Good morning DFO!

It’s nice to be back with another edition of Sunday Gravy.

Many thanks to Ballsofsteelandfury for filling in for me last week. It was a welcome respite and gave me a chance to fire up my grill to cook some carne asada.

The biggest and most unexpected challenge of doing Sunday Gravy for you isn’t the “cooking something new” thing or even the searching for recipe ideas. The biggest challenge is my wanting to give you something new every week which at the same time means I can’t cook some of my old tried and true and personal favorite recipes again, since I don’t want to repost something I’ve already cooked for you.

What if I want some more baked ziti dammit? Guess I’ll have to wait until football season.

Oh the fucking sacrifices we make.

A couple of the main data points I want to make today are: the city of New Orleans is fucking incredible; please don’t throw away food and on occasion I will take requests.

The request. Back on the former mother blog I used to Komment about what I was making for dinner on Sunday. I would give a pretty complete recipe and occupy way too much of the komment section but it was doing this that led to me coming here and coming up with the idea for Sunday Gravy. One of the former members of the Kommentariat – full disclosure I don’t remember who – asked me after one of my trips to New Orleans if I had ever tried “grillades and grits.” (If this was one of our current members of the Commentist party, let me know so you get full credit!) I remember seeing this dish on many a brunch menu in New Orleans but I hadn’t tried it before and was actually a little unclear on just what the fuck a grillade was in the first fucking place. Then I started to do some research.

Grillades (pronounced “gree-odds”) are slow roasted chunks, or “medallions” of beef, pork or even veal that have been cooked in the holy trinity (peppers, onions and celery) along with some garlic, some spices, some heat and all stewed together in a spicy tomato based stew. The French named “grillade” actually means something grilled which is just a goddamn curiosity because we ain’t grilling shit today. It’s slow roasted or it can even be slow simmered on the stove top.

Sounds fucking tasty.

It also dawned on me that holy shit! I’ve still got some stone ground grits in my freezer (please freeze or refrigerate your stone ground grits) from this fabulous recipe made earlier this year and why don’t we give this motherfucker a whirl?

Why not indeed.

Next data point: Don’t waste food! I had grits on hand so I made another dish featuring grits. I also still have several other oddities in my cupboard including tahini, which will get used because I frequently make homemade hummus these days, some Szechuan pepper corns which are fucking delicious in every day applications and I still have some pine nuts from making pesto. I will do my best to use them up before they spoil.

True story time! A few months ago I was looking in my cupboards to make sure I had the required ingredients for a menu I was working on. The recipe called for red wine vinegar. Hell yes, I think to myself, I KNOW I’ve got that shit on hand. Taking down the bottle I notice on the bottom “Best if used by February 2010.”

Oops-a-daisy! Toss that shit out and buy a new bottle and just like that something I spent good money on, granted it was probably 10 years ago but still, gets thrown away. What a goddamn waste.

Enough of the ranting, let’s make this shit!

Grillades and grits!

Once again if you ever have the chance you MUST visit New Orleans. I fucking love that town. It’s in my top 10 cities ever and is one of the finest food destinations on the planet because of dishes like the one we are about to make.

Brunch is a big deal in New Orleans for several reasons. The primary reason is holy fucking hell do people get good and shitfaced drunk when they visit. No lie, I saw several tourists, obviously not homeless people since they were well dressed and these folks had just fallen the fuck out in the middle of Jackson Square and slept on the grass for the night. Right in the middle of a goddamn park.

Don’t drink more than 1 hurricane. Just don’t.

Since people be getting all fucked up while visiting, most of these people will NOT be getting out of bed in time for a normal breakfast. Hence: brunch.

Brunch menus in New Orleans list 3 primary staples and then other items. The three staples are Eggs Benedict, Shrimp and Grits and Grillades and Grits.

Let’s do this shit.

For the grillades:

2-3 pounds of beef cubed. Of course I used chuck roast. Big surprise there.

1/2 teaspoon of black pepper

1 tablespoon of salt

1/2 teaspoon of cayenne

1/2 cup of flour for coating the meat

1/4 cup of vegetable oil plus 2 tablesoons

1 tablespoon of butter

1 onion chopped fine

1 red bell pepper chopped fine

3 stalks of celery chopped fine

4 cloves of garlic minced

5 bay leaves – if your bay leaves have been in your cupboard over a year buy new ones.

1/2 teaspoon of dried thyme

1/2 teaspoon of dried oregano

1/2 teaspoon of dried basil

1 teaspoon of fresh minced basil

1 teaspoon of fresh minced oregano

1 14 oz can of beef stock or broth

1 10 oz can of Rotel tomatoes and chilies

1 15 oz can of fire roasted tomatoes chopped

1/4 cup of red wine. Use a good red here not the leftover shit that nobody wants to drink.

1 tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce

3-4 good shots of Louisiana hot sauce – I used Red Rooster

Additional cayenne to season.

Prepared stone ground cheesy grits.

That shrimp and grits recipe has the ratios. It’s basically 1 cup of grits to 4 parts liquid. Add a little salt and finish with some butter and a veritable shitload of cheese.

Whew! Actually when researching this recipe I probably read 15 different recipes and basically every one was different. This is MY version. No direct copying of a recipe here.

If you wanted to use some tomatoes, the trinity, some spices and the meat and stew those it would work. Make this your own.

