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Thursday, August 12th, 2010Glazed, Braised Boneless Beef Short Ribs (Revised)
Friday, March 12th, 2010
Boneless beef short ribs are the muscle portion of the short ribs derived from the 6th 7th and 8th ribs of the primal beef rib cut. They are a bargain cut, flavorable, hearty and tender if cooked long and wet. Orange marmalade is a great glaze since it is tasty, strong and holds up well when grilled or braised. It gets quite dark when braised. We served the ribs with a tossed salad and TLW’s wonderful but mysterious creamed rice and cheese casserole (she won’t write up the recipe). This dish takes only about 15 minutes to prep. Here’s how:
Glazed, Braised Beef Short Ribs (Revised)
Yield: 4 servings
See abbreviations, if needed
6 beef short ribs (about two per person)
S/P
EVOO
1/3 C red wine
2T herbes de Provence (or other seasoning blend)
1/2 C orange Marmalade
2-3 C beef or chicken broth (low salt if available)
1. Pre-heat oven to 350F
2. Dry the beef ribs and season with S/P
3. In a Dutch oven or oven proof heavy skillet with cover, brown the ribs nicely on all sides
4. Remove the browned ribs and deglaze the pot with red wine, then reduce at high heat for a few minutes
5. Reduce heat, add the herbes and return the ribs to the pan
6. Generously spread the top of the ribs with orange marmalade
7. Add the broth to a height of about 1/2 inch
8. BTB on the stove top, cover and then place in the pre-heated oven
9. After one hour, remove the cover and check level of braising liquid left to make sauce
10. Add water, if necessary, return the pot to the oven and roast (uncovered now) for another hour
11. When fork tender and nearly falling apart, carefully remove ribs to a warm place
12. Skim the fat from the braising liquid, taste and then BTB briefly to make sauce
13. Serve the ribs on heated plates with the sauce
Braised Rabbit with Mustard Sauce
Tuesday, December 1st, 2009
Domestic raised rabbit is 3 to 5 pounds of smooth white meat fore and aft. It’s readily available, fresh or frozen, whole or cut, if you look for it. Rabbit is about as easy to cut into pieces as chicken but you will need a good shears or cleaver as rabbit bones are strong. Last summer, at the local farmers’ market, an Amish farmer from Orange Virginia had beautiful frozen whole rabbit. I bought two and did the first one with prunes and red wine. It was too heavy and the red wine discolored the meat–never again. This time, inspired by a recipe in The Gourmet Cookbook, we had a braised rabbit that elicited repeated yums around the table. The cookbook recipe was under seasoned and recommended a cooking time that was too short. Here is my version of this bistro dish:
Braised Rabbit with Mustard Sauce
See Abbreviations, if needed
1 dressed rabbit cut into serving pieces (8-10)
3T herbes de Provence
4T EVOO
3/4C sliced shallots or onion
3 stocks of celery, sliced
3T butter
S/P (watch the salt if using salted chicken broth)
2C white wine
3C chicken stock (check salt content if using broth)
2T dijon mustard
2T whole grain mustard
1T cornstarch
1. Cut the rabbit as desired and rub each piece with herbes de Provence and S/P
2. Heat some EVOO in a big Dutch oven, add rabbit pieces in batches, brown the pieces well
and set them aside
3. Clean the Dutch oven, add butter and some EVOO
4. Sauté the onions and celery to translucent
5. Add the wine, BTB and reduce by half
6. Return the rabbit to the pot, add the stock, add a little more pepper and herbes
(be sure to place the legs at the bottom of the pot as they are tougher than the back pieces)
7. Cover and BTB, then simmer on the stove top for about 2 hours (at very low heat–just enough to
burp a boiling bubble every second or so)
8. When done, remove the rabbit pieces and set them aside in a warm place
9. Scoop out the onions and celery with a strainer
10. Spoon out about a half cup of the broiling liquid and let cool in a ramekin–when cooled
to the touch, add the cornstarch and mustards and whisk them about
11. BTB the rest of the broiling liquid and reduce to 2+ cups
12. Add the cornstarch-mustard mixture, BTB and then simmer the pot to thicken the sauce
13. Taste and correct seasoning, if necessary
14. Transfer the sauce to a heated gravy tug
15. Transfer the rabbit to a heated serving platter and serve immediately onto heated plates
with the mustard sauce
Pureed Sweet Potatoes with Smoked Paprika
Tuesday, December 1st, 2009Sweet potatoes are winter comfort food. They are easy to prepare: baked, steamed or micro waved. Delicious in the shell with just S/P and butter or scooped out and then mashed or pureed, they compliment all meats and offset stronger veggies such as Brussels sprouts or broccoli. Sweet potatoes can also stand up to bold seasonings.
