Beef Burgundy-ish

Coming from a place that produces some of the world's best beef (Canada AAA!), perhaps it should shame me to admit that I'm not much for beef. I can hear the collective gasp from my fellow Albertans. I'm not vegetarian/vegan, or any other variation of non-beef eater and I do eat beef on occasion, and today was just that occasion. I saw a recipe for Beef Burgundy in a magazine at a friend's house, and I could totally see myself eating it for dinner. It was moist and tender and flavourful and saucy and the perfect complement to the oven roasted root veggies on the side. That's the thing; if I'm going to eat beef, it has to be flavourful; it has to take on a flavour other than "beef" to floor this girl's palate. 

Beef Burgundy (slightly adapted from Good Housekeeping)

1 tbsp olive oil
~1 kg sirloin steak (original recipe calls for beef chuck, couldn't find it, and the butcher said this might work nicely; and it did :)), cut into chunks
 3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 medium Spanish onion, coarsely chopped
2 tbsp corn starch
2 tbsp tomato paste
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 1/2 burgundy cooking wine
3 sprigs fresh thyme (from my little herb pot!)
1 package mushrooms (crimini are quite nice, but button will work, too), sliced in half

1. Heat up the oil in a 5 quart Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Make sure to pat the beef chunks "dry", then add these to the Dutch oven and brown on all sides (you'll likely have to do this in batches). Once browned transfer the beef to a medium-sized bowl using a slotted spoon . Preheat your oven to 325 F.
2. You'll have drippings in the Dutch oven; add the garlic and onions to these and cook these until they are browned and tender (7-10 minutes). Stir in the corn starch, tomato paste, salt and pepper and cook for about 1 minute, while stirring. Add in the wine, and let it heat up to boiling. You'll want to be stirring to loosen up the browned bits from the pot. 
3. Put the meat back into the Dutch oven, along with your sliced mushrooms and thyme. Allow the mixture to reach boiling again. Then remove from the stove and pop into the oven for about 1 1/2 hours (meat should be fork tender at that point). Stir once in this  time frame.
4. Remove the thyme sprigs and discard. Plate up the beef with a side and dig in!