Braised Short Ribs

Short ribs: delicious. Could eat 'em for days, not complain once. But somehow I had never cooked them myself, which I think is a by-product of doing little braising or meat roasts in general. In California, where produce is so versatile and so fresh, it's insanely easy to leave meat off the plate. And if it is on the plate, often it's just an ingredient - not a course or a meal. These kinds of meat adventures are special to me because they're so rare and unnecessary in this agricultural wonderland. So tonight, short ribs. Short ribs!

I work right next to Cafe Rouge in Berkeley. Their butcher is off the hook. The boys behind the counter are sweet and sometimes a little too cool for school, but their product is genuinely badass. I ate the best steak of the 2000's a few short weeks ago thanks to them (and Katie, and the cow). Also their beef jerky is no nonsense. Have you ever seen beef jerky with fat in it? Neither had I. It was AMAZING. But enough praise, this is about me and my food. Yesterday I decided the short ribs looked plump and rich and reasonably priced. I picked out a fatty (1.5#, 3-ribs) and for the rest of my 12-hour shift I was daydreaming about what I might do with it. My very own short ribs? This was more than a little intimidating; is there some powerful ingredient to the world's best short ribs that I didn't know about? Not being a meat roaster, naturally I would not know about this. Danger. Caution. Ribs.

What follows is an amalgam of the thoughts of Julia Child and numerous web references, except, I must point out, that of Mr. Wolfgang Puck. I can't respect any man who instructs the masses to spoon the fat off of their roast and "discard." Discard! There are uses for that fat! Why don't you cut back on the shitty potato chips and plastic chocolate, maybe eat a smaller portion and let yourself enjoy the miracle of fat. It worked for centuries. I thought about serving this solo with some toasted pain au levain, but settled on farro for its nutty flavor and delightful texture and farro-ness. If I had been more hungry, or if I were more than one person and needed more food, I would have tracked down some asparagus and fava beans, because man would that be good.

First Short Ribs

A fatty strip or two of short ribs from the best butcher you can find
2-3 tbsp ghee
1/2 yellow onion
3 carrots
4 stalks celery
3 fat cloves of garlic
1 sprig of rosemary
2 tbsp tomato paste, or sauce in a pinch (like my Puttanesca)
~1 cup red table wine (I used a cotes du rhone)
~4-6 cups broth of your choice

1 cup Farro

Preheat your oven to 300*F.

In a dutch oven or some other stove- and oven-savvy pot, melt your ghee over medium/medium-high heat. Did you know that Ghee doesn't scorch until 475 degrees or so? It is pure butterfat - clarified butter that's been boiled for hours. Ghee is my new favorite fat: the duck fat of 2009 if you will. You can use bacon fat instead if you've got it around, can't go wrong there. Any good fat will do. Dogs like the smell of fat, and if you're lucky your neighbor's dog will wander in to keep you company while you work, like this.



Sear the short ribs on all sides in the ghee. Take the meat out and let it rest on a plate, like this.



Then add the onions, carrots and celery to the fat and stir it up. Let these cook until the onions are getting clear, and add the garlic and rosemary. Stir and fry until these are fragrant.

Add the tomato paste and let it caramelize and get nice and sticky. When properly gummy and sweet-smelling, deglaze the pan with your red wine. Hop the ribs back in the pan and add enough broth so that they are covered or nearly-covered, depending on how much meat is in the pan. My one fatty strip of meat was a little lonely in its big pot, so rather than drown it in 8 cups of broth I let part of it stick out - no problem. Cover your pan and slide it into the warm oven.

Roast ~3 hours. The ribs should be easily forked, tender, loose and full of juicy, meaty flavor. And they were.

If you've never cooked farro, this is how I do it: boil way too much water, add the farro and simmer for ~15-20 mins, then drain dry like pasta. I suppose 2:1 proportions would work, like with rice, but I find that measuring isn't really necessary. Farro also makes an incredible breakfast when mixed with a little cream and honey and served with roasted stone fruit. Very incredible.

About halfway through making this dish, I realized I had done it before. With brisket. Braising is, to some extent, just braising. Even if you do it just twice in 28 years, it is a simple thing.