Smoked Spanish Paprika is a spice de jour in U.S. restaurants. Paprika is made by grinding aromatic sweet red pepper pods. The best comes from Hungary and Spain. When smoked over oak, pungent paprika retains its rich dark orange color while taking on awesome smoky flavors and bouquet. The Pensay Spices people sell it, as do others. They suggest adding it to chicken and fish before cooking and to soups, salads and any tomato based dish.
Here smoked paprika is added to sweet potatoes along with cayenne! I’ve made this dish twice now and it has received oohs, aahs and yumyums all around. Make it ahead of time, as it holds well in the fridge. Here’s how:
Pureed Sweet Potatoes with Smoked Paprika
Yield: 4 to 6 servings
See abbreviations, if needed
3 lbs sweet potatoes (3 to 5)
4T butter, softened
S TT
1/2t (not more) smoked paprika
1/2t cayenne
1/3 to 1/2C heavy cream
————————————
1. Fork the shells and microwave or steam the sweet potatoes, to done
2. Let cool, and scoop out the flesh into a stainless steel bowl
3. Add the butter and work in
4. Break up the potato with a fork, to roughly smooth
5. Add the smoked paprika and salt and work in
6. Add half the cayenne and work in (reserve the rest for Step 9)
7. Puree the potato mixture with a stick blender or a hand beater, to silky smooth
8. Taste and adjust seasonings, keeping in mind that cream will be added later
(The cream will smooth out the paprika and the cayenne)
9. Add the rest of the cayenne (optional, but go for it)
10. Hold in fridge
11. On order, add the cream, heat and serve immediately in a warmed bowl
Proscuitto Wrapped Asparagus
Tuesday, December 1st, 2009
A recent visit to Costco, a big box everything store, revealed a nice package of Proscuitto di Parma. Each transparently thin slice of this wonderful Italian salt-cured, air-dried but not smoked ham was separated by a thin plastic divider that peeled right off. You’ve had this ham with melon or with cheese and crackers. It’s best eaten uncooked. However, it can be cooked to good effect if added a la minute. For example:
Proscuitto Wrapped Asparagus
1. Trim and wash some asparagus and boil in lightly salted water for about 6 minutes until just barely tender. Scoop the cooked asparagus out of the boiling water and into an awaiting bowl of ice water to stop the cooking process and to retain the brught green color.
2. When cooled, drain off the ice and water and place the asparagus on a paper towel to dry.
3. Peel off a slice of Proscuitto di Parma, place 5 or 6 spears of cooked asparagus on the proscuitto and wrap and roll the whole thing up. Repeat for all and set aside.
4. When ready, place the asparagus wraps in a greased pan and reheat in a preheated 400F oven for about eight minutes.
5. Serve immediately. Shown here with The Little Woman’s chipped beef on toast.
Note: You may add a grind of pepper or other seasoning to the asparagus before wrapping them up, but beware that the proscuitto is salty.
Potatoes Rissole–Knife Work
Monday, November 30th, 2009
If you take some time with some nice fingerling potatoes you can carve up a French classic sauteed/roasted potato dish called pommes de terre rissolees. The dish calls for small potatoes carved into little six-sided footballs–all pretty much the same size regardless of the potato you start out with. It takes practice to carve these potatoes so that they look quite alike, but you will get the hang of it soon enough. Use a sharp paring knife. The so-called bird’s beak peeler knife works best but is not required. Carve each one and drop it in a bowl of water to prevent discoloration. When ready, dry the potatoes and then sauté them in a very hot pan with EVOO, salt and pepper. The potatoes must be well browned on all sides, which means, even after some tossing, each potato has to be turned with a tong. When browned, add some butter and maybe some herbs to the pan and then place it in a 375F oven to roast the potatoes until they are fork tender, maybe another ten minutes. If you find these shaped potatoes on your plate in a restaurant, you will know that the chef appreciates traditional fine cooking and will pay to create it. When doing a stagiaire at The George Town Club one afternoon, I prepared some pommes rissolee. The chef placed two potatoes on each plate as an amuse-bouche to delight the eye.
