Julia Child's Beef Bourguignon in a Pumpkin!

Every Fall, we make some sort of stew in  a pumpkin.  It has become a rite of passage for us and and our friends. Last year we made French Chicken Stew in the pumpkin.  This year my husband wanted to make Julia Child's Beef Bourguignon again.  We had made it several years back, but that was BNC, before new camera, so I redid the pics and and post. Ever since he got Julia's cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, he will only make Julia's recipe for beef stew.

First, you cook your stew recipe on the stove or in the oven, and then place the stew in a cleaned out pumpkin, rubbed with oil.  Be sure that the pumpkin that you buy, will fit in your oven.  You bake the pumpkin and the stew, just until the pumpkin is soft inside, so when you scoop out the stew, you get a spoonful of baked pumpkin, about two hours.  Do not over bake!  The bottom of the pumpkin gets done sooner than the sides. The stew just stays warm in the pumpkin. Yum!  This is the best way to eat stew in the Fall, is a wonderful presentation, and gets rave reviews.

If you are making Julia's recipe, be aware that it is a lengthy process, but well worth it.  The depth of flavors is remarkable, and you will savor every bite!  Scott did the sub-recipes for the Brown-Braised Onions and one for the  Mushrooms Sauteed in Butter the night before. He used Angus trimmed Beef Stew meat for the stew. Cooking these two vegrtables separately, gives the juices a deep brown color, which is enhanced with red wine. The meat is browned separately in the bacon drippings , then combined with sauce ingredients and baked for 2-3 hours in the oven. then the mushrooms and onions are added to the stew We added more carrots to the recipe, because we like carrots.  That is the only change we made to Julia's recipe.  We served boiled, Baby Red Potatoes with Parsley on the side. on the side.  Bon Appetit.

 

Now if you don't have the time to make Julia's recipe, or you don't want to,  here is the original recipe that we started making several years ago, Pumpkin Stew from Taste of Home.  This recipe adds potatoes and diced tomatoes, a basic stew recipe, but very good none the less, and less time consuming.  You're the cook,so you can decide which version of stew you like, and you won't be disappointed with either one. You could also make chili in the pumpkin, mmm maybe next year, chili!

I linked up this recipe to Steph's Bite By Bite, All Things Pumpkin Link Up

 I also linked up my recipe to Brandie@The Country Cook's Weekend Potluck #39
Stop by and say Hi to Brandie!