Monday, April 27, 2009

Monday Menu: flatiron stew

Since the allergic disaster with the Tikka Masala, I went back to using products that I know are safe and contain no wheat in order to get my digestion back in balance. I used our own beef (flatiron chuck) in a stew pot over two Vidalia onions chopped, two carrots chopped, and half a head of whole garlic cloves (peeled). I poured one jar of Arethusa pureed tomatoes over the top, added a 1/2 tablespoon of whole black peppercorns, and 1/2 tablespoon of dried basil and covered the pot.

This is the view after 6 hours of 250f in the oven (I sort of wandered away and forgot about it). Since there is no braising of the meat, the recipe is a time saver and can easily be repeated in a crockpot. I took the cover off for the last hour and as you can see, the meat has caramelized, and it tasted very sweet because of the onions and the freshness of the local carrots (also from Arethusa). I adjusted the salt after it had cooled a bit - yummy!

(The last of the carrots from the Winter Farmer's Market.)