A couple of days ago I was talking about Christmas Eve at my house and that I serve Beef Burgundy for dinner.  So I decided to share this recipe with all of you who read my blog.

This recipe is my mother-in-law’s recipe.  She would serve this when my sister-in-law and her family would come to visit for the weekend from Gettysburg and we were all there to eat.  She was a fantastic cook and an immaculate housekeeper until she developed Azheimers disease.  Just about anything she made was delicious, and I learned a lot about cooking, and canning from her.

She and my father-in-law moved in with us in 2001 and lived with us until Dad passed away in 2002.  He was Mom’s thread to reality and after he was gone, she went away from us (mentally) very quickly.  She is now 88 years old and lives in a very nice nursing home for Alzheimer’s patients just about 5 miles away from us.  We go visit her every week but more for our sake than for hers, because she doesn’t know us.

Sorry for my rambling, I just wanted to give a little background about this recipe.  Anyway, here it is:

Ruth’s Beef Burgundy

• 2 pounds beef cubed (about 1 inch cubes)
• 8 small onions peeled and quartered
• 1/4 cup margarine
• 2 cups Burgandy wine  (make sure it is a gluten free variety)
• 1 cup water
• 1 can sliced mushrooms (I don’t like mushrooms so I leave them out)
• reserve the liquid from the mushrooms (if you use them)
• 1  1/2 teaspoons of salt
• 1/8 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 2 Bay leaves
• 2 cloves of Garlic crushed or put through a press

Brown Beef cubes and onions in margarine.  Add wine, water, mushrooms, mushroom liquid, salt, pepper, sugar, bay leaves, and garlic.  Simmer covered for 1 1/2 to 2 hours or until meat is tender.  Stirring occationally.*

Before serving, thicken with your favorite gluten free thickener.  I use my all purpose rice flour mixture and water.

*If you want to use a slow cooker or crockpot:

Brown the beef cubes and onions in margarine in a skillet, then transfer to the crockpot and add all the rest of the ingredients and cook on low 8 to 10 hours.

This recipe as is serves 6, but can easily be doubled for larger families.

Serve over either rice or gluten free noodles.

In my opinion, this recipe is better the longer it cooks.  I hope you enjoy it as much as my family does.  Happy Holidays.

Mary Blackburn

Living Gluten Free