In the end, I remembered that there was chard in the fridge just begging to be wilted. I spooned a few tablespoons of fat and juice from the hot roast and sauteed the chard in that until wilty and fragrant. This was the best chard I have ever eaten in my life. There, I said it. Even Pullo was entranced by the aroma.


Nom nom!

Apple Pancakes

Deceptively simple and easy, perfectly fluffy and moist. If you only eat one meal on a rainy day, this should be it.

(Tilt head)


Serve it up with your favorite toppings (pictured here: apricot-orange marmalade and dollop of fresh whipped cream) and some mouth-smacking-good thick-cut bacon. These pancakes are so sweet and light they don't really need any topping, but I find a naked pancake entirely irresistible to toppings.

Apple Pancakes

Whisk together in a bowl:

1 1/2 c. flour
3 tbs brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt

Add:

4 tbsp. sweet butter, room temp

Cut the butter into the flour mixture using a fork, two butterknives, a pastry cutter, or whatever you like to use. I'm not sure why, but this step has made a big difference for me in the fluffiness of my pancakes. When the butter is in reasonably small bits, add:

1 1/2 c. milk
2 eggs
splash vanilla extract

Mix it all up well. Grate into the bowl:

1 apple

I used a Fuji, skin-on. If you're single like me and not planning on using all the batter at once, only add the apple to what you plan on cooking that day -- otherwise it will oxidize and get soggy. Fruit in pancake batter should always be fresh.

The rest is history, and if you don't know how to fry a pancake ... well, it's easy and you should try harder. I learned a secret from the tv-show "Dead Like Me" -- flip 'em before the bubbles burst, and they will be more springy and pleasantly pert. Don't burn 'em, or the insides will be moist and goopy. The apples keep these moist and fragrant .. enjoy!

Dangerous/Painful Potato Turnip Croquettes

Adapted from a recipe for potato-turnip latkes which was much less of a pain in the ass and just about as tasty. When I made the latkes, the fat was not quite hot enough so they had a tendency to sog.

I had an amazing croquette experience at Tacubaya, so I thought I'd try to turn the delicious duck-fatty latkes into light fluffy duck-fatty croquettes for the perfect marriage of texture and flavor. The result: the world's best tater tots, with an incredibly light, moist, delicate filling and fantastic crispy crust. Unexpected results: an entire house filled with thick, fatty smoke; half of a kitchen spattered in greasy spots; multiple burns on self. I do not recommend making this at the same time as the Amazing Granola, which I did last night to my painful and burnt dismay.

If you've never cooked with duck fat before: what the hell are you waiting for?

Dangerous/Painful Potato Turnip Croquettes

4 medium russet potatoes
2 medium/small turnips
a few green or spring onions
Panko japanese breadcrumbs (the kind for tempura)
1/2 cup heavy cream
salt & pepper to taste
~1 cup duck fat (maybe a little more)

Quarter the potatoes and turnips and boil them until ready to mash. Drain well and mash 'em up in a big bowl with the chopped green onions, salt & pepper. Mix in the cream, being careful not to get the mixture too wet (My mistake #1).

Fill a shallow bowl with bread crumbs, and start spooning onto them small balls of potato/turnip mix -- I used the same 2-spoon technique that a lot of people use for drop cookies. Don't try to handle the croquettes too much in the breadcrumbs (my mistake #2), but try to coat them evenly. I ended up tossing the balls between both hands with the crumbs, which worked well but didn't squish the croquettes into useless paste as much as my first efforts.

Get your duck fat pretty damn hot - med. high heat until shimmery. If the fat isn't hot enough, the croquettes will be oily and soggy without a good crust. Fry the croquettes on as many sides as possible for maximum crisp, about 2-3 minutes per side if the oil is hot enough. Drain on a paper towel and serve hot with creme fraiche.

One problem with using Panko breadcrumbs .. or perhaps breadcrumbs in general .. is that some of them will undoubtedly flake off into the fat, where they burn to tiny tiny crisps. After about 15 minutes of boiling, smooshing and frying, while juggling my granola project at the same time, I turned around to see that the entire house was filled with noxious grey smoke. The dog was standing in the kitchen doorway with his feet apart, giving me a what-the-hell-are-you-doing look. By the time I was done, I collected a tiny mountain of the black crisps on one side of the pan. My hands, face and front were covered in tiny burns and my eyes and lungs stung from the smoke. Perhaps the whole experience wouldn't have been as overwhelming without the simul-baking of the granola (my mistake #3).

