Beef Bourguignon: Easy Slow Cooker Recipes

Beef Bourguignon

 

[caption id="attachment_2274" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Beef Bourguignon - Click To Enlarge"][/caption]

This week I am making Beef Bourguignon in a slow cooker. I was at work all last week wondering what it was that I was going to make for my next weeks video. You know as a foodie I am surrounded by a world of food and there are still times when I kick myself in the head wondering what the heck I am going to make for the coming week. This week I was saved by a guy named Paul in the East Coast of England who sent me a private message on my Youtube channel and just asked a basic question. "Hows about a slow cooker recipe?"

I wrote him back saying C'mon you just throw a piece of meat and some spuds and such in the crock and there it is your easy slow cooker recipes! He replied to me that he is now only getting into cooking and that he's been living off of fast food and his George Foreman grill for years and now he wants to improve his diet and cooking skills. So I gave it some considerable thought and decided that I just wasn't going to throw a chicken in the crock pot with veggies and go from there.

I decided to cook Beef Bourguignon in a slow cooker. Now there is only one Beef Bourguignon recipe out there and that belongs to Julia Child in her classic book "Mastering The Art Of French Cooking." Well I was going to build my Beef Bourguignon recipe and adapt mine from hers. There are many easy slow cooker recipes out there but this one is special because Beef Bourguignon is a classic French dish and I was asked by someone to do this and so I wanted to make something special.
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My Beef Bourguignon recipe will NOT be an exact copy of the classic by Julia Child. My recipe will have some subtle changes. One of the layers of flavor that I will be putting into this Beef Bourguignon recipe is a charred half of onion. Another changes is I am not going to be using "lardons" or blanched bacon to spice my sauce. Rather I am going to be using some French Andouille sausage in it's place as this adds a different spice set to the Beef Bourguignon. I will also be using some Cognac to fortify the red wine and some baby yellow potatoes at the end as well. So let's watch the video for my Beef Bourguignon one of my new favorite easy slow cooker recipes!

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Knife Sharpening: Sharpening On A Whetstone: The Western Stroke

Knife Sharpening

 

This week I am back to doing a Knife Sharpening video. For a very long time now I have been getting tons of private messages and emails asking me to do some moreKnife Sharpeningvideos. So this week I am going to sharpen a kitchen knife for you and I am going to be using a stroke that I call the "Western Style" stroke of Knife Sharpening!

I will be sharpening my 8 inch Japanese kitchen knife on a series of DMT diamond plates and finishing the blade on ceramic stones and a black surgical Arkansas whetstone. I have said before that there is no mystery to sharpening and I still say that today! I have in other Knife Sharpening videos said that there are many ways to sharpen a knife but not all of those ways is the best way to perform Knife Sharpening. On the other hand I will also repeat myself here and say that not all sharpening mediums will sharpen all knives and not all knives can be sharpened on just one sharpening medium type. In other words as an example a knife made of a really hard Japanese steel like Aogami Super which Rockwell tests at 70RC will not necessarily get sharpened correctly on traditional Arkansas whetstones. This is why I use diamond sharpening plates because diamonds are the hardest thing on the planet and they will sharpen just about any knife on the market!

I will start sharpening on a DMT 220 grit diamond plate then a DMT 325 diamond plate then a DMT 600 grit diamond plate, a DMT 1200 diamond plate and eventually I will move on to Spyderco ceramic stones at 1800 and 2200 grit respectively to polish the edge of my knife to a keen edge. Then I am going to break out my surgical black Arkansas whetstone and do a final polish on it and voila' we are done! So sit back and watch this Knife Sharpening video and enjoy!

Pasta Salad Recipe: Soba Noodle Recipe? Soba Noodle Salad!

Pasta Salad Recipe

 

[caption id="attachment_2213" align="alignleft" width="300"] Pasta Salad Recipe: Soba Noodle Salad - Click To Enlarge[/caption]

This week I am going to be doing something with some Japanese buckwheat noodles called Soba Noodles. I am going to make a Soba Noodle recipe that is a Thai inspired Soba noodle recipe. This is a very easy pasta salad recipethat can be made in minutes and is delicious and healthy to eat! I am doing this recipe for a reason. It's spring time again and the weather if finally warming up into the eighties. That means that it is time for social gatherings and friends and food! Time to breakout the old barbecue grill again! I love summer gatherings with friends because it is a really great way to relax and catch up with each other that we don't normally get to do because of our busy workaday world and hectic lifestyles. The best part of the parties whether they are here at my place or at a friends is that everyone makes something to bring! It's generally the usual fare like steaks for burgers or chicken made of course in many ways. Then there are the side dishes like potato salad, coleslaw and pasta or macaroni salad.

It's the macaroni or pasta salad recipe that brings me to this weeks Soba noodle recipe. so as stated this week I am going to make a pasta salad recipe with an Asian flair or Thai style to this Soba noodle recipe. The Soba noodles are Japanese but I'm going to make this pasta salad recipe using Thai flavors although for the most part many dishes of Asian culture are so very interchangeable to begin with and that is why I LOVE Asian food! You see to me regular old macaroni salad recipe or pasta salad recipe is just to darn "pedestrian" and boring and you find them at all the gatherings and it never really changes. This Soba noodle recipe will change the way you look at and make your pasta salad recipe for your social events in the future. You can make this pasta salad recipe with just about anything you have in your refrigerator which is a good thing because it doesn't need to always be "Asian" in style and you can add whatever vegetables you have on hand and you can also decide whether or not to make this pasta salad recipe vegetarian or not as well! If you don't have Soba noodles on hand you can use whole grain or whole wheat pasta as well! It's all good! I’ve made this pasta salad recipe or some variation of it for countless parties and barbecues, and I almost always get asked for the recipe.

From what I am to glean Soba noodles are a good choice for this pasta salad recipe especially if you are trying to go or need to go gluten. Soba noodles are made from buckwheat and have a nuttier flavor than other pastas but I would check the ingredients on the back of the package to make absolutely sure as there are many brands out there. There is also the option of using wheat free soy sauces if you need to go gluten free as well and some of the liquid amino acids out there would make a good substitute for the soy sauce. I use a brand of Tamari sauce that is gluten free so if you can't find the amino liquid just go to you market and find some Tamari. This Soba noodle recipe is by no means a main course! It is a side dish although I am sure if you eat a big enough plate you could call it a main course. This pasta salad recipe goes great as a side dish to homemade sushi or just about any meat main dish.

Asian have certain criteria when it comes to foods, herbs and spices and in Japan it's not different. Soba noodles are used in a myriad of ways like the way I am using them. In other words Soba noodles are eaten cold in the summer(although this is not writter in stone for all Japanese.)And eaten hot in the winter like in soups or hot in a soba noodle recipe of some kind. I like the nutty flavor of Soba noodles and I always buy the big 18 serving box to have on hand to make ramens and other hot pasta recipes. Try this Soba noodle pasta salad recipe and work with it and make it your own way. Let's check out the video! Enjoy!

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