Winging it with short ribs!

Perhaps it was the frigid temperatures here in LA (mid-50s) recently, that got me craving fall-off-the-bone braised beef short ribs. Or, perhaps it was the delicious braised, then grilled, short ribs we had at Table 8 last month. Either way, I needed ribs. I love this dish for a number of reasons. Aside from the obvious taste, texture and just plain satisfying reasons, it is super easy to make for a crowd. And, since it can be made ahead of time, it's perfect for a stress free dinner party. Also, you can season and spice it as you wish and customize the veggies to your liking. This dish is even better re-heated. So, you should definitely make extra, so you can have a great mid-week meal.

I don't have a precise recipe for you this time, because I didn't use one myself. But I will walk you through it step by step. The most difficult thing about making this dish, is waiting the few hours of braising time to eat it.

I confess, I am a recipe whore. Like my mother before me, I too have amassed an extensive collection of recipes, pulled from magazines, that I plan on making...someday. I have cookbooks numbering in the hundrededs. And I often look to the internet for recipes to cross reference what I already have. I love trying new recipes, even if it is for a dish I already know how to make. Why would a formally trained chef even bother with recipes you ask? For one thing, you never know where you'll learn a new tip, technique or method. For another thing, you never know when you'll find a better recipe than your own. Having worked for many great chefs, each proclaiming their methods best (and yet each very different), I quickly realized that there is no one best way to doing anything. You can only hope to find what's best for you. Like most things in life you benefit from being open to new ideas.

Despite all this, I haven't been in the mood to wade through my many folders of recipes. Besides, there is something to be said for improptu creativity. I've got the meat braising technique down pat. I've already tried a number of different recipes, so this could be my chance to take the best from all prior versions, and make it my own. Here, I'll go through the (very detailed) steps involved in creating the dish and give you some ideas to make it your own.

Full ribs come about 6-9" long with a thick strip of beef attached. You can ask your butcher to cut these down for you, or you may find them already portioned into 4" (or so) pieces. For our purposes we want to use beef ribs that look like little bricks of meat and bone, and NOT the Korean BBQ variety where multiple ribs and the in-between meat are cross cut into thin slices.

Portion-wise, I find that 1 piece per person is perfect, especially if you have a side salad and dessert. Some pieces usually turn out bigger than others, so you can give the larger pieces to the bigger eaters.

The best pot to use for this dish is a dutch over (think Le Creuset), which is deep and heavy over-proof pot that comes with a lid. This type of pot allows you to brown and braise (cooking meat in liquid) in the same pot. If you don't have a dutch over, or if you don't have one that can fit all your ribs, there is a way around it. You can brown your meat in a frying pan, then braise it in another deep oven-proof pot/pan that you can cover (I've even used a large roasting pan with foil).

Preheat oven to 280 degrees. Season the ribs with salt and pepper (you could also add other spices/seasonings here if you're feeling adventurous). You could even flour the ribs before browning. The flour will help thicken the sauce, but be sure to shake off any excess before adding to the pan. Heat your dutch oven/frying pan over medium high heat. Once hot, add enough olive oil to lightly coat the bottom. Add the ribs and brown on all sides. Remove ribs, and set aside. In the rib pan add your chopped vegetables and cook over medium heat. You can really go crazy here. I would start with a mirapoix (classic onion, carrot & celery combo), and add some of the following: celery root, parsnips, fennel, leeks, turnips, etc. Saute the vegetables until they are cooked through, and season them with salt and pepper. I like to add a few tablespoons of tomato paste for a deep touch of sweetness. Cook it with the veggies until it browns a little.

Generally, the braising liquid consists of any combination and proportion of alcohol, broth and diced tomato in its juices. I've seen recipes that just call for red wine or beer, and others that just call for beef broth. If you're using alcohol, add it to the pan and deglaze by scraping up all the brown bits. Boil until the alcohol evaporates (reduce by about 1/2 the volume), even if you plan on only using alcohol, as this will take the edge off. I personally like to use no more than a bottle of wine (depending on how many ribs). If not using alcohol, you can deglaze with some broth before continuing. Then add the ribs back to the pot (or put everything into the final braising pan) to see how much more total liquid you'll need to add to cover the ribs. Along with the remaining liquid to cover the ribs, this is a good time to add some salt and pepper, any herbs (ie - thyme, bay leaf, rosemary) and other flavorings (ie - worstershire sauce, sugar).

