With the weather getting cooler, I tend to start using my Dutch oven a bit more.

You'll need a Dutch oven if you don't have one! All kinds of good stuff you can cook in those things.

A suggestion before you start: search Lancashire Hotpot to get an examples of the neat patterns people use with their top layer of potatoes. You'll see what I mean when you check out the photos.

Ingredients:

2 lbs. Lamb, cut into approx. 9 pieces

3 cups Beef broth

16 oz. Mushrooms, sliced or halved

6 Medium potatoes, thinly sliced

2 Medium onions, thinly sliced

2 carrots, chopped

2 Medium stalks celery, thinly sliced

Bouquet garni (I used thyme, savory, rosemary, parsley, rosemary)

2 Bay leaves

Herbes de Provence

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Prepare your ingredients beforehand, makes like a lot easier when cooking anything.

1. Collect the ingredients and prepare all vegetables. I know, I know, obvious right?

Well I don't do this half the time and I end up doing things in the middle of cooking when I should have had prep work done already.

I always check the discount bin at the butcher's counter. Found these at a great price.

2. Preheat oven at 380 degrees. For the first hour the hotpot is in the oven it will cook on high. After an hour reduce heat to 320.

3. Start layering your potatoes, vegetables, and lamb. Season as you go along with salt, pepper, and Herbes de Provence--be careful not to over season.

About halfway through layering add your Bouquet garni and bay leaves.

The top layer is supposed to be a layer of potatoes arranged in a fancy pattern. This potato layer will be browned after the dish is done.

Traditionally the top layer will be layer of potatoes, arranged in a fancy pattern. I just added the ingredients till I ran out.

4. Pour beef broth over the lamb and vegetables in the pot. If you haven't seasoned the hotpot, do so now. Cover the pot and place in the oven. Cook for 5-6 hours.

5. Remove hotpot from oven. Test meat to make sure it's tender and ready. When the meat pulls apart easily with a fork, you know it's done.

6. Crisp top layer of potatoes. Spritz olive oil or brush melted butter over the potatoes and broil, uncovered until potatoes brown and are slightly crispy.

Alternate method: I removed the potatoes from the hotpot and places them in a casserole dish. I then coated them and broiled separately from the meat and vegetables.

To plate...

...just put it on your plate and eat it.

Enjoy!

Something I love to make is Beef Bourguignon, it’s one of those comfort dishes that makes the whole house smell terrific and everyone loves to eat. I put the walk-through together when I was looking for recipes and tried some out for the first time. It was a little tricky for a first timer but not too bad. I based my recipe off of Laura Calder’s you can find here. Take a look at the recipe and the prep comments then jump in!

Prep:

Gather up all the ingredients, since this is a walk-through I’ll describe what I do at each step. I would probably be good to give the process a quick read before actually turning the oven on. This will allow you to get an idea what what to expect when you move along the with the recipe.
Basically cutting up anything you that needs cutting, do it first. You won’t really have the time, I guess this would all fall under mise en place (something I’m terrible at.)
It takes about 3 hours to cook this in the Dutch Oven.
You’ll see I said venison can be used, you should try it. The venison looses it’s gaminess and becomes very tender. Great way to cook lean meat.

Ingredients:

3-4 pounds Beef or Venison
3 Medium Carrots, roughly chopped
2 Large Onions, quartered
4-6 Cloves Garlic, just crushed
1/4 Cup Flour
1 Bottle Red Wine (buy an extra bottle for you to drink while you’re cooking)
1 Box of Beef Stock (4 cups)
1 Bouquet Garni (Thyme, Parsley, and Bay Leaf)
Bacon Fat or Olive Oil for cooking
Salt and Pepper

Garnish:

1 Package of Bacon, thick cut (cook this first if you need bacon fat)
2 12 oz Bags Pearled Onions (I use frozen)
16 oz mushrooms (I add about 20 oz

Let's Go!

The meat was trimmed of excess fat and I let it sit until it was at room temperature. Next step, browning the meat. Go ahead and warm up the oven. I set mine to 350 and I will be using a Dutch oven for the Bourguignon.

Bacon fat. Everyone has some sitting around the house right? You should if you don't. This is what I use to brown the meat.

I use the Dutch oven to brown the beef. All the bits and juices stay in the pot when it goes into the oven. Don't cook the meat all the way through, sear the outside to keep the juices in. Browning adds a ton of flavor to anything you braise. Salt and pepper to taste you go.

Ta-da! Browning is done, onto the braising vegetables.

After the beef has been removed, there is still enough bacon fat to brown the vegetables (add more or use olive oil.) I add about two onions, 2-3 medium sized carrots here, and 4-5 cloves of crushed garlic cloves. Cook a couple of minutes then add one bottle of red wine (I used the cheapest bottle of red I could find, $3) and a box of beef broth.

After I've stirred and scraped the bottom of the pot, I add the bouquet garni (garnished bouquet.) This is made up of thyme, parsley, and bay leaf. I had curly leaf on hand so that's what I used. I bind mine in cooking twine and toss it in. If you don’t have twine, wrap it in cheesecloth or just place it all in the pot loosely.

While prepping the vegetables the beef has rested, providing a delicious juice that should be added to the Dutch oven. Put the beef back into the Dutch oven, on top of the bouquet garni. Cover and place in the oven; set the timer for 3 hours.

I bought these potatoes at the local Asian market. $.99 a pound, great deal. They're going to be served with the Bourguignon. Slice them however you like. Since they're so pretty I'll leave the skin on.
I cut a little rosemary from the garden to season the potatoes. Pull off the leaf and chop.

I use a baking dish and mist with olive oil. Sprinkle a little salt in the dish and add the potatoes. Mist the tops of the potatoes with oil, salt and pepper, then add the chopped rosemary. Place in the oven with the Bourguignon.

Making the Bourguignon garnish. Heat up a skillet and let's get started.

Cut-up the whole package in 1-inch pieces and cook. Of course, save the bacon fat for browning the rest of the garnish.

I'm going to use about 20 ounces of mushrooms for the dish. We love mushrooms and I like to keep the pieces large and meaty. Brown in small batches, if you put too many in the pan they will sweat and steam instead of brown.

Once they're browned remove and we'll move on to the pearl onion.

Pearl onions can be pricey but I buy bags of frozen, store brand pearl onions. $1.00 a bag. I used 2 bags for this. I'll admit, I like fresh but these were on hand and much cheaper.

It's been about an hour, while the onions were browning I turned the potatoes. Mist the other side with oil, a little more salt a pepper. Back in the oven.

Back at the garnish station…I added about a cup of wine to deglaze the pan. You want all the bits and pieces from the pan as they add more flavor to what we're cooking. This is poured in with the bacon and onions previously cooked.

The finished garnish. We'll be adding to the Bourguignon towards the end of the process.

After about 3 hours the Beef Bourguignon is done with the oven. Remove the beef from the braising broth. I put the beef in with the garnish made earlier.

The beef should pull apart easily now.

Strain everything out of the broth.

I'll squeeze the vegetables out to get as much of the broth as possible. Add the broth back into the Dutch oven and bring to a boil on a burner. I'll add a little roux to thicken it up quickly.

The potatoes are done.

If needed, place the broth on the stove to about medium to medium-high heat to thicken. Make sure to stir so it doesn’t burn and thickens evenly. Once the broth has thickened, add the beef and garnish back into the pot. Let simmer for a several minutes, then remove from heat.

Plate and done!

Hope I was able to give you some useful pointers and you enjoy the the dish!

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