red wine – Simply Delicious: The Cookbook Project

8-10: Beef Bourguignon

Jamie Martin Group 08: Beef, Section 2: Main Courses September 15, 2022September 15, 2022all-purpose flour, bacon, bay leaves, beef, beef stew, black pepper, boneless, butter, carrots, chopped, chuck roast, cubed, dried herbs, Dutch oven, easy, egg-free, fairly inexpensive, French, garlic, herbs and spices, julienned, mushrooms, new book, pearl onions, peeled, red wine, roux, salt, sautéed, simmered, thyme, tomato paste, untested, yellow onions

I guess the best way to start this is…have you seen that Julie & Julia movie from a few years ago? If not, and you enjoy reading this blog (or even if you don’t), you DEFINITELY should go watch it. It’s essentially the idea that formed this website/project. In that movie, one of the featured Julia Child recipes is her Boeuf Bourguignon which is found in Mastering the Art of French Cooking, one of her most famous books and one of the most famous cookbooks in general.

With that being said, we come back to the fact that this is not a Julia Child cookbook project, it is a Simply Delicious one. So, I present to you Simply Delicious’ version of the dish: 8-10: Beef Bourguignon.

Simply Delicious isn’t wrong–this dish is essentially French beef stew (with a good amount of red wine in it). I’ve made Julia’s version a few times (let’s be honest, we ALL made it at least once after that movie came out), but I’ve yet to attempt the Simply Delicious version, mostly because it was a “new book” recipe and I didn’t know it even existed until a few years ago. Let’s see how they compare…

8-23: Beef Kebabs with Red Wine Butter

Jamie Martin Group 08: Beef, Section 2: Main Courses February 4, 2021February 4, 2021baked potatoes, beef, beef tenderloin, black pepper, boiled, broiled, butter, canola oil, chilled, chopped, compound butter, creamed, cubed, Dijon mustard, dinner, easy, egg-free, expensive, gluten-free, grilled, kebabs, parboiled, party food, pearl onions, peeled, red onions, red wine, salt, sausage, sirloin, skewered, untested, vegetable oil, wax paper

I can’t quite figure out if 8-23: Beef Kebabs with Red Wine Butter are supposed to be used for when you are serving fancy food in a casual situation (like a truffle and foie gras burger in Las Vegas) or casual food in a fancy situation (like food trucks at a wedding). I suppose this one could go either way, depending on the circumstances.

This recipe features not only kebabs, but a compound butter to serve with them. Simply Delicious is big on beef + compound butter–another example is 8-4: T-Bone Steak.

If you’re looking for some other types of kebabs/skewers for your hypothetical casual yet fancy grilling party, try 10-14: Lamb on Skewers or 9-23: Fruity Sausage Kebabs.

8-54: Beef Beignets

Jamie Martin Group 08: Beef, Section 2: Main Courses October 26, 2019July 2, 2020all-purpose flour, American, appetizers, batter, bay leaves, beef, beer, black pepper, Cajun, canola oil, chilled, chopped, coated, cooked beef, Creole, cubed, dairy-free, deep fryer, deep-fried, dinner, eggs, fairly easy, French, fried, garlic, hors d'oeuvres, inexpensive, leftovers, lunch, marinated, New Orleans, peeled, port wine, red wine, shallots, snacks, thyme, untested, vegetable oil

When I think of beignets, I think of New Orleans. ? I’ve never been to the real Café Du Monde in New Orleans, but I have been to the Mint Julep Bar in New Orleans Square at Disneyland which serves beignets (very delicious ones).

8-54: Beef Beignets are NOT like the ones at Disneyland or Café Du Monde–they’re more like Mongolian Beef before you toss it in sauce.

I looked around for similar types of recipes to confirm that this wasn’t just a Simply Delicious invention–and I really couldn’t find too many. There’s nothing wrong with battering beef and frying it–just don’t call it a beignet.

8-29: Marinated Flank Steaks

Adam Martin Group 08: Beef, Section 2: Main Courses February 1, 2018October 16, 2020allspice, basted, bay leaves, beef, beef bouillon, beef broth, broiled, butter, canola oil, carrots, celery, celery root, chopped, cornstarch, dinner, dried herbs, egg-free, fairly easy, fairly inexpensive, flank steak, garlic, gravy, herbs and spices, juniper, lunch, marinated, minced, mirepoix, mushrooms, port wine, red wine, scored, sliced, strained, thyme, untested, vegetables, yellow onions

Over the years I’ve made plenty of steaks, but I don’t have a lot of experience cooking flank steaks. Jamie grew up eating carne asada–but on the East Coast, we were eating Steak-Ums sandwiches. Not quite the same, but it got the job done. 8-29: Marinated Flank Steaks was a fun opportunity to cook this recipe and get familiar with cooking a different cut of beef that I’m used to.

I have some experience with marinades so this dish wasn’t too difficult for me to attempt. It is ranked Fairly Easy after all.

7-24: Cran-Glazed Pork Tenderloin

Adam Martin Group 07: Pork, Section 2: Main Courses December 28, 2016October 15, 2020autumn, black pepper, boneless, canola oil, Christmas, cranberries, cranberry sauce, dairy-free, dinner, dried spices, easy, egg-free, fairly inexpensive, fall, garlic, ginger, glazed, gluten-free, herbs and spices, lunch, minced, pork, pork tenderloin, red wine, salt, sautéed, sliced, Thanksgiving, untested, winter

Simply Delicious contains the best recipes for pork tenderloin. I particularly enjoy this preparation, 7-24: Cran-Glazed Pork Tenderloin, which uses cranberry sauce–my favorite part of the Thanksgiving (or Christmas) meal. ?

