This Ina Garten Recipe Almost Made Jennifer Garner Light Her Kitchen on Fire
Ina Garten is a celebrity go-to chef, and it’s not hard to know why! Her Barefoot Contessa recipes are always delicious and easy to follow. Plus, they make any at-home cook feel like a professional chef by the end result, giving a little confidence boost. But, Jennifer Garner might have gotten a little too confident with one of Garten’s recipes.
The actress posted a video on Instagram as she cooked one of Garten’s recipes: her beef bourguignon from her cookbook Barefoot in Paris (Buy on Amazon, $15.69) The dish is a French beef stew that has you sear the beef and then bake it with all kinds of veggies as well as wine and liquor. Garner explained that it’s become a family tradition for her during Christmas as the mom of three has made it for years, even if she doesn’t know how it started.
“The thing about traditions — all you do to give them meaning is keep them. I don’t know when I started making Ina Garten’s beef bourguignon for Christmas, it was long enough ago that the smell of this perfect stew makes me feel happy, cozy, and relaxed,” she wrote in the post. But this year had a slight hitch as Garner doubled the recipe — and had a bit of a mishap.
As the video shows, it’s all going great for Garner until it’s time to add some cognac to the stew before it goes in the oven. The recipe calls for the cognac to be ignited so the flavor stays while the alcohol burns out. But, it didn’t go quite according to plan since Garner added a whole lot more of the liquor than Garten intended.
“This, dear reader, is cognac. Remember, we are doubling this recipe, I don’t know if we need all of this,” an unsure Garner says to the camera as she shows off a sizable portion of liquor. She pours it in anyway and lights it on fire, only to see flames shoot up three feet high. Garner’s shocked face says it all as her camera person quickly backs away. “A thousand pardons,” the actress says before issuing a clear warning: “Don’t double the cognac!”
Garner ends up pulling it together for a delicious stew in the end, and encourages anyone to try Ina Garten’s beef bourguignon. “Maybe this will make sense for your New Year’s Eve, but wherever this weekend takes you — we wish you a healthy, a joyful, and a peaceful New Year,” she says in her caption.
Just make sure to follow her advice and keep from lighting your kitchen on fire!
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