Meatballs Burgundy

Autrement dit, boulettes de viande à la bourguignonne. I made these again a couple of days ago. The first time I made meatballs in beef burgundy sauce was back in 2009 (time flies). Here's a link to that post. We like to buy a cut of beef and grind the meat ourselves, so we know exactly what we are eating. This time it was a roast cut from the basse côte, which I think would be called chuck roast in the U.S.

I won't go into the details of the recipe here. I just got up and the day has dawned. We have a much earlier sunrise now that the clocks have been set back to winter (standard) time. Callie will be wanting her walk in a few minutes. One more cup of tea, and I'll be outdoors.

Back to the meatballs. I think this is an excellent way to make bœuf bourguignon. It takes a few minutes to make the meatballs, but they don't need a lot of ingredients other than ground beef, salt, pepper, breadcrumbs, and eggs. The flavor is in the sauce. Actually, I used wheat semolina (100 grams for 800 grams of meat) instead of breadcrumbs in the meatball mixture this time, and that worked really well.

I like to brown the meatballs in the oven instead of frying them in a pan on top of the stove. It's a lot less mess. Arrange the meatballs in a baking pan, on a silicone cooking pad or parchment paper, and put the oven on high — 220ºC / 425ºF. Leave them in the oven just long enough to brown, and then put them in the red wine sauce to cook through.

I had some beef burgundy sauce in the freezer, left over from a few weeks ago. Meatballs don't have to cook nearly as long as stew beef, and there's no danger of them being tough or stringy. A few minutes before you're ready to serve them, add a dozen or more little mushrooms to the pan. Serve with pasta, rice, or boiled potatoes, followed by a big green salad.