First thing we are gonna do is chop up the trinity thusly:

Yes, the trinity is used in EVERY Creole recipe out there. Quick note about the red bell pepper vs green bell pepper debate. Previously you have heard me advocate for green bell pepper for LOOOONNNGG slow cooked sauces. My mother sauce is usually at least an 8 hour sauce and I find the green pepper allows the pepper taste to shine through whereas if you used a red bell cooked that long it’s flavor would basically be over-ridden by the rest of the sauce. Here is a good comment discussion regarding red vs green in Romonobyl’s awesome new feature Weekday Rations. Basically I’m using red pepper because this dish only cooks for a couple of hours.

Next let’s cut up and cube that chuck roast. Look! A VERY familiar photo!

Cubed meat!

Here’s a cool little trick that I picked up from reading the recipes, mix together the first batch of black pepper, salt and cayenne and season the meat with it. We are doing this before we toss the meat in the flour. Pretty cool! Next toss the meat in the flour. Get your world famous Dutch oven out, preheat to medium high, add the 1/4 cup of oil and toss in the meat to brown. About 5 minutes per side. Work in batches to avoid crowding the pan.

This is about as close to “grilling” the grillades as we get.

Go ahead and preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Once the meat is browned, set it aside in a bowl and let’s get to sauteing the trinity. Add the tablespoon of butter, another tablespoon or two of oil and saute the veggies until just translucent, about 7-8 minutes. Season with some salt. When the veggies are tender add in the garlic for just a few seconds until aromatic. Next we’re going to add in the various other substances including!

Rotel! This shit is a staple in Texas and Louisiana style cooking. I don’t think I read a single recipe that used Rotel but if we’re making a spicy tomato based stew? Bet yer fucking fur I’m using it. My Dad used to love this shit. Ever add a can of Rotel to a cubed up wedge of Velveeta and nuke it until melted? Get a bag of Fritos and get busy fuckers!

Still damn tasty.

Add the tomatoes, Rotel, the beef stock the thyme, basil, oregano, the fresh basil and oregano, the bay leaves, hot sauce, Worchestershire and the wine. About that wine.

This is one of my current favorites. This is Trivento Amado Sur from Argentina. It’s primarily a malbec so you get the nice black pepper notes along with the dryness but it also has Bonardo and Syrah grapes added for a smoothness and just a touch of sweetness that most Malbecs don’t have. This shit is delicious. As I mentioned above, always use a wine you would drink to your recipes that require wine.

Stir everything together in the pot, give it an initial taste and now is where you can control the final heat level by adding or not adding additional cayenne to the dish. Did I add additional cayenne?

You’re fuckin’ A man!

Add the browned meat back to the pot, mix together well, cover the pot with a lid and get this bastard into the preheated oven. It’s about 2 hours 15 minutes to 2 and 1/2 hours depending on your stove. You don’t want to cook too long because the meat would dissolve into the sauce and it’s supposed to be front and center, remember?

When it’s finished cooking it’s going to look like this.

During the last half hour of cooking time we are going to get the grits going. I won’t get into all the details because it’s already posted above but you know the deal by now. Cup of grits, 4 cups of liquid. I did 1 cup of whole milk and 3 cups of water this time instead of using chicken stock. Not for a taste variance but because my dumb ass forgot the chicken stock at the store.

Heat the fluid to boil, add grits, reduce heat, whisk like a motherfucker and cook for about 20 minutes. Here’s a shot of the consistency you are looking for.

When the desired consistency is reached add about 3-4 tablespoons of butter and the aforementioned shitload of cheese. It’s about 6 ounces of shredded sharp cheddar. Just a wee bit of cheese.

Mix together and these bad boys are done. You could serve at this point. Ladle some grits, top with the grillades, maybe get a little toast and serve.

HOWEVER!

This is a brunch item remember and all of the menus I’ve seen have this dish served with some eggs on the side.

I’m going to give you a couple of quick egg tricks to help you step up your egg frying game. You could do scrambled eggs or poached but don’t you want that delicious, runny yolk that only a well prepared fried egg adds to the party?

Fuck yes you do.

First get out a skillet and heat it up over medium heat. If cooking eggs while serving bacon of course I cook the eggs in the bacon grease like any sane rational human would but I didn’t make any bacon so melt a couple of tablespoons of butter. Crack the eggs into a bowl or ramekin (Yes Scotchy, this is a good trick indeed) and dump the eggs in the pan together. This allows for consistent cooking between the eggs. One of the easiest ways to break a yolk and fuck up your gorgeous eggs are by flipping them over incorrectly.

You know how to avoid this?

Don’t flip the motherfuckers over! Cover the skillet with a lid until the yolks reach the desired doneness. Look at this sexiness!

I cook mine until the whites are cooked through but you still have some of the glorious runny yolk to cut into and incorporate with everything else on the plate.

Yes, I made some garlic bread along side.

One more time.

Oh kids. OH KIDS!

This is the good shit here. Tender cuts of slow roasted beef chunks, a bite from the cayenne – more than a bite if you want to get crazy – cheesy, creamy grits and some velvety smooth slightly runny egg yolks. You get the creole influence from the trinity, the garlic and the herbs. It’s almost got an undercurrent of Italian in here from the basil and oregano but the thyme and bay leaf tells you no goddammit this shit is Creole!

Mother.

Fucker!

So so fucking good.

That’s what “grillades” are.

Thanks for stopping by for this week’s edition of Sunday Gravy. Give this shit a whirl and feel free to improvise or “play jazz” as they say. Make it your own. Just be sure to keep it Cajun at heart.

Much love to you folks.

PEACE!