Pot Roast Tagine
Monday, November 30th, 2009Yield: 4 servings, or 2 servings with leftovers
See the article on the tagine
See Abbreviations, if needed
· 2 lbs roast of pork or lamb shoulder or beef chuck
· 1 T EVOO
· 15 oz chicken stock or canned chicken or beef broth
· 1 large onion, sliced medium thick
· 2 carrots, sliced in like-size pieces
· 1 garlic, pureed
· 8 red potatoes, small to medium size, halved
· 1 sprig of thyme
· 4 bay leaves
· S/P
1. Tie the roast, if necessary to hold its shape
2. Season the roast well with S/P
3. Place the EVOO in the iron tagine bottom over medium-high heat,
brown all sides of the roast well, using large tongs to handle it
4. Set the roast aside, add 1/3 cup of the stock and, using a
plastic spatula, loosen the residue that formed on the tagine bottom
while the roast was browned
5. Return the roast to the tagine bottom and add the veggies along the sides
6. Spread the pureed garlic on top of the roast along with a few of the onions
7. Add the spices and the rest of the stock (braising liquid) and BTB
8. When at boiling point, reduce the heat to the lowest simmer setting
9. Place the cover on the tagine
10. Braise the roast on the stovetop for about 1.5 hours or until done
11. Serve the dish from the tagine bottom
12. Optional: To make a sauce: When the roast and veggies are done, remove them carefully to a serving platter and keep in a warm place. Bring the braising liquid to a
brisk boil and reduce the volume by about one-half, or enough sauce for 4 servings. Taste and season as desired. Serve the dish with the sauce on the side
Notes: a) If the roasts at the counter are too large, ask the butcher to cut one in half and package them separately. b) All manner of veggies can be used for this dish. Try eggplant, green beans, zuchs, broccoli, sweet potato, whatever. Soft veggies should be added midway through the cooking process. c) There will be a little sputtering of braising liquid around the seal as the tagine simmers.
Pork Loin Ribs, Dry, Low and Slow
Monday, November 30th, 2009This audience does not need a basic tutorial on to barbecue or grill. Certainly not our North American and Australian gourmet geezers. Still, I have been often asked,–sometimes asked,–someone asked last week how to make great ribs.
The answer lies in two parts. Common practice is to buy a couple racks of pork loin backribs, slather them with barbecue sauce and put them on the barbecue grill for an hour or so, adding more sauce a few minutes before serving.
Been there, done that.
After awhile, and after trying a half dozen sauces and one or two of my own making, I concluded that all of them tend to drown out the great taste of lean pork ribs and that none of the sauces taste all that good, to begin with. So, why not dry rub the ribs with salt and pepper and let the taste of pork come through? And then serve heated sauce on the side for those that can’t live without it.
Try it!
After preparing a few ribs with kosher salt and freshly ground pepper you might wish to substitute a prepared dry rub. I have three that I like. The Penzey Spice people offer a dry rub immodestly called “Barbecue of the Americas.” It’s a tasty blend of salt, paprika, allspice, cayenne, other peppers, ginger and cinnamon. The Spice House people have a “Jamaican Style Jerk Seasoning” that I use once in awhile on ribs and often on grilled chicken. They also have a “Baharat,” a Mediterranean style blend that works well on grilled meat. Rub one of these spice blends on evenly and shake off the excess before grilling. As for a favorite barbecue sauce: find one that tastes good off the spoon. Of late, I have been using “Stubbs Bar-B-Q-Sauce.”
After watching innumerable barbecue cook-offs on TV, where good ole boys cook ribs, briskets and whole pigs for most of the day, I concluded that they may be on to something but probably to excess. To get ribs falling-off-the-bone-tender, they need to be grilled over low heat for quite some time. This is a difficult task over a charcoal- or hardwood-fired grill since the fuel and fire must be tended. It takes a skilled, devoted and attentive cook at least a six pack of beer to produce acceptable results.
The task is greatly simplified–though the process is not as much fun and the product taste is arguably inferior– if using propane or natural gas. Here’s how:
- Trim the meat-side of pork backribs of excess fat and, on the bone-side, loosen and peel off the silver skin (optional).
- Rub the ribs evenly with S/P or a selected dry rub preparation.
- Select a grill with a cover and one that can provide indirect heat, as described here. If it has a thermometer, all the better.
- Shake off the excess seasoning, and place the ribs on the grill
- Fire up the grill burner(s) that does not fire directly under the ribs.
- Close the cover and adjust the burner(s) to produce and maintain, within the enclosure, a temperature of 230F. 230F is the target temperature. Do not exceed 260F.
- Grill the ribs, starting bone-side-down, for three hours.
- Turn the ribs once or twice favoring meat-side down. (If they look dry, drizzle a little oil on the meat side.)