Cover the pan, and place in the oven to braise for 2 1/2 - 3 hours. You could also braise the ribs on the stove top over low heat. The idea is to maintain a gentle simmer. But I prefer the ease of the oven, since it also frees up cook top space.

Once the meat looks fall-off-the-bone tender, remove the pot from the oven, and uncover. Remove the ribs from the liquid, set aside and cover to keep warm. Place the pan over high heat, and reduce the liquid until it has a syrupy consistency. Skim the top of fat as the sauce reduces. Then taste for seasoning.

The ribs are great served with mashed potatoes or noodles, and topped with sauce.

Icing on the Cake

As a child, I loved eating the buttercream frosting roses on my birthday cake. (That is until I learned they were made out of Crisco.) I know the trend now is for simple, home-style cupcakes, but I love pretty, decorated cakes, whether by simple dots or an all out floral & basket weave motif. I even took a cake decorating class. With a few tries, I can even make those "buttercream" roses I now refuse to eat. But after spending hours piping royal icing on my Valentine's cookies this year, (with mediocre results, I might add) I've lost my piping mojo. My other problem is that I LOVE whipped cream, but it is impossible to get it to hold its piped shape without adding gelatin as a stabilizer. How do bakeries do it, you ask? They use non-dairy whipped cream. I'm not exactly sure what that is, but I do know it has lots of corn syrup. Ick!

Then it hit me, I don't have to go to all the effort of frosting and decorating a cake, just to enjoy some. Instead, I could serve it simply deconstructed, much like restaurants do. This way, you can still make a variety of classic frosted cakes, and with less restriction on toppings and garnishes. How liberating! In the above shot I made a simple chocolate cake, and served it with berries macerated in framboise, and fresh whipped (vanilla) cream. For a throw back to childhood birthday parties, you could serve cake with ice cream, or make it like a cake/brownie sundae topped with nuts. Ah, the options are endless, and the effort minimal.

The cake itself can be made a day or two in advance, and many of the sides/toppings can be prepared ahead of time too. Sure whipped cream is best served fresh, but at least it doesn't take more than 5 minutes to make. For those of you who don't know, whipped cream is simply heavy cream "whipped" (either by hand with a whisk or with a mixer) to light to stiff peaks (depending on preference), and flavored with sugar and vanilla extract. You could also top with zabaglione (sugar & liquor whipped egg yolks cooked over boiling water) or a pudding.

I know I don't make cakes as often as I'd like because of the time and effort needed to decorate them. But, by serving them "deconstructed," I can easily serve them anytime. I also find it a refreshing change from the fruit crisps, and fresh-from-the-oven desserts I often serve this time of year.

So, let them eat cake!

Cozy Winter Dinner for Four

I cannot believe that it is now February and I've been meaning to write about this particular meal for well over four weeks. Since I am bedridden and miserable with a horrid cold, now seems just about the right time to recall this happier weekend not that long ago...

The first weekend of our new year was spent at home in Brooklyn. I had invited friends of ours who were weeks away from getting married and moving to a new apartment to join us for dinner, in hopes that a blazing fire, some good scotch and my husband's ridiculously delicious mac and cheese might help soothe their weary souls.

In recent years, I've tried to keep my meal planning for company simple, but with a decadent flourish here and there. The evening's menu was pretty much in keeping with that spirit:

Welcome Nibbles
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~ Country Olives
~ Sliced Watermelon and Green radishes from the green market, with sea salt and sweet butter
~ Roasted Almonds (which are an excellent source of calcium, don't you know.)
~ Single malt scotch on the rocks (which is just excellent...who cares about calcium, anyway.)

There isn't much to say here except that I am kicking myself that our camera battery conked out, as the radishes were insanely green and beautiful. They have a bit more bite to them compared to the pink and white varieties, but the butter and sea salt pulls it all together.


Dinner
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~ "Totally Not Orange" Mac and Cheese
~ Pea shoot salad
~ A red wine I cannot remember...sorry


My husband makes the best mac and cheese I've ever had. If you were wondering, this is the decadent part of the meal. It is rich and filling and generally people can't get enough of the stuff. The basic recipe is from THE JOY OF COOKING (1998 edition), with four important changes:

#1 Use good cheese -- and mix it up!
He tends to use anywhere from three to five cheeses in his dish. This depends mostly on what we have around the house or what struck his fancy at the cheese shop that day. Manchego, piave, soft blues, vacheron, epoisse...you name it, he uses it. His one exception: cheddar. In spite of his being half English -- and it being the traditional cheese of choice for the dish -- it is just not his speed. I cannot argue.

