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Food Thread: If You Like To Eat Well, The Technique And Extra Work Is Not Stewpid...

There is nothing complicated or special about beef stew. There are lots and lots of good recipes, and I am confident that you have a good one...probably from your mom or grandmother or your crazy aunt or maybe your college roommate.

Unfortunately for the home cook, there is extra work, and some of it is messy work to be had if you want to elevate that perfectly good stew to a different level. And even after the prep work is done, there is also a bit of work during the long and slow cook to make it just a bit better.

Yes, you can by cut up stew meat at the supermarket, dump it into a slow cooker with all of the other ingredients and you will get a reasonable meal at the end. But with just a little bit more work...

Like buying the beef chuck roast and cutting it and trimming it so there is no connective tissue and there is just enough fat and the pieces are uniform. And carefully searing it in bacon fat in small batches so it browns and doesn't poach. And sautéing the mirepoix (use grated carrots for extra flavor and cut everything else extra fine) to get some extra color and flavor.

What? You don't use homemade stock? Yeah...it really makes a difference, but I will grant that beef stock is a huge pain...much more difficult than chicken stock.

So use store-bought stock, but first grab that crappy bottle of red wine that you couldn't drink because holy smokes it was bad. But cooking it removes all of the evil humors and really adds to the stew. Use it to deglaze the pot and really cook it down.

I don't use potatoes in my beef stew because I tend to cook low-carb, but carrots are perfect! And yes, you have to add them about 30 minutes before the stew is done. That means checking the meat a few times. Otherwise they are mushy and falling apart and we can't have that!

Pearl onions at Stew -15 minutes, and peas when it is done. Let it cool, then chill it overnight. Then check the surface for fat. You want...need...some fat, but not too much or it will have a greasy mouth feel that takes away from the glory of the beef.

You know? It isn't all that much work for the quality at the end, and it certainly isn't more expensive than the simpler ways of making it. And the best part of all of this is that it freezes perfectly, so make a huge batch! Fill your biggest pot so you will have several meals of a delicious dish that is just perfect for winter.

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There is a fair amount of food that we import from China, and there are two reasons why I am trying my best to avoid buying it. The first of course is that China is our enemy: politically, culturally, militarily, so anything I can do to decrease our trade deficit is just peachy.

But the second is that Chinese production of just about everything is filthy. Their manufacturing is tremendously destructive to the environment, and their food production is just as bad. They maximize production at the expense of cleanliness and purity. So those shrimp you bought from China? the heavy metals pumping from the manufacturing plant just up the road might be ending up in those ponds. And if you think they don't use whatever fertilizer is cheapest, including human sewage, I have a trip to the Wuhan Wet Market to sell you.

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Just because you CAN do something doesn't mean you should do something. Here is a perfectly good chili recipe from what I think is a solid source for recipes and food articles without the taint of leftist politics. But then they have to go and tart it up with a couple of shots of rum.

Why? What is the point?
Cooking from the Bar Cart: Rumrunner Chili
Just make the chili and leave out the rum. It is an affectation, and unnecessary.

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There was a hue and cry at Chez Dildo for peanut butter chocolate chip cookies. And because my PC has been acting up (Crash! Crash! Crash!) I didn't have access to my recipe file, so I had to resort to the internet. And what a foul place that is! Of course, I completely forgot about the excellent recipe in a cook book some of you may have seen...The Deplorable Gourmet! Don't worry...Bluebell reminded me!

But this one wasn't bad, although next time I will agitate for more peanut butter and less time in the oven. Chewy Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

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From commenter "IrishEi" and "Olddog in MO"...

A couple of days ago someone went back and found a recipe Tami had posted for a St. Louis specialty called Gooey Butter Cake. I had never heard of it so thought I'd give it a try. It was a hit with the young'uns and is very, very sweet. Recipe and picture follows.

Tami’s Gooey Butter Cake

1 box yellow cake mix
2 eggs
1 stick butter, melted
1 box (16 oz.) powdered sugar
2 eggs
1 large (8 oz.) cream cheese

Preheat oven to 350°F.

With hand mixer, blend the cake mix, 2 eggs and butter together and press into 9x13 pan. Next mix the sugar, eggs and cream cheese together and pour over cake batter. Bake for 35 minutes. Cool and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

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Egg Pie!

One of my favorite uses for too many eggs and too many pie shells. Which I had in abundance because Bluebell is secretly a very mean person who refused to come to my house and make her spectacular pie crusts, instead directing me to Aldi's, which has pretty damned good ones! And I didn't pay attention and bought double the number I needed. But they were so inexpensive I assumed that they were not two to a pack. Yeah...I was in a rush.

But back to Egg Pie! There is no recipe, in spite of what the internet says.
Three eggs, 10 ounces of half & half, sauteed onions, lots of cubed ham (or use bacon for a vegetarian version), maybe some grated cheese, salt, pepper, some thyme and yes, I sneaked some ancho chile powder in because that is how I roll!

Whip the eggs and half & half together, add everything else, and pour it into a partially baked pie crust.

Put it on a sheet pan to catch the spills as you move it into the oven, and bake it at 350-375 degrees until it is just firm in the middle and lightly browned (probably 30-40 minutes). Let it cool, and then chow down. It is a great and easy breakfast or brunch, and you can make several at once if you are feeding lots of people.

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Brussels Sprouts that aren't as tough as trees, beef short ribs that have meat on them (not the stupid little sliver of bone they sneak into the packages), carrots that don't taste like stalky chalk, spare bottles of Van Winkle Special Reserve 12 Year Old Bourbon, an herb garden that actually produces herbs (but no basil!), well-marbled NY strip steaks and elk backstrap to: cbd dot aoshq at gmail dot com.

And don't think that you are off the hook with maple syrup and French Toast: I'm watching you...all of you! And I am watching you perverts who shake Manhattans and keeping a list for the Burning Times.