 40 minutes, you may need to add additional roux, which is the flour-and-butter mixture you previously added that will thicken your sauce. In the end, your meat should come apart without a knife. Serve with the mashed potatoes, noodles, rice, or bread.

As they do at Joséphine Chez Dumonet, bring the Boeuf to the table bubbling and hot. You’ll enjoy the meat as much as the sauce.