EATFREAK

My wife is a vegetarian … kind of.  So there’s not a lot of meat flying around the house generally.  Every once in a while she has to leave town for a few days for work – At which point I cheat on her with various meat dishes.  The last time this happened was about a month ago.  She left late in the day, leaving me little time to prepare for my first carnivorous rage.  I had to do something simple.  So I made up this recipe.  I’ll go ahead and say it’s still a work in progress – but it’s more the IDEA that we’re going for here.  It’s one of those recipes you can really screw around with and add things depending on what kind of leftovers or other things you happen to have lying around at the time.

About the Lamb.  You don’t want to get Lamb that has too much fat on it.  It’s not like Steak.  That fat usually makes it taste a bit gamey.  Whatever fat is there (there will be some) try to cut off as much as you can.

I know some people who have a rule about not eating babies.  If you have that rule – don’t eat this – it’s babies.  Actually you could totally make this thing with beef stew meat as well.  I like the way Lamb rests in the mix of stuff there, but Beef would be awesome.  Actually a really cool substitute would be Rabbit.  But I’m guessing if you don’t eat baby, you don’t eat bunny.  Anyway ….

Here’s the deal.

1 lbs.  Lamb   -    any kind, (legs can be really fatty and full of problems though)  cut up into 2(ish) inch pieces
1 Large Onion (or two small ones) -  Chopped
2 Carrots – Peeled and Chopped
2 Celery Stalks – Chopped
1 large can of diced tomatoes in their juice
red wine – like 2 glasses
dried herbs chopped up – whatever you want, some rosemary, oregano, dried basil, marjoram, bay leaf – you can go ahead and used the stuff in jars.
Kosher Salt and Fresh Ground Pepper
(maybe crushed red pepper flakes)

*I’ll get into this more later – but all these pictures of all the stuff all put together before cooked is not just for looks.  PREP YOUR FOOD!!  If you get a good system for prep – chopping up vegetables before you cook – measuring out measurables before you cook – open up cans that need opening before you cook (depending on how long it will  be before that stuff goes in) – prepping meat before you cook (seasoning, etc.) …. if you do this right, even the hardest recipes in the world are hardly any work at all.  so ….

1.  Toss the meat in a glug of Olive Oil, some Salt and Pepper – as always, do not skimp.  Most people don’t believe how much Salt is supposed to be used to make their meat taste good – but trust me – if you accidentally over-salt it, it’ll be a miracle.  So – do that.  Heat a med/large saucepan over high heat with a bit of olive oil in it (not too much).  Chuck the meat in and brown it.  If stuff sticks to the pan, leave it there.  This will just take a few minutes when it’s brown, hopefully has a few burn marks, you’re done.  remove the meat from the pan.

2.  Add a little more olive oil and bring it up to heat.  throw in those dried herbs and a few pinches of crushed red chili flakes if you want it to have some kick.  Let that stuff infuse for about 30 second.

3.  Add onion.  Stir frequently.  Let it get translucent.  2 minutes.  Add celery.  same thing, maybe 2 more minutes.  Add Carrot..again….2 more minutes …. keep stirring stuff a bit.  Put the Meat back in.  Basically every time you add something, let it cook in there for a few minutes with everything else and get cozy.  Season it a bit from time to time as well.  Next throw in the can of tomatoes.  Stir a bit, but let that come up to a boiling point – When it does, throw in the red wine.  Stir it up a bit.  reduce to Simmer.

4. Cover and cook on really low heat for roughly 2 hours.  You might want to remove the lid near the end for a while to reduce some of the liquid and make it all thick and gross and awesome.  When it looks like you want it to look – SERVE AND EAT!!!!

This is really really really good when it’s super freaking hot – so you might even want to heat your bowls before you dish the stuff in.  It’s a kick ass hot tasty dish for when the weather gets cold.

So.  About the wine.  Don’t get cheap ass gross stupid wine.  If a recipe called for milk, you would use dried powder coffee creamer would you?  If it called for cheese you wouldn’t raid a lunchables pack for some gross processed crap, would you?  There are some fantastic wines that you can get for under ten dollars – so get them.  And don’t start with me on the 2 Buck Chuck thing.  If it’s all you can afford – that’s one thing – fine, you do what you gotta do.  But don’t look me in the eyes and tell me that you like Charles Shaw.  This is something I’ve gotten a number of times.  Look – it’s not actually a subjective matter.  If you like the way good things taste, you can’t like Charles Shaw.  Shaw sucks balls – and that’s the end of it.  If you have to get it for one reason or another – OK.  But do not convince yourself that you like it, you’re slowing down human progress for the rest of us.

I enjoyed my stew with a glass of a table wine from Novella called Synergy.  I paid 7 bucks for it.  It was alright – my mind was not blown – But it was a nice compliment to the meal.  I also had a sourdough demi-baguette from La Brea Bakery which I smothered in butter and shoved in my face drenched in stew, like an animal.  (I read somewhere that animals like a lot of butter on their bread)

This is a nice simple inexpensive stew.  It’s really satisfying to make, super comforting to eat.  It makes your house  smell awesome. (what the hell – i don’t know why this is happening to random paragraphs – i’ll try to fix it)

The first time I ate this stew – I watched a film called “Romance and Cigarettes” while I shoved steaming hot goodness down my throat.  I love this film.  It’s directed by John Turturro.  It’s really weird, and I expect most people would not like it very much at all.  I’ll  be surprised if you do.  But I liked it a lot and it went well with the stew.

Ha – I just remembered – the next night, I had Stew left-overs and I watched “Purple Rain”.  Wow.  Not a great pairing of food/movie – But such a freaking incredible film to watch!!

While I cooked the stew you see in the pictures I was listening to “March of The Zapotec & Realpeople – Holland”  by BEIRUT.  It’s a cool album that’s really a combo of two EPs.  Good fall cooking music.

Alright, people.  That’s all.  Go cook food.  Find people you like and put said food in their faces.  Enjoy yourselves.

ok bye.

“If you have that rule – don’t eat this – it’s babies.” I’m literally GUFFAWING right now!

Comment by Amy October 25, 2009 @ 1:57 pm

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