Bubbie's Pot Roast*

*I'm told that my jewish grandmother was actually a pretty terrible cook, so this isn't necessarily my bubbie's pot roast, because that wouldn't be so good. Rather, this is just a pot roast anybody's grandmother could be proud of.

Other than pumpkin flavored things, nothing says fall quite like slow cooked meats. This is a recipe I developed in my head last weekend, though I don't think it's anything groundbreaking. It's pretty simple really. The only thing I would stress is to use a chuck roast because it has enough fat and connective tissue to hold up to the long cooking.

Ingredients:

2 1/2 - 3 lbs. Chuck Roast
1 bottle (750ml) red wine (whatever you like)
1/2 cup crushed tomatoes
1 large onion chopped
2 large idaho potatoes cut in 1/2 in cubes
2 cups baby carrots
salt and pepper
parsley for garnish
2 tablespoons olive oil

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Let the roast sit out on the counter for half an hour before cooking. Room temperature meat browns better than cold meat. Also, do not salt the meat, it prevents browning. Heat a heavy bottomed skillet on high heat until it's quite hot. Add the olive oil and carefully lay down the roast in the pan. Turn the heat down to medium-high. Brown thoroughly on both sides, about 5 minutes a side. Remove the meat to a 13'' by 9'' baking dish, add salt and pepper to taste.



In the same pan, drain any excess fat and lightly saute the onions until translucent.



Add the bottle of red wine and scrape any of the little brown bits off the bottom of the pan. Bring the mixture to a simmer and add the crushed tomatoes and salt and pepper to taste (~1 1/2 tbsp. salt). Pour this mixture over the meat in the baking dish.



Cover with foil and bake for 2.5 hours. Add the carrots and potatoes and cook for another 30-40mins until they are tender. Remove from the oven and put the roast on a cutting board. Remove the vegetables to another dish. Strain the cooking liquid through a colander or sieve into a medium sized sauce pot. Allow a few minutes for the fat to rise to the top and skim it off with a teaspoon. Simmer the mixture on low for 10 minutes or until it reduces by a third. Slice the roast, serve it over the vegetables and spoon on the reduced sauce. Garnish with parsley, if like.



Boom. Pot Roast.

Not for the purist.

We've already tackled green chili, so it's about time we moved on to the red stuff. Now, if you're a chili purist, this post probably is not for you. The purists will talk about making sure you use small chunks of beef instead of ground, and insist on using a variety of dried peppers to make a complex "gravy" as they call it. That is all fine and well, it's just not what this is. My chili has ground beef. My chili has tomatoes. My chili has okra? Yeah, I threw some in one day to ramp up the veg count and it came out well, so I kept it. It's also quick and dirty. Sometimes you don't have 5 hours to fire up a bowl of red and you need to get dinner on in an hour or so. If it helps the chili traditionalists out there, think of this more as a thick chili like stew than actual chili. Then again, to hell with the purists. They probably would not regard the green chili I made as chili either. No matter what you call it though, green or red, beans or not, it's delicious.

My 'not' Chili

1.25 lbs ground chuck
1 large onion chopped
4 cloves garlic minced
1 medium green bell pepper chopped
1 28 oz can of crushed tomatoes
1 12 oz can kidney beans (rinse off the nasty bean liquid)
2 tsps cumin
2 tsps crushed red pepper
2 tsps salt
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 lb okra sliced (fresh or frozen)
2 tsps olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

This is easy. Place a heavy bottomed pot over medium-high heat and add the olive oil. Saute the onion, bell pepper and garlic until lightly browned, 4-5 minutes. Add the ground chuck and brown, 10 minutes. Add the garlic powder, cumin and crushed red pepper. Lightly cook the spiced meat mixture for 2 minutes. Add the tomato paste and incorporate into the meat mixture. Stir in the crushed tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper and add the beans. Cover, lower the heat to low and simmer for 45 minutes. Add the okra and stir (if the okra is frozen it will only take about 3-4 minutes to come to temperature, if fresh it will take about 7-8 minutes to cook). Serve with yogurt or sour cream.




*UPDATE*

Jack Every, a trusted music and radio buff, will be providing complimentary musical pairings with each post to enhance the culinary experience.

Jack says, "Seeing that this looks like a good southern-style chili, I'm going to have to go with a good southern-style album, and I promise, it won't be, or ever be, ZZ Top. Listening selection-- "Live Alive" by Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble."

There you have it. ZZ Top out, Chili and SRV in. Enjoy

Shout out to my pops: Kebabs

I grew up eating all sorts of kebabs; lamb, chicken, beef maybe even some goat thrown in there too. All kebabs are all born out of the fact that there was very little cooking fuel available in the Middle East during ancient times. This made it difficult to cook large animals or heat large cooking vessels. Most people are familiar with shish kebabs which are chunks of meat and vegetables cooked on a skewer. I, however, grew up mostly eating seekh kebabs which are spiced ground meat kebabs. They are native to Pakistan, where my father is from. For my kebab recipe you can use ground lamb, beef or turkey. The lamb is the most traditional and delicious and you lose that hearty meat flavor as you go down the line.

1 lb. ground lamb, beef or turkey
1 tbsp. garlic paste (or finely minced)
1 tbsp. ginger paste (or finely minced)
1/3 cup chopped cilantro
2 tsp. garam masala (if you don’t have it use curry powder or a mixture of cumin and turmeric)
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp chili powder or cayenne pepper

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl and combine well. Now you have many cooking options. The most traditional way would be to form long sausage shaped kebabs around skewers and then line them up above a roasting pan so the meat isn’t touching the pan. Set your broiler to low and place the kebabs in the oven. Rotate them every few minutes to they brown and cook through. Cook no more then 15 minutes in total. If it is warm outside you could go through the same skewering process and throw them on the grill. Another good option is to turn them into hamburgers as they are certainly an interesting twist to an old favorite. However you decide to cook them I suggest you make a tiny test patty and cook it on the stove top to check the seasoning. You don’t want to cook the entire batch and realize you didn't put enough salt or garlic in. I stick with the traditional and broil them. You can serve them with pita and salad, or with couscous or rice.