Pork and wine taste great when combined together. Instead of marinating the pork as in 7-18: Pork Tenderloin in Wine Sauce, the cranberry sauce and wine are put in the pan to create a sauce to coat the pork tenderloin in flavor. ?

7-18: Pork Tenderloin in Wine Sauce

Adam Martin Group 07: Pork, Section 2: Main Courses December 24, 2016October 16, 2020all-purpose flour, allspice, black pepper, butter, Christmas Eve, creamy, crushed, deglazed, dinner, dried spices, egg-free, fairly easy, fairly expensive, gravy, half-and-half, herbs and spices, juniper, marinated, pan-fried, pork, pork tenderloin, port wine, red wine, roux, salt, sautéed, sherry, strained, tenderized, untested, whipping cream, winter

Marinade is a “sauce, typically made of oil, vinegar, spices, and herbs, in which meat, fish, or other food is soaked before cooking in order to flavor or soften it”. Port wine is not an ingredient I normally keep in the house, but I have marinated a pork tenderloin before so 7-18: Pork Tenderloin in Wine Sauce shouldn’t be too much of a challenge.

Meat that soaks in a marinade comes out tender and delicious. Cooking with this method requires more preparation time. Leave the meat in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours for maximum tenderness. The minimum marinating time I recommend is around 1 hour. When I prepared this recipe, I tried to make it in one night, so the meat marinated in the refrigerator for only 2 hours.

11-7: Grilled Red Snapper

Adam Martin Group 11: Fish & Seafood, Section 2: Main Courses August 7, 2016October 27, 2020Asian, barbecue, broiled, cast-iron, dairy-free, dinner, dried herbs, easy, egg-free, fairly inexpensive, fish, fish bouillon, fish filets, fish stock, granulated sugar, green onions, grill pan, grilled, herbs and spices, Indonesian, leeks, lemon juice, lunch, marinated, olive oil, red snapper, red wine, rockfish, sambal paste, seafood, soy sauce, thyme, untested

Although I thoroughly enjoy eating fish, I don’t have a ton of experience in cooking fish. My father used to grill large-mouth bass that we caught on our summer fishing trips. This recipe, 11-7: Grilled Red Snapper definitely took me back to those times. ?

The recipe calls for Red Snapper, but I used the same technique with some Pacific Rockfish that we had on hand.

8-11: Sirloin Steak Baked In Foil

Adam Martin Group 08: Beef, Section 2: Main Courses July 20, 2016October 18, 2020beef, beef bouillon, beef broth, black pepper, blanched, boiled, broiled, butter, chopped, deglazed, dinner, easy, egg-free, fairly expensive, foil pouch, garlic, gluten-free, julienned, lunch, mushrooms, pan-fried, paprika, party food, red wine, salt, sautéed, sirloin, steak, untested, vegetables, yellow onions

I have never cooked steak using the method in this recipe, 8-11: Sirloin Steak Baked in Foil, before and I probably would never cook them this way again. I like all the extra garnish, but it is a pain to cut and prepare that many vegetables for people to pick around to get to the main ingredient, the BEEF. ?

I used the red wine suggestion on the card, but I felt like I should have used beef broth to keep the beef-y flavor. This recipe also keeps a trend going, sticking with the foil pouch cooking method that Jamie used in the previous recipe on here, 6-25: Salmon-Filled Chicken Breasts.

8-5: Beef Stew Provençale

Adam Martin Group 08: Beef, Section 2: Main Courses July 12, 2016October 4, 2020bay leaves, beef, beef stew, black olives, boneless, braised, butter, carrots, casserole, celery, chuck roast, crushed tomatoes, dinner, dried herbs, egg-free, fairly easy, fairly inexpensive, French, garlic, gluten-free, herbs and spices, julienned, linked, lunch, melted, pan-fried, parsley, Provençale, red wine, red wine vinegar, salt, sautéed, sirloin, slow cooker, stews, untested, vegetables

Editor’s note: AHOY-HOY to everyone visiting from HungryBrowser.com! If you’d like to know more about this site, please visit THE COOKBOOK PROJECT–it’ll tell you what this is all about. I’m not the only author on this site–my husband Adam wrote the post below (it’s kind of a teamwork thing–there’s a LOT of recipes in this book). Thanks for stopping by, and feel free to check out some of the other recipes we’ve done! — 11/01/17

Beef Stew – Another classic recipe that Simply Delicious cannot get quite right. This dish tastes delicious, but isn’t quite what I would consider a beef stew. It’s almost like a simple Boeuf Bourguignon.

I used a slow cooker instead of the oven for cooking this dish. I apologize that some of the photos are blurry from trying to shoot down into that very slow cooker. Without any other photos in focus, I chose to display some of them in this post just for posterity.

6-24: Mushroom-Almond Chicken

Jamie Martin Group 06: Poultry & Game, Section 2: Main Courses May 11, 2014June 17, 2020all-purpose flour, almonds, black pepper, braised, butter, chicken, creamy, dinner, egg-free, fail, fairly easy, fairly expensive, Glendale apt, lunch, melted, mushrooms, port wine, red wine, salt, sautéed, seared, simmered, sour cream, toasted, untested, whipping cream

6-24: Mushroom-Almond Chicken tasted okay, but looked…odd. I’m not sure why mine came out mauve, but there you go. The picture below is definitely not mauve. This recipe was cooked in tandem with 6-8: Curried Chicken, due to an abundance of chicken.

As I mentioned before, mine came out in a slightly mauve color, which doesn’t seem to be the case on the recipe card photo. I don’t know where I went wrong, but at least it was edible.