I started with a piece of beef that was left over from the previous meal's stir-fry. It wasn't so much, and I knew that I wanted to stew it a little, and eat it on the side of a pasta dish. I had some shells that didn't go into an earlier mac&cheese dish, and wanted something lite and cold, like a pasta salad. I don't use mayo generally, and this was going to be a more Italian style pasta salad, with cheese and olives.
I didn't end up making it cold. I was impatient. After the noodles were done cooking, I put them in a large bowl and mixed in black olives, green olives, crumbled feta cheese, diced red and yellow peppers, sliced farm fresh celery, and the sliced treviso leaves. Ugh. That stuff's really not for me, but it didn't totally ruin the noodles. That was a pretty easy starch with a tiny veg component, and since the amount of protein was small, I thought a tomato-stewing could add another vegetable component and ultimately balance the meal out.
I procured a tin of whole peeled pear tomatoes. In one sauce pot I started rendering the fat and sinew I cut off the cheap beef I was using (I sliced the meat into small pieces). This means I kept it on low hear so it would liquefy the fat. This was going to be my stock. I didn't have any chicken bones, so basically I was going to have a veg stock--the beef fat was just going to add a little flavor. After I got a little of the fat there, I started to brown the sliced mirepoix in it, and then added water and set it to boil and reduce.
In a second sauce pot I started browning the meat in oil, and then I added minced shallot (only because I had it and not regular onion) and garlic. After a few minutes I added dried red chili that I sliced myself that were a gift from family. Too early and capsicums turn bitter. Once this became aromatic, I added my tomato. I prepped the tomato in the "nice" Indian fashion, but feel free to used other products. I grated the tomato on my box grater (that what we in the industry call a common cheese grater), and then added it to the meat.
Once that starts to churn and burble, I added some vegetable stock, probably a cup and a half to two cups. it was more than the tomato pulp, but not drastically more. Let that simmer away until the meat is fork tender. If I had any basil, I would have added it, but some fuzzy infestation killed it along with the cat-nip. Actually, it was this meat that caused me to realize it was inedible, or at least not safe for consumption.
The lower quality the meat, the longer this takes, but you get the idea.
Here are some action shots:
I've started grating the tomato, which is in the blue bowl on the left, but it would eventually be half-full. In the plastic cup at the top position sits the beef fat, which has yet to be rendered. The white dish had my shallots, garlic, and red chili, which I incorrectly all threw in together (shallots need less time than onion, and I didn't want to wash even more dishes, so risked adding it at the same time). In the glass bowl is the sliced treviso radicchio. Always present at each juncture: my kosher salt and black pepper mill.
On the right the vegetable stock works hard (boils vigorously, yet more so than it really should), while on the left the beef is working with the shallots, garlic and chili. People who know will realize that because the stock wasn't started as early as it should have been, it was forced to work a little harder than is generally appropriate.
I won't put up any pasta salad recipe here. My hope is that if desired, someone can cook small shaped pasta, add olive oil and salt and pepper, and whatever fresh or canned vegetables they'd like.
Gonzo Cheap-beef and Tomato Stew
6 ounces, cheap beef (more is okay), sliced and browned
1 shallot, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 red chilis, minced
6 whole peeled pear tomatoes, grated
1.5-2 cups Gonzo-brand Veg Stock
kosher salt and fresh pepper to taste, of course
Basil would make it nicer...
We ended up just mixing everything together--the noodles and the beef stuff. It turned out pretty good.
At least, for me, once I pulled out the treviso.
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