Sunday Gravy Season Premiere!: The Low Cost of Luxury.

Good morning Gravy heads! Welcome back to Sunday Gravy!

Now that we’ve finished another mostly disappointing NFL season, we can get back to the good stuff!

Today marks the start of the 6th season of Sunday Gravy.

God. Damn.

We’ve covered well over 100 some-odd recipes dating all the way back to my very first Sunday Gravy post back in the long-ago year of 2015. That was for my world famous Chile Tepin. Still one of my favorite fucking things on the planet by the way.

Yes, it’s hot as fuck but delicious as a motherfucker.

For those of you new readers, Sunday Gravy is one of many recurring features on DFO that run during the NFL offseason. These features are here to keep you engaged and entertained while we wait the 7 fucking months before the start of the next NFL season. We don’t shutter our shit up and leave you hanging with lack of content. We want your asses here year-round.

We’re thoughtful like that.

The Sunday Gravy concept is to provide you with real recipes that I personally cooked and I then give you step-by-step directions as well as handy-diddly-dandy food photos to guide you along.

Plus I’ll give you a smattering of inspirational insanity and a whole goddamn shitload of profanity.

Fun!

I’ve got a damn good one for you today. This baby is traditional and delicious and we really do make a real gravy. Plus I’ve got a new side dish for you that is a real authentic original that I came up with myself.

As always please enlarge your choice of photos for CLARITY.

I hesitate to call this a pot roast because of the cut of meat used but technically it’s a fucking pot roast. We’re also making roasted garlic mashed potatoes and, get this, bourbon-praline-caramel glazed carrots.

Look at this shit.

Made that one up myself, I did.

Normally when I make a pot roast, and I love me some goddamn pot roast, I prefer a chuck roast because of its fat and marbling.

You regular readers have seen me hack up slabs of chuck roast on a fairly regular basis. For today though? We’re going to go upper class.

Yes, that is a “choice” New York beef loin roast. Take a look a the price tag on that fucker as well. Normally priced at 15.99 a pound and I got that bastard at 4.99 a pound. Shit yes I did.

This roast was purchased right around Christmas when all of the really top-shelf roast beef cuts are placed on sale. I cooked one of these on Christmas day and was so goddamn blown away by it, I went back to the store while it was still on sale and bought another one to slap in my freezer. This is that one.

“But yeah right”, you may ask “Why didn’t you cut this into steaks and grill some fucking New York steaks instead?”

Good question!

The basic answer is we’re in the middle of fucking winter, that’s why. It was a cold day when I cooked this and I intentionally sought out a meal that would keep the oven going for a REALLY long damn time to help keep the house warm. Besides, it’s goddamn delicious this way.

Time to warm up the damn house!

First thing we are going to do today is roast some garlic for the roasted garlic mashed potatoes. I like to do this step first because it immediately imparts a kickass garlic aroma to the house and you’ve got savory smell-o-vision going for the rest of the damn day.

Roasted Garlic:

1 head of garlic

Drizzle of olive oil.

Sprinkle of salt and pepper.

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

Grab yourself a nice head of garlic.

Remove any of the loose garlic paper from the outside and then cut the top of the little fuckers head off.

Place in a shallow pan and baste with olive oil. Sprinkle the salt and pepper on it.

Sock this in the preheated oven for about 40 minutes or until the garlic cloves are softened and the smell has driven you to the brink of insanity.

Set aside for later when we make the mashed potatoes.

Pot Roast ala yeah right!

1 big slab of cow. This was a bit over 2 1/2 pounds since there were 3 of us eating. Increase the weight depending on how many you are feeding and no it doesn’t have to be the New York loin roast, chuck is just fine.

1 onion chopped

4 stalks of celery chopped

3 carrots chopped

4 cloves of minced garlic

1 quart of beef stock – you can use store bought if you don’t have any on hand

1 tablespoon of tomato paste

1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar

1/4 cup of red wine – don’t be a tight ass with the crappy wine. Use what you would drink here.

1/2 tablespoon of salt

1/2 tablespoon of ground black pepper

1/2 tablespoon of paprika

1 teaspoon of dried thyme

splash of cooking oil

To get started, go ahead and chop up your mirepoix, that’s the onion, celery and carrot for you newcomers.

Notice that container of carrots on the side in the photo? That’s for our bourbon-praline carrots we’re making as a side dish.

Preheat the oven to 350, or turn the oven down to 350 if you just finished roasting your garlic like a smart motherfucker.

Take your Dutch oven/roasting pan out and get it over a medium heat on your stove top, we’re going to sear the roast before cooking. When the pan is hot, add in the cooking oil, probably about 1/4 cup of oil.

Next season the roast with salt, pepper and paprika and start searing.

If you enlarge that photo you will see what a sexy fucking cut of meat this was. That’s the fat cap on top and look at the lean below it.

Sear for about 4 minutes per side, yes all four sides.

