This One's A Real Gas

What could be better than your boyfriend cooking up a fabulously hot and healthy meal for you on a chilly Southern California night? How about if he also blogs about the dish, photograph and all? That's what my boyfriend/contributing-blogger did for my very first post of 2009. Here is his (unedited) take on an old classic, beef barley soup. Enjoy!

Beef Stew Barley Farts

My first go at the crock. Tasted very nice, especially the sauce, though the stew meat I purchased was tough -- could be their fault or it needed more crock time. Oh, and the barley had me er, for lack of a better word, farting all day. Not to worry, while not quite silent, they were rather odorless (you can even ask my gf). Anyway, here's the recipe as best I recall, I was shaking, and scooping and splashing, no real measuring besides the squint of my eye.

1.3 pounds (or so) of stew meat

¾ to 1 cup of 3 day old Merlot

½ to ¾ cup of crushed tomatoes

3 cups of water or so

1/3 beef boullian cube.

¼ cup balsamic vinegar

1 Tablespoon hot sauce

1 Tablespoon lemon juice

1 Tablespoon hot curry paste concentrate

1 Tablespoon sweet soy sauce

1 Tablespoon hoisin sauce

1 Tablespoon heaping curry powder

1 Tablespoon oregano

1 Tablespoon salt/pepper

I put all that on high for 2 hours at which time I cracked open the crock to toss in chopped veggies in hopes of keeping them crisp for another 2 two hours (so 4 hours in total)--it worked:2 stalks of celery, 2 carrots, 1 tomato (I don't like potatoes, so I did it my way and left them out) . Next time I'll start the process in the morning and low crock the meat & sauce for 8 hours, tossing in the veggies again only during the last 2 of those 8.