Stewette

Last week, I found the neatest little cut of beef chuck - a little roundish bone surrounded by about three inches of meat. It made a nifty diminutive stew-for-two, plus leftovers and enviable goozle.

I made this stew with the usual cast of characters - onion, garlic, potatoes, carrots - and had some nice button mushrooms so I threw them in to the mix, too, and they added a fillip that previous stews had not enjoyed.

I had read in Bill Buford's book, "Heat," that restaurants sear their meat harder than home cooks do and that's where they get all the flavor - on the razor edge between burning and caramelization - so I seared the bejeebers out of this meat before removing it, adding the onion, garlic and mushrooms for a quick browning, then added the liquid for a long, slow braise. I also simmered the stewette in beef broth rather than water - makes a fine difference when you add flavors to flavors, doesn't it? Some fresh thyme snipped from the garden, flowers and all, was the main herb.

My Beloved relished the marrow in the bone; my favorite part was the goozle, which I sipped and sopped up with some herbed bread. This little stewette was as much soup as it was stew, and delicious either way.