Cooking with Julia Child
Days Left: 358
Recipes To Go: 590
Dinner:
Julia Child (Volume I ~ Mastering the Art of French Cooking)
Saute de Boeuf a la Bourguignonne ~ Beef Saute with Red Wine, Mushrooms, Bacon, and Onions p. 326 - 327
Buttered Rice III p. 531
(***Includes small braised onions on p. 481 and sliced, sauteed mushrooms on p. 513 for the beef dish)
I was going to bake an Custard Apple Tart for dessert, saw Julia's short crust recipe and chickened out. I need time to jump in, read a recipe 6 times to make sure I understand everything I am reading, then know I can relax (key word here, relax when baking ...okay, several words) and just let the baking juices flow. Anotherwords, the night is getting late and I just don't feel like it any more.
I enjoy Julia's food (so far, and there have been a few scary moments) but the steps to get to the end result have me asking my hubby, my daughter, Rocky (our Retriever) did I read this right? Is this suppose to taste like this right now? or like tonight: I bought the wrong cut of meat, didn't I? Oh God! I did! I bought mock tenderloin (fancy way for advertising to relabel chuck roast steak) instead of fillet of beef tenderloin. All the steps, all the flipping pages back and forth to braise onions, then flipping over to the recipe for sliced, sauteed mushrooms, only to discover that the meat (flash cooked in butter of course) is still suppose to be a flavorful cut, just tough. I am getting blow-by-blow accounts from hubby who now has his laptop going in the living room and is reading to me while I panic over ruining a dish that is a close 2nd to the beouf bourguignonne in the movie. Lucky for me, I am doing a variation to the movie bourguignonne and still have the original dish to do. I think for the real beouf bourguignonne, I will call ahead to have a cow prepped just before I get to the butchers.
The rice was a hard dish to prepare. Maybe because the deflation of morale has already started or maybe because the night is getting late (time seems to be flying), I don't know. 
While the rice is blanching, melt the butter with the seasonings in the casserole over the boiling water, and prepare the round of waxed paper. As soon as the rice has been rinsed in hot water, turn it into the hot casserole and fluff it with a fork to blend with the butter and seasonings. Lay the paper over the rice, cover the casserole, and set it, still in its pan of boiling water, in the lower portion of the preheated oven. Bake for 20 to 30 minutes or until the rice is tender. Fluff it with a fork. Correct seasoning. 
First, I have to share the newest learned technique I love. 
I learned how to blanch bacon; Julia calls for smoked bacon and references p. 15 to say that smoked bacon is usually fresher than salt pork and blanching will take the smoky flavor out. There is still a little smoky flavor left from the bacon used in this recipe but not tasted in the beef dish.
