Yesterday I watched the movie "Julie and Julia" while I cleaned and nested like a crazy person. No surprise, it inspired me to cook a delicious meal from scratch. I went to my freezer to see what I had and ended up using a top round roast to make a delicious beef stew that I served over mashed potatoes. I'll put the recipe below, though to me it was just another variation of beef stew. Not that it wasn't good, it was very good. I just didn't really feel like I created anything new or spectacular. As I was envisioning it in my head, I decided the perfect accompaniment would be a nice, hot, crusty loaf of French bread. I wanted the good stuff, the bread that's steaming hot and fluffy on the inside but crunchy and crusty on the outside. I know a great place in Atlanta that bakes them fresh and sells them for cheap but 2 hours round trip for a loaf of bread is a bit ridiculous, even for me. So I settled for the grocery store. The local Kroger. I'm really coming to hate Kroger. Last week, I had to go to 4 different grocery stores in Cumming to find fennel. The week before that, I went to Kroger looking for a top round roast and they said they had never heard of such a cut of beef. I also went there in search on mushrooms for my "mixed mushroom risotto." Kroger's idea of "mixed mushrooms" is apparently button mushrooms and baby portabella mushrooms because that's all they have. And please don't even get me started on what they call their "fresh seafood" section. There's a Publix down the road where you can occasionally find seafood that hasn't been previously frozen, salmon that isn't dyed pink, a shiitake mushroom or even a decent loaf of bread. But in terms of selection, we are quite limited up here in the stix of Cumming, Georgia. I can drive 20 minutes and be at a Whole Foods where half my paycheck will fill up 2 grocery bags. Or I can drive over an hour to the Dekalb Farmer's Market where I truly feel like I've died and gone to foodie heaven. But who has time for that? I wish that I lived in a city or a town where I could walk from store to store finding the best selection of meats and cheeses and vegetables. I would happily give up the convenience of one-stop shopping to be able to swing by the bakery on the way home and pick up a warm focaccia fresh from the oven or the butcher where I could find any cut of meat from any animal I desire. (Graphic, maybe, but true.) Or how about a weekly seafood market where the fish are still sort of flopping around and nothing has been cleaned yet? A city like New York...but warmer. Maybe San Francisco...but less liberal. Maybe Rome. Not Rome, Georgia...THE Rome. Is it crazy to want to move somewhere for the food?
Beef and Mushroom Stew
(Be forewarned...this recipe is not healthy.)
2lb top round roast, cut into 1 inch cubes
1 stick butter, halved
2-3 cups mixed mushrooms, sliced (baby bella, shiitake, whatever deliciousness you can find)
1 cup pearl onions, peeled (I used frozen because they're easier and I couldn't find fresh)
4 big cloves garlic, rough chopped
3/4 cup very dry red wine
2 sprigs fresh thyme
2 bay leaves
Pinch of cayenne
Salt and pepper
Parmiggiano Reggiano
Heat oven to 250. Dry meat on paper towels as much as humanly possible. Any moisture will prevent meat from browning. In a dutch oven, melt 1/2 stick of butter over medium high heat. Once its melted and hot, season beef with salt and pepper and begin browning in butter. After a few minutes, turn each piece and brown on the other side. Once you set the beef down in the butter, don't touch it...just let it brown. Once meat has browned, add rest of butter and melt. Add mushrooms, garlic, onions, thyme, bay leaves, and cayenne. Season again with salt and pepper. Add red wine, stir together and cover. Bake at 250 for about an hour and a half. Make sure to remove bay leaves and thyme stems before serving. Serve hot over mashed potatoes sprinkled with fresh grated parmiggiano. Great with good crusty French bread, if you can find it. :-)
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