Marysville's Broke Gourmet Cooks Slow Cooker Beef Bourguignon for Halloween

Roy Mosby, a Marysville resident who runs the YouTube channel Broke Gourmet, has published a recipe for Beef Bourguignon in a Halloween-themed installment of his cooking series. The dish, described in his column as a French beef stew, is intended to serve three to four people.

The recipe calls for 2 to 2 1/2 pounds of beef chuck roast cut into 2-inch pieces, four slices of chopped bacon, one medium yellow onion, garlic, tomato paste, all-purpose flour, 1 1/2 to 2 cups of dry red wine, 1/2 to 1 cup of beef broth, dried thyme, bay leaves, carrots, 8 ounces of mushrooms, and 8 ounces of pearl onions. Salt, black pepper, and cooking oil are also required.

Mosby's method begins with browning the bacon in a skillet, then searing the beef in batches in the rendered fat. The onions are cooked in the same pan for four to five minutes, followed by garlic for 30 to 60 seconds. Tomato paste and flour are stirred in, then the wine is poured in to scrape up the browned bits from the pan, followed by the beef broth, which is simmered for three to five minutes.

The sauce is poured over the beef and bacon in a slow cooker, along with the thyme and bay leaves. The appliance is covered and set to low for six to eight hours. Carrots are added after two and a half to three hours of cooking. Mushrooms and pearl onions are sautéed separately in oil or butter, then folded into the slow cooker during the last 10 to 30 minutes.

Mosby wrote that he opted to use a slow cooker because his oven is small. He noted that he held off adding the mushrooms and pearl onions until near the end so the vegetables would retain their appearance on the plate. The dish was served over mashed potatoes.

Mosby added in a note accompanying the recipe that slow cooker timing varies with the size of the beef pieces and the appliance used, and that the beef is ready when it yields easily to a fork.