Gluten-Free Slow Cooker Beef Bourguignon

Gluten-Free Slow Cooker Beef Bourguignon

This was the dish that destroyed my gluten-free resolve when I was in Paris. I had been there for about five days when I tried it. I had been dutifully eating salads, skewers of meat and other dishes that had a 98 percent chance of being gluten-free, but the saucy deliciousness of beef bourguignon as I know it in the states is one of my favorites. Since I know enough about cooking to understand that most stews with a thick, gravy-like sauce are made with flour, I really should have stayed away. But I rationalized: at least this iteration was served with steamed potatoes instead of noodles. Maybe, just maybe, it would be okay.

It was delicious. It was one of the best meals I have ever had in my life. I ordered it at the sidewalk café of a restaurant whose name I will never remember, somewhere on a back street a few blocks from the right bank of the Seine, near St. Michel and the Latin Quarter.

Our server brought me my own little copper pot, with its own lid, filled with this insanely delicious stew. The beef came in larger chunks than you would expect to find in a stew, but they were so tender, you could cut them with the side of a spoon.  Two whole, steamed potatoes swam in the broth along with the meat and some sliced carrots, but there were no other discernable vegetables. Even if you could not see the other veggies, you could taste them. They were in there, but the chef had gone to the effort of straining the sauce or possibly pureeing it before replacing the beef and potato in it.

I can’t describe the level of food ecstasy we experienced with this dish. It was everything we strive to avoid in our daily healthy living efforts: fatty, salty, and red-meaty. Not only that, I knew that velvety texture was achieved through wheat gluten. And I ate it anyway. I confess that the luscious sauce was so addictive that I did the unthinkable—the thing I actually have nightmares about—I ate a half a slice of authentic, wheat-laden, wonderful bread in an effort to ingest every particle of sauce that remained in the copper pot.

Did I pay for my transgressions? Of course I did. I will spare you the details.

But fortunately, now that I am home, I have returned to my test kitchen and have been able to produce a delicious facsimile of that utopian meal, with no harmful after-effects.

This dish takes time. Of course it is possible to find short-cut beef bourguignon recipes. But if you’re going to do that, you might as well just buy a Lean Cuisine out of the freezer section. In this case (as in many others) it’s worth it to go big or go home. We can’t reproduce every flavor of this dish in the US, because we don’t have the same French cows raised on the same diet, or even the same tap water, but my home-made rendition was pretty delicious, anyway.

For full flavor, start this dish a day ahead of time. Marinate the meat the full 24 hours in the fridge before cooking. Choose a good-quality, luscious red wine like a pinot noir or Beaujolais. Follow each of the steps, browning the meat separately, straining the vegetables, and sautéing them separately.

Although this is slow food, most of the time is hands-off, so you can be reading, sleeping, working out, learning to dance, or watching Game of Thrones.

Gluten-free Slow-Cooker Beef Bourguignon

Adapted from Joy of Cooking

2-3 lbs boneless chuck roast, cut into 2-inch cubes

Place the meat in a 13x9 in. Pyrex/glass cake pan deep enough to contain the meat & marinade. Add:

2 cups dry red wine. (I used a California Pinot Noir)

¼ cup olive oil

1 onion, chopped (I used a Vidalia)

1 carrot, chopped

1 garlic clove, pressed or chopped

1 bay leaf

2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

1 tsp chopped fresh thyme

1 tsp black pepper

½ tsp salt

Stir the meat to combine the meat & marinade. Cover and refrigerate for 24, turning the meat and stirring once or twice during the process.

Gluten-free beef bourguignon marinade

About 6 hours before you plan to eat, remove the beef from the marinade (SAVE THE MARINADE AND ALL THE VEGGIES) and place the beef cubes on a stack of paper towels. Turn the meat to pat dry. This will help the meat brown better.

Set a strainer over a bowl, and pour the marinade through the strainer, reserving the vegetables and liquid separately.

In a large skillet over medium heat, cook

4 ounces bacon, cut into 1-inch slices

Remove and reserve the bacon. Leave the fat in the pan. Over medium heat, brown the beef on all sides, working in batches and being careful not to overcrowd the pan. When the beef is browned, place it in your slow cooker. Once all the beef is browned, sautee the reserved vegetables from the marinade until browned, about 5 minutes. Remove the vegetables to the slow cooker.

To your reserved liquid marinade, add

½ cup good-quality beef broth

2 tbsp gluten-free corn starch

Whisk quickly to combine. Pour the liquid into the medium-heat pan, and stir until the sauce begins to thicken, about 5 minutes. Scrape the bottom of the pan to remove any burned bits. Pour the liquid into the slow cooker. Add:

2 cups small boiling (pearl) onions, if you can find them. I could not, so I used a chopped Vidalia onion.

Cover and set the slow cooker on low if your choices are low/high. Medium if you have that option. Allow to cook for about 5-6 hours, until the meat is fork tender. Add:

2 cups sliced button mushrooms

Cover and continue to cook for another 20 minutes, while you prepare mashed potatoes to catch all the delicious sauce. When ready to serve, add ¼ cup chopped fresh parsley and salt and black pepper to taste.

Luscious GF Quiche

Spinach, red pepper, onion and feta quiche

This is a luscious, crumbly-crust, whole-egg, cheesy and satisfying quiche that works great with a wide variety of fillings, is very forgiving of mistreatment, and can be cooked ahead of time. It's a nice dish to take for a lunch, brunch, breakfast or tea. It holds up relatively well, but the exposed parts of the crust will shatter easily, so pack it protectively in a pie box if you are taking it somewhere.