Amazing Granola

This is adapted from the recipe in the cheese board's collective works for their "killer granola." The main difference is the absence of coconut and presence of many, many nuts and seeds in my version.

This is insanely easy to make. As someone who loves granola but is very picky about what should be in it, I love making my own and having it just my way. It keeps well in an airtight container, is cheap to make and easy to gift.

Measurements are approximate. Preheat oven to 325.

2 tbs butter
salt to taste
2 cups total chopped nuts: pecans, walnuts, almonds (or your favorites)
2 tsp honey
1/4 c. sugar of choice
dash of vanilla extract
1 and 1/4 c. old-fashioned rolled oats
1/2 c. sunflower seeds
1/4 c. sesame seeds
1/4 c. flax seeds

In a pan, melt the butter over pretty low heat. Add the salt and your nuts, stirring well to evenly coat them all, and bring the heat up just a bit. Toast the nuts until they are golden and beautiful, but keep a careful eye on them because they can burn quickly if your heat gets out of control. I burnt my first batch but it still tasted great. When the nuts are ready, add the honey and sugar and bring the heat back down to low until the sweeteners are melted and gooey. Kill the heat and add the vanilla.

Combine the oats and seeds in a big bowl, add the nut mixture and mix it all up like woah. Spread the mix evenly over a baking sheet lined with parchment paper (I *love* parchment paper) and bake for 15 minutes. Stir it around and redistribute at that point, and bake for another 10-15 minutes until it's all golden toasty. Let it cool completely on the hot pan, since it will continue to toast from the residual heat.

The nutty bits are the best part of this, so you can try to mix them in as much as possible (so that all of it becomes the best part of it), or you could deliberately leave big nut clusters. You could add raisins or coconut flakes, but I don't like either of these things in granola -- raisins get too chewy after baking and coconut is weird. I bet dried fruit could be mixed in after it cools (or while cooling perhaps?) if you just have to have fruit.

The Incredible Undescribable Wonders of an Excellent Olive Oil

Two years ago, my friend Eva got married in southern France, in a small town called Maussane (where her husband is from). Her reception was in the moulin of a local olive oil producer -- Jean Marie Cornille -- a beautiful stone building surrounded by the small hills that mark the beginning of the French Alps (les Alpilles).

The day was incredible for a number of reasons; excellent weather, beautiful scenery, wonderful food, hilarious and friendly company, to name a few.

I bought a small bottle of the Cornille olive oil as a souvenir, which turned out to be a precious joy that I hadn't anticipated. The oil (http://www.moulin-cornille.com/us/huil-oliv.html), like most provencale olive oils, is light and incredibly herbacious. There are some with more peppery or grassy notes, but this one is smooth and buttery without being at all flat. The fruit is a blend of olives from la valee des baux de provence, an area that is also home to the "most beautiful village" in all of France, or something like that.


The village is cute. They have good candy and also good nearby vineyards w/ tasting rooms. Don't rely on the bus, or you might have to walk back to Maussane like we did -- through the olive groves. I didn't know then that I was to become so obsessed with this oil.

After running dry long ago, I decided it was time for more of the Maussane oil (http://www.zingermans.com/Product.aspx?ProductID=O-MAU, but the price has gone up). Yes, it is worth sending away to Ann Arbor for. Yes, it was worth $65 for a liter, and yes I would have paid $80 for it. Well, maybe...

If you use this oil in a dish with strong flavors, the result will probably be delicious but you'll lose all the subtlety of the oil. Because of this, and to get the most flavor out of my $65, I've been inspired to cook simple food that acts as the perfect vessel for my favorite oil. This morning I toasted a hearty, multigrain bread and drizzled it with olive oil and a pinch of fleur de sel - incredible. It's amazing what a couple of quality ingredients can do to a kitchen!

My dinner tonight was so exquisite I have to share it here, for whoever has the patience (or the love of olive oil) to read this far.