Cut the ribs into groups of two or three bones and serve with whatever you been brung up to have with barbecued ribs.
Pesto
Monday, November 30th, 2009Pesto, Pesto!!
Our parsley and basil pot was county class this summer. By mid-September, however, the basil began to look sun-bleached and a little tired: a reminder for The Little Woman to harvest it all, before the first hard freeze, and have me make a batch of pesto .
Pesto is an uncooked sauce that goes wonderfully with pasta. Just boil up some farfalle-, fettuccine- or fusilli-shaped pasta, drain, add it to a mixing bowl filled with an ounce or so of warmed pesto, toss and serve on heated plates as a light lunch, an appetizer or as a side with meat. James Peterson recommends pesto as a sauce over grilled meats, fish and vegetables, as well as stirred into a soup a la minute.
Pesto is easy to make if you have a food processor and a lot of fresh basil leaves. Here’s how:
(See abbreviations, if needed)
1.5oz pine nuts, roasted
2C loose, fresh basil (about 80 leaves or 2 oz), thoroughly dried
1C shredded Parmigiano-Reggiano
3/4C EVOO
3-5 garlic cloves
TT S/P
1. Place the pine nuts into a very hot pan and stir them until they begin to brown (don’t burn ‘em) remove nuts from pan to hold
2. Place the nuts, basil, cheese, garlic and S/P in the food processor and add 2oz of EVOO
3. Pulse to create a thick emulsion
4. With the food processor running, drizzle in the rest of the EVOO
5. Place the pesto in an air tight jar and hold in the fridge. It freezes well too.
Purple Pesto
We got together with some dear old friends to enjoy a beautiful fall day over a late lunch and to admire our hosts’ patch of purple basil. We’ve never seen the stuff before, so of course I had to take an armload of it home with the promise that I would return with purple pesto–possibly the world’s first. Pesto is an uncooked fresh-tasting sauce. According to Herbst, it originated in Genoa. Its classic use is with pasta, always diluted with EVOO or hot pasta water (1:1/2 or 1). Diluted with EVOO, it’s delicious on oven roasted veggies and potatoes–whether oven roasted or sautéed and then finished in the oven. Undiluted, a tablespoon stirred, a la minute, into minestrone or served over corn on the cob, green beans or grilled meats, works well. Go here for my pesto recipe.
Our garden basil is gone with the first hard freeze, so it is an autumn ritual to harvest it and make pesto, which I did last week. I did it again with this purple basil, only to discover that we did not have enough Parmigiano-Reggiano to make a double batch. “Why not shred two cups of the Pleasant Ridge Reserve Cheese and make it with that,” the Little Woman suggested. Sure enough, that cheese, described below, was equal to the essential task of imparting strong cheese notes to balance off the basil and garlic. Note the difference in color between the green leaf basil and the purple leaf variant. Neato!
Pepper and Tomato Salad
Monday, November 30th, 2009Sweet peppers and tomatoes are in season now, and your garden patch of basil and mint should be resplendent. Why not place them all on one plate as a nice cool fresh summer salad?
Pepper and Tomato Salad
Yield: 4 servings
See Abbreviations, if needed
· 2 large ripe tomatoes (heirloom varieties are nice here)
· 1 large garlic clove, pureed
· 6 fresh basil leaves cut in thirds lengthwise
· 5 fresh mint leaves cut in halves lengthwise
· 3T EVOO (your very best)
· 4 large bell peppers, any color or mix
· S/P to taste
· 2T capers, drained
1. Char the peppers directly over gas burners or under the broiler. Place each in
an aluminum wrapper and seal to cool
2. Cut the tomatoes into pieces, deseed, and pass them through a food mill, fitted with
the medium or large hole disk, and into a small glass mixing bowl
3. Puree the garlic, cut the basil and mints leaves and place all in the bowl
4. Add the EVOO and mix well
5. Add S/P to taste, cover the bowl and let rest in the fridge for an hour
6. Remove each pepper from its aluminum foil and scrape off the charred skin
| TIP: Over the sink, scrape off the charred skin of a roasted bell pepper with a paring knife (better still, a serrated paring knife). Use running water to clean the knife. Do not run water over the pepper. It gets messy. |
7. Slice open the roasted peppers, deseed and devein
8. Slice the peppers into long strips about 3/8-inch wide
9. Arrange the peppers on a serving plate and drizzle the
tomato/EVOO mixture over them
10. Drain the capers and distribute them over the top of the salad
11. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest in the fridge for an hour.
12. Remove the salad from the fridge about 30 minutes before serving