Beef Broth, for what ails you...

Or so they say.  I've always made chicken bone broth because I eat a lot of chicken.  I decided to mix it up and hunt down some beef bones to give beef broth a try.  Happily I ran into packages of various sizes at my local alternative food Co-Op, and they were "grass-fed".

This morning I Googled around for a recipe and chose to base my broth off a recipe from this site: http://paleoporn.net/beef-bone-broth/

I varied the recipe to fit what I can eat and what I had at home at the time I decide to start the process.  Here's what I did:

Placed approx 2 qt of filtered water in the crockpot and turned the heat onto high.  

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

Place beef on a shallow baking sheet, on parchment paper.

While preheating the oven I charred a poblano pepper on the stove, then steamed in a paper bag.  This was to remove the skin, but the pepper was old enough there wasn't enough moisture in it for this technique to work.   I cut it into 3 large chunks, removed the stems and seeds and tossed it in the pot.

Added these other ingredients:

chunked frozen fennel, saved specifically for soup or broth.

Continued the cleaning out process by adding whole scallions.

Smashed 5 cloves of garlic and removed the papers.

Chunked up a jicama, and added it to the roasting beef for a few minutes.  Not sure what roasted jicama would be like, but thought it might be good that way.  It didn't really get much more than warm by the time the beef was done.

Lastly, a splash of apple cider vinegar.

Once the beef looked browned, I added it to the crockpot and drained the fat off the parchment paper into the pot as well.  

The house smells delicious and the just the beef and fennel together remind me of a beef pho soup.  I'm really excited to see how this turns out.  The plan now is to bring to a boil, then simmer for 24 or more hours.  After which the ingredients will be strained out and lovely, healthy and healing beef broth will be left.

Roasting beef bones on parchment paper.

All the ingredients in the pot, ready to do their thing for the next 24+ hours.

Note: This broth came out a little weird.  I think I put too much of the kitchen sink in it and not enough beef.  Next time, more bones and less other non traditional things (ie fennel and pepper).