Nick Lees and Yardley Jones are very good friends who met through their love of running marathons. One is a newspaper columnist, and the other is a cartoonist. Together, they have quite the story to tell. They indulge us in this edition of Celebrity Chefs.

Nick and Yardley are gearing up for their next adventure. They will be cycling from Victoria to Edmonton in June to raise money for Kids with Cancer.

To check out some of Nick's recent columns, log onto http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/columnists/nick_lees.html

To learn more about Yardley's artwork, head to his website at www.yardleyjones.ca

Beef Bourguignonne

Marinate the meat overnight in the refrigerator overnight in dry red wine.  Drain and reserve wine for use in cooking the stew.  Preheat oven to 300F.

Put 1/2 lb. thinly sliced blanched salt pork in a frying pan over medium high heat.  Peel, add and saute lightly 12 small onions or 4 shallots.  Remove pork and onions from pan and reserve.  Cut 2 lb. lean, boneless stewing beef into 1-inch dice and saute in the hot fat until light brown.  Sprinkle meat with  1 1/2 T flour.  Place it in an ovenproof dish with 1t salt, 4 peppercorns, 1/2 bay leaf, 1 or 2 clove of garlic, 1/2t thyme or sweet marjoram. 

Using the reserved wine if you marinated the meat, bring to the boining point enough dry red wine and water to cover the meat (3/4 wine to 1/4 water).  Simmer covered in a 300F oven for two hours.  Place pork and onions on top of the meat and continue to simmer covered another hour or until beef is tender.  For the last 10 minutes of cooking, you may add 1 cup sauteed mushrooms.  Serve the stew sprinkled with chopped parsley.  Serve with French Bread, noodles, or mashed potatoes.

Nick's Wine Picks:

St. Francis Cabernet
Cedar Creek Pinot Noir
Berenger Merlot
D'Arenberg Love Grass Shiraz