Here’s something you don’t normally see on an August supper table. Beef Stew.
This week we’ve been having daily tempteratures at sixty degrees with overcast most of the day and maybe some sun in the late afternoon followed by fog. The Bay Area’s typical summer. So why the hell not?
I cut up some Niman Beef into really small bits, bite size. Floured them with flour and heavy seasonings (paprika, onion powder, pepper, celery seed and a few other goodies) and browned in peanut oil. Tossed in an onion and 7 cloves of garlic to sweat.
And here’s how I handle the liquid, 1 part red wine, 1 part beef broff, 1 part water.
Then toss in a few carrots and celery stalks. Yum.
Ground black pepper to taste with a few turkish bay leaves.
This was a quick stew so I got it boiling on the stove top, then tossed it into a 350 oven for 45 minutes.
Uncovered it for another 45.
Made up a little corn starch and water and added it to a rolling bubbling liquid.
Simmer for another 15 on the stove top.
While that was going I made white rice and steamed some brocolli.
However the shot you see had leftover homemade mashed taters (My oldest sone doesn’t like rice).
ps. I’ve noticed that most blogs don’t have a lot of feedback from people who visit the sites. For the most part it is a one sided spew. Please if any of you visitors have any questions as to my cooking methods, grilling or otherwise please feel free to send me email at drbiggles@cyberbilly.com.

I would like to preface this by saying, I love gravy. Meat gravy. Not vegie stock, not tofu gravy. Meat Gravy. This isn’t normal meat gravy either, read on …

At first glance it looks like a standard roast chicken. Sure take it at face value, AND LOSE OUT !!!! Lose out on something special. Lose out on the best damn gravy ever. And after all, isn’t that why we roast meat? Gravy? Yes.
You must start with a decent chicken, this one here is a Rosie Organic Chicken from Petaluma. As far as spices and herbs go, that’s up to you. Extra virgin olive oil and kosher salt is enough for me, but you deal spices and herbs. This baby is sportin’ something special under the hood. Lean in and I’ll tell you. That baby has several slices of bacon stuff under the skin, over the breast meat with fresh thyme and oregano. That’s right, bacon. Oh I know what you’re thinking, not bacon! It’s too strong and fatty. Yeah it’s fatty alright (keeps the breast meat happy), but it isn’t strong. It’s under the skin so it never gets brown. It has a nice flavor that winds up in the pan (that’s where you make gravy).
Please take another close look under the meat. That’s a cast iron trivet. Please use a trivet to keep your meat out of the liquid, you don’t want boiled meat do you? No.

Here it is, GRAVY. After the meat has been removed, I took out all but about 4 tbs of the fat/juice. Sauteed in a bit of garlic and finely diced onion (I was out of shallots), then some flour. Brown that a bit and add chicken broff. Simmer and you have GRAVY !!!!!!! Chicken and Pork GRAVY !!! Add salt and pepper and you done.
I had made mashed taters with steamed carrots, but you don’t need those to enjoy gravy. Meat and bread and gravy are all you need.

Lower your cooking time and add to the penetration of marinades by halving the chicken and putting some gashes into the thigh and leg. It looks as though I really gnashed one leg there, but it was just a little slice when I started. The breast meatses was quite juicy. And in the fashion of the doof Michael Chirarello, “use free range chickens PLUUHHHEEEEEZE!!!”

Here we see a flayed pork shoulder roast. Maybe six pounds or so. I removed the bone so I could slice most of the way through. Rub every surface with Extra Virgin Olive Oil.
Preheat the oven to 300 degrees, no more, maybe a tad under.

Now stuff it with slices of lemons (remove most of the skin), onions, garlic and some bay leaves. The bay leaves I soak in Extra Virgin Olive Oil for a few minutes to loosen them up a bit. Unless you have fresh, then to hell with me. Before you tie it up you need to make your own dry rub. Every dry rub needs a base component, I use paprika. You can start with 4 tbls of paprika. I wanted a mexicanny rub so I went heavy on the chili powders, 2 tbls of 2 different kinds of chilis (ancho and something else). 2 tbls of onion powder, 2 of salt (sea salt), and I pounded some cumin seeds up in mortar for maybe 3 tbls worth. I really wanted some cinnamon, but found quickly that I was OUT. Dang. I tossed in some cayenne and some old bay. note: make more than you require, you’ll need some later on.
As you can see, it’s really up to you for the rub.
Next get your butchers twine and truss the sucker up tight. UNNGH! There. At this point you can toss it into the oven and please use a roaster with a rack of some kind. Get the meat OFF the bottom of the dish for roasting. You can, at this time, drizzle more olive oil over the meat. Or not. I don’t believe I did, however I did pull it out a few times and drizzle some on after some roasting.
Toss it into the slow oven for maybe 6 hours. No less, mebe more.

Once out, let it sit for a bit. Remove the twine and go through to pull out the bay leaves. Shred the sucker. Cut and shred into bits. Even the onions, garlic and lemons. Once you have done that, pull out what you think you’ll use that night and put the rest into a container for the fridge.
Heat up a skillet and put in maybe a tsp of lard (made fresh from the recipe below) and dump in your meat. Add some salt and your dry rub (generous amounts). Brown the mixture until it’s a bit crispy, you want little crunchy bits on the tender shreds.
Git your warmed tortillas (we make our own, but you can get by with grocery store ones. Just make sure they only have 3 ingredients listed), cilantro, sliced limes, sliced sweet onions and some maters. Uh, you’re ready for food. Hugs.
p.s. I found after doing this maybe 3 or 4 times in the last six months, that the real eye popping flavor comes from the frying at the end. Of couse you could use any thing you want to grease the skillet, I recommended the lard because it’s the best. Hell, don’t use anything at all. There’s probably enough greasin’ residue in the pork already.