Boeuf Bourguignon

A couple weeks ago, I saw "No Reservations: Techniques". Anthony Bourdain made Boeuf Bourguignon (a very basic beef stew). I've never been a big fan of stew, but as a student of the culinary arts, I'm going to have to make and try a lot of things I'm "not a fan of". So, it looked taaasty and I decided that I would make it. Today, I had enough time to make it. So I did.

The meez (mise en place):
-Beef shoulder roast
-Carrots
-Onions
-Garlic
-Parsley
-Time
-Bay leaf
-Olive Oil
-Salt
-Pepper
-Dutch oven
-Wine (not pictured)

The idea is that you brown the meat:













Then you brown the onions. Add the wine. Put everything else in and simmer for a couple hours.

I'm not going to call it a full on "win", but it wasn't a "fail" by any means:













I've never had Boeuf Bourguignon before, but it pretty much tasted like pot roast? It's supposed to be fork-tender and some pieces were, but some pieces weren't. I can see now from the picture, that I didn't exactly do a bang up job on the skimming. I think I put in too much liquid, not enough vino, and I had the temp too low for most of the simmer. The Yukon Gold mashed potatoes were excellent though. I'll try this again soon and see if I end up with different results.