Begin by patting your beef dry, then cut it into 1 inch cubes and liberally season the pieces won all sides with salt and pepper.
Turn on your Crock-Pot® Express Pressure Cooker and put it into sauté mode. As the pot is heating up, cut your bacon into small pieces. When the pot has reached temperature, add the bacon and cook until crispy. Once crispy, remove bacon and place on a paper towel. Leave the rendered bacon fat in the pot.
With your Crock-Pot® Express Pressure Cooker still in sauté mode, place the beef in the bottom of the pot, but only do a few pieces at a time. Make sure each piece of beef has room around it. This will allow the beef to develop a nice crust and will add depth and richness to flavour of your final product. Brown at least two sides of each piece and remove from pot. Repeat this step until all of your beef had been nicely browned. Place the cooked beef in a small bowl in order to capture any juice that drip off… you’ll want every drop of this to go back into the pot when the time comes.
Peel and slice your onion and begin to sauté them in the pot. Once the onion becomes translucent, add your carrots and sauté. While the carrots are cooking, roughly chop 3 cloves of garlic and add them to the pot. Stir everything together and sauté for 5 minutes.
Cut your fingerling potatoes, lengthwise, into quarters then clean your mushrooms. Beside to wipe the mushrooms but do not rinse them. They will absorb water while washing and release it during the cooking process. This additional water could prevent the Beef Bourguignon from thickening properly. After onions, carrots and garlic have cooked together for 5 minutes add the potatoes and mushrooms. Stir everything together.
To the pot, add beef broth, tomato paste, thyme leaves (remove them from the stem), 1 bay leaf and stir until everything is thoroughly mixed.
If there are drippings in the bowl that your beef is resting in, pour them into your pot. Mix the pieces of beef with 1/3 of a cup of flour and ensure that each piece is coated on all sides. The flour with help to thicken the sauce as it cooks.
Place your pieces of beef into the pot so that they sit on top of everything else. Add your wine to the pot until the pieces of beef are almost covered… allow the tips of the the pieces to just peak out of the liquid.
Place the lid on to your Crock-Pot® Express Pressure Cooker in the locked position. Ensure that the steam release valve is in the “closed” position. Now, simply press the Meat/Stew button and let the magic happen. Once pressure is reached the Meat/Stew feature takes only 35 minutes. Once the Meat/Stew program has finished, allow the Crock-Pot Express Pressure Cooker to slowly reduce pressure for 10 minutes before turning the steam release valve to open.
Once pressure has been reduced and you remove the lid, allow the beef bourguignon to cool for 8-10 minutes. As it cools, the sauce will thicken. Once it has cooled, add salt and pepper to taste and serve with fresh baguette.
