Recipe Review: Blues-Bustin' Beef Stew

Yes, it's true folks. I love winter. And while it doesn't OFFICIALLY start until December 21st, we all know better - it starts the EXACT moment that Halloween candy is marked 50% off. So welcome to winter, folks!

And while I love winter, it can be a downer of a season sometimes. The trees are bare, most of the songbirds have left, and all the ladybugs are dead until spring.



OK, yeah, I promised. No more depressing stuff. But there's no denying that the coldest of seasons can also be the harshest. Fortunately, I've got a hearth-and-soul warming recipe to chase those chills away!

Blues-Bustin' Beef Stew
Recipe Link: None! This is a recipe given to my fiancee by one of her friends, so you can only find it online right here!

Ingredients
* 1 to 1 1/2 pounds cubed stew beef - mine from Lamb Farm in Manchester, MI
* 2 medium yellow onions
* 14.5-ounce can diced tomatoes - mine by Eden Foods in Clinton, MI
* 1 clove garlic
* 1 cup dry red wine
* 3 tablespoons cooking oil
* salt
* pepper

Required: One large crock pot, one large non-stick pan

Preparation
I have to note that this recipe is just the BASIC list of ingredients. One of the great things about crock pot dishes and stews in general is you can toss in just about anything you like, so long as it fits the dish's profile. Secondly, MY GOD LOOK AT THIS ONION.



For Pete's sake, this is the largest onion I've ever seen! It's seriously the size of a softball and feels like it weighs more than a pound! I'm 6'4" with very large hands, so that should give you some idea as to this monster's scale. So when I say 2 MEDIUM ONIONS I suppose I also mean 1 RIDICULOUSLY LARGE ONION.

OK, let's set Onionzilla aside for a second and start on the dish. First, take the cooking oil and coat the bottom of a large, non-stick pan. I almost exclusively use olive oil, but anything that heats and sputters will do the trick here. Turn the range up to MEDIUM and wait a few minutes for the pan to heat up.



Dump the stew beef into the pan, separating the cubes as necessary. This will make them easier to flip over.



Salt and pepper the beef while it cooks. I'm a kosher salty guy, and I loooooves the pepper, but you can scale how much you use to your own preferences. Like I said, feel free to improvise!

After about two minutes, flip the cubes so that the browned side faces up.



Mmmmm, don't that look grand? Salt and pepper the beef again, and then cook for another 2 minutes or so. We're not trying to cook the beef completely, mind you! We just want it nicely browned a bit so it's not totally raw when you toss it into the crock pot. WHICH YOU SHOULD DO RIGHT NOW (but don't turn the heat on yet). Drain the excess fat from the pan, and return it to the range.

Now it's time for the onion! Chop it up to a size of your liking - I prefer larger pieces for this recipe since there's nothing better than a big, caramelized piece of onion soaking up all kinds of stew juices.

Transfer the chopped onion(s) into the freshly drained pan.



Turn the heat up to MEDIUM and let the onion pieces become nice and brown. This'll take about 20 minutes, so feel free to peel the garlic clove while you're waiting. When the diced onion is browned to your liking, add the whole clove and cook for about three more minutes.



When it is done, ALL TOGETHER NOW, toss it into the pot.



Don't toss the pan in the sink, we still need it! Take the can of tomatoes and dump that whole mess right on in.



I suppose you could dice your own tomatoes if you like, but I HATE dicing tomatoes, so I'm taking the lazy route. Sue me.

Now we're going to need that cup of red wine. This is the part where I tell you guys about some great Michigan wine, right? VERY WRONG SIR. I HATE wine. I don't drink it, I don't get it, and I don't want to pay more than $5 for it. So I'm using some "Four Buck Chuck" Cabernet Sauvignon from Trader Joe's.

But feel free to use whatever awful thing you want. I REALLY won't judge you.



Eugh. Looks about as good as it smells. But trust me! We're going good places here.

Bring the foul mixture to a boil, but DO NOT REDUCE. Instead, CROCK POT. DUMP INTO IT.



There! You're done! But is it just me, or does this feel a little lacking? Stew is supposed to be filling, and I just don't know if tomatoes and onion is going to cut it...



That'll do it! Throw in some hastily peeled golden potatoes from Homer, MI and some carrots and baby, you got a stew going! This is the part where you could REALLY go nuts. Celery, cabbage, leeks, kale, beets... whatever weird vegetable you happen to like, I guarantee it would fit in with this recipe.

But it isn't cooked yet! Set the crock pot to LOW and let the whole mixture simmer for about 7-8 hours. Yes, you heard me. What part of "slow-cooker" don't you understand? So feel free to go about your day or watch some really long programming. Perhaps the latest Ken Burns' documentary? Or nearly a full season of The Wire or Mad Men? Or you could be a big weirdo and, I dunno, read a book or something dumb like that.

*magic Internet fastforward*



It's done! Oh, doesn't that look beautiful? Just looking at that makes my hypothermia slightly less torturous.



Serve over a bed of rice or mashed potatoes for a hearty winter meal that any bitter soul will enjoy. Savory and rich with delightfully tender bits of beef, this is a deceptively simple and cheap recipe - you'll be amazed at how much flavor is created by so few ingredients. Double-up the recipe and make a big pot the next time company comes for the holidays - you'll be the chef that saved Christmas!

Rating: 9/10 - Pure comfort food that's easy and fun to make. It beats the blues, but nothing can beat it!

