Master Indy Style Barbecue Chuck Roast

Well we are one week into the series:

“The Little Black Book of Indiscreet Recipes”

Barbecue as history

Barbecue is inherently a statement on being Gay in America, take that red necks!

It is an example of survival, of taking what was allowed to us, the less than desirable and doing the best with it. In the case of food, this meant the cheapest and toughest cuts of meat. We developed not only great dishes, but also a whole culture of get-togethers, methods of cooking, presentations and social events. A whole hierarchy of tastes as expressions of beauty. Even from pre-civil war times Barbeque stood as an example of what was right, a great interracial coming together were you were judged only on the merits of what you worked to produce, how hard you tried and your eagerness to learn.

Granted the basics of Barbeque have been around since the discovery of cooking with fire, we can at least trace the term to a time when Europeans were first watching native Americans build structures to cook on. These held the meat over the fire so that it could be cooked low and slow (the most important defining characteristics of Barbequing). The

Spanish reported these were called: “barbacoa”.

Even 400 hundred years latter, we still haven't settled on a spelling! BBQ, Bar-Be-Que, BB Cue, etc. Nor really defined the term universally. In the northern states it simply refers to the cooking of meat outdoors, either in the backyard or the driveways on the weekends.

Ask a thunder from down under aussie guy, and he will have a completely different description of a “barbie”. However in the South Barbeque takes on the form of a cultural icon. The meats used, the basses of the sauces, even the side dishes served change distinctly region by region.

If they ever re set the musical “My Fair Lady” in say Savannah. The southern professor Higgins would ply his trade by asking you to describe barbeque. In some areas, he could place your origins to within blocks of your birth. Barbequing Lamb? That has to be from the blue grass hills of Kentucky. Yellow mustard sauce, meat chopped: that’s Georgia.

Western North Carolina uses a vinegar rich sauce that differs from the Eastern North Carolina by the use of tomatoes. Beef? Nobody barbeques beef outside of Texas, That's only because they have so very much of it!

As the taste moved west with the population, barbeque even took on a taste of Chinese sweat and sour with the oriental cooks employed by the railroads to feed the workers.

Why is slave going in for such a long introduction? Traditionally the meat is cooked low and slow by men, sitting around drinking and telling stories. So now you have something to talk about!. Ok Ok, slave knows:

Shut up and cook!

Master Indy Style Barbecue Roast

Ingredients:

2 – 3 lbs Chuck roast trimmed

2 medium onions

1 teaspoon paprika

½ teaspoon Dried Basil

1 cup beef stock

½ package thawed mangoes

Sauce:

¾ cup beef stock

½ cup balsamic vinegar

¾ cup white vinegar

¼ cup agave nectar

¼ cup packed brown sugar

¼ cup ketchup

¼ cup yellow mustard

2 cloves garlic minced finely

½ package thawed mangoes

salt and pepper to taste.

 

Directions:

Slice up 2 medium onions. In a skillet, over medium heat cook with paprika until starting to turn transparent. Transfer to Crock Pot heating on HIGH.

Using the same skillet, brown the sides of the chuck roast, so that there is good carmelization, about 15 minutes. You can speed this up by sliding the roast around in the pan. Place in pot and spoon onions over the meat. Sprinkle the basil and add the beef broth. Just enough to come up the sides of the piece but not covering. Pour on ½ package of Mangoes, cover and reduce heat to LOW!

After about 5 hours:

Combine sauce ingredients in a medium saucepan. Bring to boil, then reduce to a simmer and let cook for 30 minutes. Stirring often.

 At the end of seven hours carefully remove the meat from crock pot. It will tend to fall apart. Serve on platter surrounded by drained onions and mangoes with the Barbeque sauce poured over the top.

This is certified as NUM NUM!

Dedicated with all that I am to Master Indy,

socialslave

To satisfy and restore. To nourish, support and maintain. To gratify, spoil, comfort and please, to nurture, assist, and sustain …..I cook!