Grilled boeuf bourguignon

Or what I’d rather just call Beef Burgundy. Yeah, I know it sounds like a bit of a misnomer, but it’s not! I’ve had a bit of extra time to cook in the last week, so I decided to try this. My inspiration was my mom; she was cooking beef burgundy last week, and it sounded good.

My version was simplified a bit, so maybe it’s not a real beouf bourguignon, but it’s still good stuff! With it being so warm lately, I didn’t want to stand over a stove and heat up the house, so I started up the Big Green Egg, which is becoming more and more a part of any time of cooking I decide to do… This thing really is amazing!

My ingredients were pretty simple:

• 1 1/2 lb. sirloin steak
• 8 ounces button mushrooms
• 1/2 bottle dry red wine
• 2 tablespoons fresh rosemary
• 1 tablespoon fresh thyme
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 1 small package of egg noodles

I started by lighting a chimney of charcoal, then came back in side to season the steak with grey salt and black pepper, and to skewer the mushrooms. Once the fire was going, I put the steak and mushrooms on the grill. My goal in doing this was to cook the ingredients part way, to add caramelizing and some smokiness from the hickory in the fire.

 

I set the fire up in a 2 zone set up, with all the coals and wood piled up on one side. The reason for this is that I wanted to mostly sear the steak, then I put a sklllet on the fire to cook the sauce and a pan to cook the noodles I’d be using. The 2 zone fire gave the opportunity to move the pans around to simmer vs. boil.

Once the steak was seared, the mushrooms and steak came back inside to be cut for the final dish, and I got to use my fresh herbs for the first time. We recently planted some thyme and rosemary, so I snipped a bit off of each and chopped them up with a chef’s knife (I love my Shun chef’s knife!). I also cut the steak into bite sized pieces and quartered the mushrooms.

I had been letting some butter soften, so, before going back out the the grill, I mixed the butter and flour with a spoon. This does a couple of things when making a sauce. One is that it adds butter, which makes about anything just that much better. The other is that it smooths the flour and allows it to incorporate in the sauce without clumping.

So back out to the grill; I put a 14″ Calphalon skillet on the fire. I make sure to only use pots and pans that can take high heat on a grill; plastic handles and non-stick are not allowed on your grill!

After the skillet was hot, I added in the steak, mushrooms and herbs to finish cooking them, then removed them and deglazed the pan with the wine. After the wine started bubbling a bit, I also added the butter and flour, then added back the steak, mushrooms and herbs to simmer and thicken. I used a really nice Australian Shiraz with a touch of Viognier blended called Rock Gully.

Here’s where I goofed, though; I put a pot of water over the hot zone of the fire, but I should have done it sooner. It was just taking too long to boil, so I ended up finishing the noodles inside instead of on the grill. Had I put the pot of water on when I first started grilling, I could have had it boiling sooner.

As it was, everything worked out great. The trickiest part was just being careful carrying very hot pans outside and back in without 1. burning myself and 2. dropping dinner on the ground!