Beef Bourguignon - Slow Cooked to Perfection!

Hi everyone welcome back, today I'm going to be making my slow-cooked beef bourguignon. The beef is cooked for four hours to ensure it's meltingly tender, it's a really delicious dish and it's great for when you've got company. We're going to start off by preheating the oven to 160 degrees c or 320 f and then we're going to cook the beef bourguignon in a cast iron ovenproof casserole dish, which is great because we'll start off on the hob and then we'll transfer it to the oven to finish off cooking. Add a tablespoon of vegetable oil to the pan and heat over a medium to high heat. Now we're going to fry off half a cup or 120 grams of diced pancetta. When that's done we're going to remove them from the pan with a slotted spoon. We're going to use that bacon fat to fry off some of the shallots and the beef. So I've hard some shallots here and I'm going to place them in the oil to brown lightly and then we'll use those as a garnish for later. When they're done we're going to remove them from the pan and put to one side with the bacon. Okay there should be about two to three tablespoons of oil left in the pan if not you can add a little more vegetable oil. I've got three pounds or a kilo and a half of braising steak here, really any type of casserole steak will do so chuck steak or skirt steak will work fine. Add three tablespoons of plain all-purpose flour and a quarter of a teaspoon each of salt and pepper to the beef and mix together to coat. Now add the beef to the pan in batches to brown. It's important to cook the beef in batches because we want to get that lovely colour on it and ensure it's sealed all over. When it's all browned off we're going add all the beef back into the pan and start layering up those flavours. Add in a tablespoon of tomato puree, next in goes a whole bottle of red wine, you can use any type of red wine that you like for this, I'm using a Shiraz because I like the taste and it's pretty inexpensive at about seven pound or nine dollars a bottle. Next in goes a cup or 240 ml of beef stock, add in some whole shallots about 12 to 14 and then about 15 to 20 chantenay carrots or you can use four medium carrots that have been washed and roughly chopped. I'm also going to add in two cups or 150 grams of roughly chopped mushrooms, then we add two bay leaves and a teaspoon of dried thyme, give everything a stir and bring it to the boil. Once it comes to the boil turn off the heat and place the lid on the pan and then we move it to the oven to cook for three hours. You're going to want to check a couple of times during the cooking process just to make sure the bourguignon isn't cooking dry, if it is you can just stir in about half a cup of water, the aromas from that are going to have your guests salivating as they walk through the front door. After three hours we're going to add the bacon lardons and fried shallots. Place the lid back on and then back in the oven for 10 more minutes. And that's how to make my rich and comforting beef bourguignon. I'm serving mine with creamy mashed potato.