Sunday Dinner
A recent effort. No formal instruction consulted ahead of time, just made up based on past experience.
1 package of stew meat (I used beef, pork would work, I don't know about chicken...might break down too much).
1 16 oz can of stewed tomatoes.
1 can of pitted black olives.
2 cups of beef stock (previously made from scratch).
1 large onion.
1 package of mushrooms, sliced.
Olive oil.
Salt and pepper.
1 bay leaf.
1 bottle of red wine.
1 skillet. 1 crockpot. 1 larger skillet or other stove top pot.
Turn on crockpot on high.
Slice onion. Warm skillet. Put in olive oil, warm, then onions (hot pan, cold oil, food won't stick).
When nicely done to your satisfaction (personal choice, from "translucent" to "carmalized"), transfer to crockpot. Open black olives, pour off liquid, place olives in crockpot. Open stewed tomatoes, pour into crockpot. Put in bay leaf. Pour in some red wine, maybe 1/3 bottle.
Next, put olive oil in skillet, salt and pepper stew meat, brown on all sides. Put into crockpot.
Mushrooms: Your choice of browning them or putting into crockpot.
Keep crockpot on high for one hour, then switch to low and as Alton Brown says, just walk away.
6+ hours later, transfer contents of crockpot into stovetop pot. Add more red wine. Put on low, low flame.
Two hours or so later, liquid will reduce quite a bit to a very rich gravy. Boil up some egg noodles, serve stew over egg noodles with good crusty bread, a nice green salad and the rest of the red wine.
You know - maybe it is a good thing I don't live closer...I would want to try all this wonderful food you are always cooking....I bet it would be counter productive to my diet...but good! We have to get the right name for you...Walter Jon Williams is the "Master of Meat", Steve Stirling is the "Master of Salad"....you are the "Master of ____".
-Patricia
It sounds good, but an extra step after everything is cooked in the crockpot? That's a little too much work. Or, at least, why not cook it in the pot from the start?
Posted by: owlish at March 6, 2008 08:12 PMYou could skip the crockpot. I mostly use it either when I prepare a meal in the morning when I work, or (in this case) when I want the slow cooking process to work on the meat and to really bring out the flavors.
I then finished it off on low heat because the one area where the crockpot fails is allowing you to boil down to a good sauce. The main reason it took two additional hours on the stove was that I had the flame down really low (the lowest setting it would go). That way I could do all those other chores that needed doing (wash, ironing, cleaning) without checking the pot constantly.
A lot of time, I experiment with techniques as well as ingredients. This was an experiment in using a very limited number of ingredients (on purpose) and to see how using mixed cooking methods might work.
Really, you could do the same thing in a lot less time...just use higher heat and watch things more carefully.
Pat, the Master of ??? Not sure!
Posted by: Fred Kiesche at March 6, 2008 09:13 PM