Recipe Review: Nuked Nachos

Nuked Nachos
Recipe Link: Epicurious

Tortilla chips by Ann Arbor Tortilla Factory
Shredded cheddar cheese by Rosewood Products of Ann Arbor, MI
Bottled salsa
Sour cream
16-ounce can of refried beans by Eden Organics of Clinton, MI
Cilantro
Anything else you want to add!

Preparation
Ah, nothing like a great big plate of nachos to drive down people's opinion of me after last week's relatively refined trout and pecans. But come on! Who doesn't love nachos? Sure, haute cuisine chefs may sneer at them, or, more likely, turn them into some fancy pants dish consisting of three chips, some foie gras, and an heirloom tomato sliced in the shape of a concentric circle. Nuts to that, I say! Nuts! The best nachos are big, cheesy, glommy and greasy with lots of flavor!

So for this week, I picked the charmingly named "Nuked Nachos" off of Epicurious. This is about as simple a recipe for nachos as you can get. In the comments section, some foodies even take exception to the recipe being featured on the site at all, but remember - NUTS. Food should first and foremost taste good and be fancy second, I think.



The featured local product this week are tortilla chips by the Ann Arbor Tortilla Factory. These have something of a cult following in A2, and with good reason. They're delicious! But even more than that, they're authentic. The ingredients of the chips are corn, salt, lime, water and oil. If you look at most other brands of "all-natural" tortilla chips like Garden of Eatin' or Guiltless Gourmet (HATE THAT NAME), they'll be loaded with a bunch of stuff like whey powder and soy extract and stuff. It's all-natural, sure, but it's got no business being in proper tortilla chips! A2 Tortilla Factory chips are crispy, high-calorie goodness with nothing unnecessary. I love 'em and so does everyone else who eats them.



I'm also trying something different in that I'm using raw, unpasteurized cheddar from Rosewood Products. Now, raw milk is a matter of some controversy in many countries. The cheese in my hand in that picture is actually illegal in 22 states, Canada, AND Australia. Whoa, this must be some hardcore cheese, bro. Actually, the debate is about the health risks of eating or drinking unpasteurized milk. The FDA and CDC condemn the practice, citing potentially dangerous diseases found in raw milk. Raw food fans and cheese lovers say that modern food production methods are to blame for today's milk being unsafe, and that if cows are healthy and live in healthy environs then their milk is perfectly safe to consume raw.

Now, I trust the FDA and hippies on the Internet about equally, so I'm not swayed by Web sites proclaiming raw milk more deadly OR more healthy than normal milk. BUT, I reason that there are millions of people in the world who consume raw milk and I don't hear of them dropping dead from it. So I'm giving it ago. If this posting reaches you, then I'm probably still alive.

And hey, if I die from a piece of cheese then at least I'll have a funny story to tell in the afterlife.



But time for the actual preparation! Grab the largest dinner plate you've got and spoon out the refried beans in a circle on the outside of the plate, leaving some space in the middle. That's where our lovely chips will go! I scooped the beans right out of the can and they were a little difficult to spread evenly, so you may want to heat them up first so they're a little smoother.

I'm also using the spicy beans because that's how I roll. Really, what beans you use is your preference. Refried black beans would probably be especially delicious.



Then spoon out your sour cream on top of the bean ring. Bleagh. Add sour cream to the list of foods that taste WAY better than they look.



Then you add the salsa on top of the sour cream for our third layer of nacho hell. The salsa I'm using was fresh out of the jar and warm, so it runs all over the place. Seriously, it looks like I'm making pizza for the DEVIL here. If you want the salsa to stay put, you should probably stick it in the fridge first. Otherwise you just end up with this mess you see here.



So, are we done piling? LORD NO! Grate your cheese and liberally sprinkle it on top of the outer ring of goodies. At this point, all the foodies have fled the room and are miserably gorging themselves on raw, organic truffles. Now it's time to pop this monster in the microwave! Set it on HIGH for two minutes and while you're waiting find a funny YouTube to watch.



I really can't go over how much this resembles a horror pizza. But maybe that's because we're missing the chips!



Goodbye, Mr. Chips. Or in this case, hello! Stack them in the center of the plate and toss the rest of the cheese on top. Now we're talking! Toss the whole mess back in the microwave for about 90 seconds and find another YouTube.



Hey, there they are! Toss on some cilantro for some color and some jalapenos for that extra kick, if you like (I do like!) Despite some of the earlier horror shows in making this dish, the end result looks pretty good!

They taste pretty good, too! But just PRETTY good. They're flavorful and tasty and greasy and enjoyable, but... they're basic. There's nothing here to really make them stand out as an exceptional dish. They're also terribly messy, as nachos tend to be, but the way these are stacked make them especially so. Think nacho Jenga. Maybe I should have used a larger plate.

The best part is actually the cheese, which is gooey and tangy and far more delicious than lethal. The best part of the recipe is the level of improvisation it affords. There are so many varieties of refried beans and salsas and cheeses that the different combinations you could make are virtually limitless. So its not a fancy dish, or even an exceptional one in terms of flavor, but it is fun to make and fun to eat. In the end, that's what food should be to me.

Ratings: Overall dish - 7/10 - Will make again!
Ann Arbor Tortilla Chips - 10/10 - Perfect! No other chip comes close.
Raw Milk Cheddar - 8/10 - Tangy, tasty, nonfatal cheese!