Adventure, thy name is "the I made it up as I went along" recipe...

I was determined to actually cook something outside tonight, as well as post it on the blog.  I have been toying with the chicken potpie for a while, but just didn’t feel up to it.  I called Little Brother Mark (like a brother, but not twins…) for a consult.  We talked chicken, and as he was talking about chicken parts and broths, I blurted out “Yeah, and what about maybe some prime rib or something…?”.  I wrote out the recipe in my head as I spoke with him, and we agreed that it may come out cool.  The general layout was some sort of meat, large-chunked, sautéed in red wine, with green onions and whole pieces of garlic.  Throw in some red potatoes coated in olive oil and wrapped in foil, along with some green beans.  Lay the meat on top of sliced onion to prevent scorching.  The green beans will be from a frozen bag, and will take care of themselves.  And the potatoes will not over soften because of the foil.  Maybe some biscuits on the side.  Sounds like a plan.  I should mention that this was on the phone in the parking lot of WD, with my son patiently waiting our trip inside.  He was stoked to be helping me, and I was glad to have his interest.  For this dinner, I used my 12”-6QT, and my 8”-2QT.

I got 1.68lbs of boneless rib eye, a clove of garlic, one onion, two large red potatoes, green onions, a bag of frozen name brand green beans, and a tube of 5 golden layers buttermilk biscuits.  The meat was cut into pieces and put in a bowl with the chopped green onions, and several whole pieces of garlic.  The potatoes were cut, coated with olive oil and garlic-herb seasoning, and wrapped tightly in foil.

The meat and stuff was sautéed in the wine, about a half cup was fine.  I forgot to trust the meat to grease itself when cooking (I wanted to sear it a little before adding the wine) so I smeared a little reserved bacon grease on the pot’s cooking surface before starting.  This was entirely unnecessary.  I laid a bunch of coals on the cooking platform and make the pot into a skillet.  The meat browned up and smelled great.  When it was ready, I used a skimmer and pulled everything out of the pot and drained the wine and grease out.  I then poured the beans in on one side and the meat mix in on the other.  I laid the foil on top of everything, sort of across the middle.  Then new coals for the dinner pot to cook with.  I used my typical 350 degree mix of 10 coals on bottom and 16 on top (I find that 14 doesn’t quite give me the top heat I need).  This was cooked for 25-30 minutes.

I then used the coals I’d used previously to set up the biscuits.  The tube directions called for 400 degrees, which on an 8” was 12/6, or 12 top and 6 bottom.  I hadn’t used this pot before, so it seemed reasonable.  I found near the end that I needed about 3 or 4 more on top to keep it within the prescribed cooking time.  As you can see, they turned out quite nicely any way.

The prep time was nothing, cook time was 10 minutes of skilleting, and 30 minutes of lid turning and monitoring.  I used Shiraz for the red wine.  I don’t know if there is a particular type of red for cooking, but I like Shiraz, so…  phhhhbbllltttt!!!  And if you are ever using a wine for sautéing, use real wine, not sherry.  If you wouldn’t drink it, why the hell would you cook with it?  Aside from that, I think the potatoes would have been fine laying in the same place outside of the foil.  The meat came out tender, but didn’t have as much of the garlic taste as I would have liked.  The garlic pieces were quite tasty, though, roasted and soft, not overpowering to eat by themselves.

Family was happy with dinner, I have leftovers for tomorrow, and my little made-up recipe will be labeled by me as a successful adventure!  Love and iron, Del