My new favorite meal:
-Farro pasta tossed in Maussane olive oil and crumbled parmigiano reggiano, with a pinch of salt. *
-Butter lettuce salad with the same olive oil, a splash of white cava vinegar, a pinch of salt and a few dry black olives.
-Dessert of dried dates.

I also opened a Neyer's Thieriot vineyard chardonnay -- a bright, minerally, full-bodied chard -- that came with my wine club a few months ago. Delightful with this light meal.

*Did I say light meal? I also fried two strips of bacon, on the side. What can I say, there was open bacon in the fridge and it would have gone bad... sometimes you have to take one for the team.

Cheers!

Panzanella Salad (fried bread salad)

This is a forgiving recipe, and easy to adjust or improvise. The most important part is the bread ... everything else is a variable. It's a quick dinner for one (or side for two), and a great way to get the most out of fresh seasonal ingredients (like tomatoes!). Using quality oil/vinegar makes a big difference.

The proportions here are for one person (me) if this is your whole dinner, or two people if there is another dish.

4 slices stale french bread, cubed
~10 cherry tomatoes (or 2-3 bigger tomatoes) cut into smallish pieces
1 4-oz. ball of fresh mozzarella, cubed-ish
~8 leaves fresh basil, sliced thin or minced
1 small clove garlic, minced
~2-3 tbs olive oil
~1 tbs good quality balsamic vinegar
pinch of salt (truffle salt if you are hooked like me)

Heat the olive oil in a frying pan (medium heat) and add the bread when hot. Toss to spread the oil and fry for about 5 minutes, tossing frequently. Keep a close eye on it to make sure the croutons don't burn. When crispy and golden, turn off the heat and set aside.

In a big bowl, mix the other ingredients. Add the bread just before serving and toss it all together.

There was a photo of this meal, but it no longer exists due to catastrophic camera difficulties. That's a story for another day...

Peach Jam, Peach Blackberry Jam and Plum Blackberry Coulis

This is only sort of a recipe blog, because I have only a vague idea what the weight or proportions of my ingredients were. I also don't feel like writing about every little step -- if you're curious about that, look at last summer's jam posts. This is just a little note about jam, jamming, summer fruits and settling into a new kitchen. I moved about 5 weeks ago and this is the first big project I've done in my new kitchen, inspired by a $5 box of ripe peaches I saw on sale yesterday. The peach score was quickly followed up by some super-sweet blackberries from Monterey Market, which in turn was quickly succeeded by amazingly sweet, ripe golden plums from Rachel's backyard. It's a good thing that I have a hard time putting a good glass jar in the recycling -- and an even better thing that I insisted on bringing my stash with me from Santa Cruz. Today it came in handy.

Just Peach Jam/Peach Blackberry Jam
20 large peaches
6 or 7 lemons: zest and juice
900g "white" sugar*
about 10 blackberries

*how many cups is 900g? It was the sugar they sell at Trader Joe's -- the only thing I remember about the package was that it said 900g.

I started this last night by blanching the peaches to remove their skins and then crushing them with my hands to remove the pits and break them into smaller chunks (this is incredibly fun -- I highly recommend). Added the sugar, lemon zest and juice, then covered w/ parchment to sit in the fridge overnight. This afternoon I realized that it was a little too much to fit in my big pan, so I decided to do two batches and add a few blackberries to the second, smaller batch (hence only 10). I didn't want the blackberries to compete with the peaches, just to add a little extra color and flavor. These two jams were GORGEOUS. All-caps-gorgeous. The pre-cooled jam tasted marvelous, too.

Plum Blackberry Coulis
~20-30(?) small golden plums (3 or 4 pounds? the buggers were heavy with juice)
~1.5 cups turbonado sugar
2 lemons - juice and zest
remaining 12 or so blackberries

The plums were so ripe that this one didn't seem like it was going to set very well without cooking it waaaay down, so I settled for a slightly runny jam that is more like a coulis or sauce. It tasted great, but might be a little too runny for toast. I think this one would be great poured over vanilla ice cream or fresh ricotta.

Following Bay's advice, I took pictures this time. Too bad the internet isn't ready for scratch-n-sniff.

L-R: Peach, Peach Blackberry, Plum Blackberry (cooling upside-down)