What's for Dinner?

[chrisinhouston]

When I shop at the Safeway store in our area (aka Randalls) I usually swing by the recently discounted meat section. No, I don't by the chicken packs where the plastic has all expanded from some kind of gas decomposition inside or anything that looks off color but I do look for things that still look fresh and are meats I like. For instance they often just move lamb cut there if they aren't selling. Today I found 2 packs of really nice meaty beef short ribs marked off 30%.

I grew up on cuts like this, potroast cuts or stew meat. I once heard Anthony Bourdain complaining about how most Americans don't realize that only a small percent of a cow or sheep or pig is the really nice tender grilling parts and that the majority are cuts for slow cooking.

So this morning I trimmed them up a bit and browned them in my Le Cruset dutch oven in some olive oil. I chopped up an onion and a few garlic cloves and a handful of celery and put it in the bottom of the big crock pot slow cooker. After the meat browned I put it all on top of the aromatics. Then I deglazed the pan with 2 cups of nice hearty wine and poured it and all the caramelized bits over the meat. I felt it need a bit more so I added a small can of tomato sauce puree.

Now, the only issue is that today I was planning on working on my kitchen drywall plastering so all the counters are on wheels and were getting moved out so I had to set the crock pot in the bar area.

Got done with the drywall by 5pm and put the kitchen back together. I really need to post some photos in the What I Did Today blog. I peeled and cut up 4 or 5 carrots and parsnips and added them. I usually add them later because they just get too overcooked for me if I do them for 8 hours in the crock pot. Then I added a Japanese touch and put in a bag of Konnyaku balls, which is a type of yam made into a block or balls of dough like stuff and really needs slow cooking (sort of resembles really hard tofu). It's offten used in a Japanese winter dish called oden and I figured it would absorb some of the gravy which tasted really nice but there was a bit too much. I only used salt and pepper and some herbs de Provence.

Figure I'll make some mashed potatoes or some polenta to serve it with and a nice hearty red wine. I may reduce the liquid down and thicken it a bit.

Just in time for the cold front, we won't get too many more here in Houston and it's a chilly 40 degrees out and rainy.

Good comfort food.