Wow! When was the last time I posted a recipe?

Cowboy Stew from the Comargue.

I may have posted this recipe already, but I have made it twice in the last month, so here it is:

Brown beef stew meat in a pot in butter, a few cubes at a time, remove when browned to a work bowl.

Heat more butter in the pot.

Throw in 1 1/2 large cloves of garlic for each pound of meat (peeled and maybe cut in half, but not chopped) until the smell of cooking garlic is clearly in the air.

Saute a sliced onion (or equal weight in shallots, which add other flavors that are nice) in the pot. When it is transluscent, add the beef, a good sized can of chopped or crushed tomatoes, a generous splash of red wine (I used a whole bottle of two buck Chuck for nearly four pounds of beef), a couple of bay leaves, broken up, fresh thyme, the juice and finely julienned zest of on orange, lavender salt (maybe some lavender blossoms if needed), and simmer for hours.

As it gets close to done (the meat should be falling apart), add the juice and zest of a second orange, a handful or three of good olives (last night I used a mix of Kalamata and Hondriolia), and serve over rice, finishing with freshly chopped parsley.

I made this for my parents and Amalia, since Melanie and I were reviewing a restaurant last night. The restaurant was good, but at that price, I think I would have rather stayed home and had my stew and a bottle of Chateauneuf du Pape (or even the $4 Australian Shiraz (Yellow Tail, from Trader Joe's, not bad) I opened for my parents (I did not have a fancier Cote du Rhone style wine, so it had to do)). Fortunately I get paid for eating at these places, so I can't really complain, but more times than not, I find eating out a less than satisfying experience.