re: Big brunch at home

Def not top secret, as it is an adaptation of Leon Soniats recipe in his La Boucche Creole cookbook. Page 130, your local library prob has a copy. I use top round, cut into small squares, not quite cubes, floured lightly (season the flour w black pepper and cayenne), remove the browned eat, then brown onions in the same pot, add green pepper, celery, garlic....deglaze pan w red wine, add some chopped tomato, season w Worcestershire, more garlic, return the meat to the pot. Add either water or beef stock to the pot, bring to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer and add a few bay leaves, some chopped parsley, simmer until beef is tender. Soniats recipe skips the wine and spikes it with vinegar at the end, but I find that the red wine gives sufficient acidity along w the tomatoes.

The trick, like with any meat and gravy recipe, is browning the meat well (in batches if needed, when the pan is crowded, it sweats and doesn't brown), and really allowing the onions and veg to caramelize before deglazing the pan. Don't use a nonstick pan (duh, you want it to "stick" and brown), and don't hurry that step.

Also, if you won't bother to use "real" grits that cook for 20 minutes, then forget it. Why bother to make grillades only to serve em over watery quick cooking grits? Use corn grits (aka polenta) if you can't find real grits. Yes, there is technically a difference between (hominy) grits and corn grits, but I digress.