I strongly recommend using the food processor for this crust, but you can also use a pastry blender to cut in the fat.

For the crust
You can use Bob's Red Mill gluten-free pie crust mix OR, you can make your own pie crust with the following recipe (makes two pie crusts. If you are only making one quiche, halve the recipe).

2 1/2 cups white rice flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
15 tablespoons cold butter (that's two sticks minus one tablespoon). Cut each stick of butter into about 16 cubes

6 tablespoons ice water

In the bowl of a food processor with the cutting blade at the bottom, combine the rice flour, salt and butter cubes. Pulse about 10-15 times until the mixture takes on the texture of small pebbles or coarse sand.

Pour 6 tablespoons of ice water into the food processor bowl, one tablespoon at a time.

Pulse the mixture until it comes together in a ball.

Turn out the ball of dough onto a sheet of plastic wrap or wax paper. Wrap the dough tightly and refrigerate for half an hour.

Divide the dough into two equal parts. Shape each into a disk about five inches in diameter. Working with one disk at a time, place the dough between two sheets of plastic wrap and roll it out until it's about 10 inches in diameter, or large enough to cover your pie plate.

Peel off one sheet of plastic wrap, and place the dough exposed-side down in a pie plate. Remove the other sheet of plastic wrap and fit the crust into the pan. Flute the edges with your fingers. Prick the bottom of the crust about 15 times with a fork, and precook the crust in a 425F oven for about 15 minutes. (Note: I would ordinarily line the pie shells with tin foil and fill with pie weights or beans when I pre bake, but the foil tends to stick to a GF crust. If you do line the crust with foil, be sure to grease it first)

For the quiche
You can fill a quiche with just about anything, but below are a few suggestions. If you are using fresh vegetables, be sure to cook them first or they will shed their water into the egg mixture, preventing it from setting properly.

Lay the filling in the bottom of the crust, then pour the egg mixture on top.

• Spinach, red pepper, onion and feta cheese: Sautee one small diced onion and a small diced red pepper until the onions turn translucent. Add about 1 cup fresh chopped spinach and cook until the spinach wilts. Pour the vegetables into the bottom of the crust. Add about 1/8-1/4 cup feta cheese.



Ham & Cheese Quiche

• Ham and cheddar: dice about 1/3 cup ham and place in the bottom of the crust. Sprinkle on about 1/8-1/4 cup cheddar.

For the egg filling:

In a large bowl, whisk together 4 eggs, 2 cups of milk (or half and half, or cream) and 1/4 tsp black pepper. Pour the egg mixture over the filling in the pie crust.

Bake

Pop the quiche into a 350F oven and bake for 30-40 minutes, until the top is golden brown.

Picky party planning

My family is a haven for picky eaters. My niece and brother-in-law are lactose intolerant. She and my daughter are vegetarians. My sister and I are gluten-free. My husband is salt-sensitive and my daughter eats almost nothing. Trying to figure out what everyone can eat is sort of like a logic puzzle: Mary has twice as many apples as John, and John has three more apples than Jim, but Troy can't work on Saturdays and Betty Lou is afraid of trains. What is the square root of the number of Suzanne's music collection?

Over the years, I have learned a few things about planning for picky parties and I would like to share these tips with you. (By the way, I do not mean to disparage people with food allergies, sensitivities or preferences by calling them "picky." It's a term of affection, and I use it for myself as well as anyone else--so please don't think I am making light of a serious food condition.)

Picky party planning

• Offer a variety. This is generally true for any party, but especially where you know your guests have food preferences or allergies. I have heard of parties where the whole theme is "bacon," and every dish, including dessert, incorporates salty pork in some way. Although that's fine in certain circumstances (and when your guests know what to expect), in general, it is a good practice to plan a range of flavors, textures and ingredients. Offer something meaty, something vegetabley (I just made that word up) and something fruity.
• Encourage guests to bring a dish to share. Chances are, your guests understand their food preferences better than you do. Encourage your guests to bring something to share with others, especially if they have stringent dietary needs. A vegan, for example, can bring a lovely bean salad that everyone can sample. This not only allows the guest to rest assured they will be able to eat at least one thing at the party, they will also be able to share their vegan cooking prowess with others, and educate people that being vegan does not require eating tree bark exclusively for the rest of your life.
• List ingredients on a card. Here’s a tip I learned from working at a hotel event center: Take a few minutes to print up cards that not only say what the dish is, but also what is in it. You don’t have to list every trace ingredient, but definitely call out the big-ticket food preference/allergy items like meat, dairy, egg, wheat and nuts. For example you can type up a label that reads, "Baked Stuffed Shells: Wheat pasta, ricotta and mozzarella cheese, egg, tomato, salt, pepper, ground red pepper." Our hotel used to print these up on card stock in a big, flowy font. Then we would fold them like place cards and set them in front of the dish. The cards can also help you arrange your buffet before guests arrive: if you set out the cards first, you know that you have a place for everything and you can see if you forgot to set out the cranberry sauce because there will be a card without a corresponding dish.
• Keep food simple and separate. Although glossy food magazines and TV shows may make us feel like we need to spend hours and lots of money making complicated dishes, simple foods are less expensive and easier to prepare. Fresh foods taste better.  For example, our appetizers are usually cheese and crackers, grapes and apple slices, tangerine sections, carrots and celery with dip, and other simple items. For a main course, we offer something like a ham or a turkey and simple side dishes.

If you have tips for planning parties for picky people, I’d love to hear them. Please share in the comments!