Remove the roast from the pan and set aside.

Toss your mirepoix into the pan and add the tablespoon of tomato paste.

Give a stir or two until the veggies are coated in the tomato paste then simmer until tender, 6-7 minutes.

Quick note on the tomato paste. Have you folks used this stuff in the tube?

Great goddamn invention. Usually recipes call for a tablespoon or two at most of the tomato paste and if you buy a can of it, even the smallest can, you never know what the fuck to do with the extra paste. This fucker stays in my refrigerator and I use it as I go. Shit yeah. Great idea.

While the veggies are cooking, assemble your braising liquids.

Let’s get a closer look at the wine we’re using.

That’s a 2018 cabernet sauvignon from “Flourish” vineyards in Mendocino California. A very tasty red and going back to the “cook with something you would drink” statement, this was served with the finished meal today.

When the veggies are tender, add the roast back to the pan.

Now we start adding in our liquids. The balsamic, the beef stock and the wine.

Add the minced garlic and give a stir or two. Make sure the roast isn’t sitting on top of all the veggies, spoon some around the meat too. Next add the dried thyme. Slap a lid on the fucker and get ‘er in the oven. This will go for about 3 hours on 350.

Wash your damn dishes and clean up your work station for Chrissake. You’ve got a couple of hours to kill.

An hour before the roast is ready, we’re going to start on the side dishes.

Those carrots need to get going.

Bourbon-praline-caramel carrots!

3-4 carrots peeled and chopped

1 tablespoon of olive oil

Some salt and pepper

1 tablespoon of butter

1 tablespoon of brown sugar

1 shot of bourbon – remember the “use the good stuff” thing from earlier? This goes double for the bourbon

2 tablespoons of crushed/chopped pecans

A sprinkle of dried thyme

First thing we’re going to want to do is cut up your carrots. Leave them kind of chunky but not too thick.

We’re going to toss these with the olive oil, salt and pepper then we’re going to roast them in the oven for the last hour of the pot roasts cooking time.

I put the carrots in a plastic container to toss with the oil and the salt and pepper. Just put the lid on the container.

Give it a couple of shakes and there you go.

Put these in a roasting vessel and cook for an hour right next to the roast.

When the hour is up you should have some nicely roasted carrots.

To finish the carrots take a saucepan and melt the butter then add in the brown sugar. Cook on low for about 3-4 minutes, stirring pretty constantly until it caramelizes. Next…

Yeah, go ahead. We’ll wait.

Next add another shot of the bourbon – that you didn’t drink -to the caramel. Cook for a minute or two then in go the carrots.

Simmer for a couple of minutes more then toss in the chopped pecans.

Cook for another minute or two then sprinkle the dried thyme over the top.

Ready for food service.

Time to finish this meal up.

Take the roast out of the oven.

Carefully remove the roast from the roasting pan and place on a large plate. Cover with foil.

In the meantime, let’s make the potatoes.

Wash, peel and chop your russet potatoes – about one potato per person – and place in a pot of salted water. Cover the pot with a lid and heat over medium/high heat. When the water begins to boil, cook the potatoes until tender. About 15 minutes. Drain the potatoes and set aside for a second.

Take our roasted garlic from earlier and place in the working bowl of your mixer.

Add in the cooked potatoes along with salt, pepper and 4 tablespoons of butter. Give it a splash of milk if you would like.

Then mash to desired consistency.

Now, didn’t somebody mention gravy? Want to see the easiest gravy recipe there is?

That pot that has all those veggies and juices we cooked the roast in?

That’s the bastard. Now all we gotta do is blend this shit up! I’ve got the proper tools for this shit and just used my immersion blender.

If you don’t have an immersion blender just scoop out a few ladles of this stuff and VERY CAREFULLY blend in your standard counter top blender.

The immersion blender is completely worth the cost. I love that fucking thing.

Just a few seconds of blending and we’ve got…

Gravy!

Season up with some salt and pepper. I also added a little bit more dried thyme to the gravy.

That’s right! Profiles and shit!

Now all that’s left is to serve.

Ladle on some potatoes, grab a hunk of that roasted meat and pour some gravy on there. Give yourself a scoop of those insanely tasty caramel glazed praline carrots, maybe pour up a glass of that red wine.

Chow the fuck down folks.

Dear Lord just look at that!

Pure meaty, savory roast beef. The richness of the mashed potatoes that have been leveled the fuck up with the addition of the roasted garlic. That smooth and sexy-ass gravy. Then to offset the fattiness and richness of everything else, those carrots. Sweet, buttery, slightly boozy with that delicate yet crisp crunch from the caramelized pecans?

You fucking kidding me over here?

I would charge up to 40 bucks for a plate of this shit in my imaginary restaurant.

Damn this was tasty.

There you go folks.

That’s how we do this motherfucker.

Sunday Gravy is back and I’ve got some damn cooking to do.

Thanks for being there and see you next week.

PEACE!