Boeuf Bourguignon Take 2

It’s a long story.

People says the famous Julia Child’s Boeuf Bourguignon is very complicated to do, but since I like cooking so much, I don’t mind going through a little trouble to do it. I made it and took it to my in-laws’ house for Auntie 10’s farewell dinner. We ended up having too much food so we had to take the stew home. Don’t misunderstand, it tasted good, just that other food were made by another aunt and those were expensive dishes, of course we had to eat those first.

Here’s the main part of the story: When Ho took the pot out from the car, he tripped over the stairs at the garage and spilled the whole thing! I mean, not a single drop left. It was midnight, the 2 of us had to pick up the beef, drive the car out, wash the floor, etc. It was 12:30am. I went back to the kitchen to continue packing Adrian’s lunch, leaving Ho outside to do the final tidy up. Suddenly I heard a big bang on the door. I opened the door and saw him in pain with blood on his leg. He tripped again! I dropped everything to help him clean the wound, then went out to the garage again to brush the water out ensuring no raccoon will come for my stew. When I finished, it’s 1:30am.

I wasn’t upset about the spill, I was actually worried why Ho could be so tired to trip himself twice. I also felt that it was a waste without others tasting it. Luckily I didn’t put all ingredients in the stew because we had too much food. I made the stew again the next day (that`s why my title of this post calls it "Take 2") and invited D over for dinner. I like having friends over. It’s in my genes, my mom used to host big dinner gatherings all the time. Of course, we can’t do that frequently because of our small house size, besides, I have to admit that I don’t really know how to do housework. It’s embarrassing to say that we can only invite close friends who can stand our messy place to come.

After making the dish twice, I realize how important the wine is.  At first I used a bottle of red wine we got from a wedding.  The stew was a little sour so I adjusted the taste with some rock sugar.  The second time I used a red wine given to us by a friend.  The sourness was gone. 

Since I modified Julia’s recipe to simplify the steps, it will take me some time to type the recipe. I have to post it later.