#2 No puny elbow pasta.
Go for something at least an inch long, hollow and maybe curved, so that the sauce really gets soaked up. We often just use whatever leftover pastas of the similar size we have in the pantry, which adds more texture to the dish and makes it feel more like a main course rather than a side.

#3 Don't forget to top it off with toasted breadcrumbs.
I can't stress this enough...it is essential. Just make sure that they are from a white bread. Otherwise, you might be adding an unneeded extra flavor into the mix. We are just going for crunch here.

#4 Always make a double recipe.
Even our fittest of friends go in for seconds...so make extra. And if by some strange act of the cosmos, you just happen to have leftovers, it freezes very well. There is nothing like the joy of discovering some in the freezer at the end of a particularly draining day. We've actually danced in the kitchen on at least one such occasion.


Since this dish is so rich, I always serve it with some kind of light, crisp salad. For this evening, I selected some lovely pea shoots at the green market that were grown in a hoop at a local farm. (As you can imagine, fresh, organic greens are not plentiful in these parts this time of year.) I am a big fan of the pea shoot as a simple salad. They are crunchy and fresh tasting and add a wonderful touch of the pea flavor without the starch of an actual pea. I usually dress them in something more Asian-inflected, but considering our main course, I chose a simple champagne vinaigrette, since it would cut through the cheese madness without conflicting with the star of the meal. Yum.


Dessert
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~ Poached local pears
~ Fresh whipped cream
~ Coffee, Tea
~ Port and a little dark chocolate, if memory serves

The pears (from Tree-Licious Farms, also purchased at the green market) were poached in red wine using the recipe from Alice Waters' THE ART OF SIMPLE COOKING. As for the whipped cream, it was made with no sugar or other flavorings. And this isn't my being lazy...I just like the straight up flavor with the sweet, soft fruit.


And there you have it: a rather simple meal that most definitely delivered on cozy and reviving, if our happy guests are to be believed.

I think what thrilled me the most about this meal was that a rather fair share of it came from the Grand Army Plaza Green Market -- in January! Needless to say, there will be a post on this very topic shortly. Until then, just make the mac and cheese and enjoy!

My, what tender balls you've got!

I’ve been making meatballs for years, or dare I admit, decades. Growing up, my mother always made them with beef, so I did too. Things changed some 10 years ago, when I heard of someone using the meat trifecta of beef, pork and veal. ‘Brilliant!’ I thought. Since then, my recipe (formula is probably more accurate) hasn’t changed much. For each pound of meat (in an equal ratio of the 3 meats) I add 1 egg, 1 slice of American bread made into crumbs, some garlic and parsley. I go back and forth between adding grated Parmesan cheese or not. There is also the issue of cooking methods. I had always browned them first in a skillet then finished cooking them in the sauce – never thinking any of this would change.

My mom being the consummate perfectionist that she is, would ask everyone how they made their meatballs. Some would report not using bread crumbs, claiming that would make the meatballs tough. Others would add tomato sauce, claiming it makes them tender. Some would skip the browning step and just cook in sauce (which would produce too pale a meatball for my taste). Some would broil or bake them through briefly then add to the sauce. While others still would simmer the balls in sauce for hours. Still no consensus resulted, so I just stuck with my formula.

On my last trip to New York City, though, my whole life changed. I tried Little Owl. It’s a shoebox sized restaurant in the West Village, owned by Chef Joey Campanaro. Although open only a short while, the restaurant is already garnering a lot of buzz and attention in the food world. No, this isn’t Daniel or Jean Georges, just a low-key neighborhood place. Lately, my experience with fancy restaurants has left me unimpressed. I’m not sure if it is because I’m jaded from all the truly great restaurants I’ve been to, or if chefs are trying too hard to create something new and interesting that they overreach and miss. This unfortunate circumstance has left me yearning for simple, well prepared food that is well presented. Is that so much to ask for?

Back to Little Owl…thanks to a friend’s recommendation, I ordered the meatball sliders and pork chop. The sliders changed my life. The meatballs were really something else, so tender and flavorful. I’d love to say they were the best thing on the menu, but I’d be lying. Everything that came to the table was superb. I desperately wanted to ask my chef friend, Johnny (the Pasty Chef at Jean Georges), who knows Joey, to pry the recipe out of him, but thought that would be crazy and asking too much.

These meatballs literally became a thing of legend, I was telling everyone about them. I’m sure Reno was thinking, “ok, enough with the meatballs already.” But I know he loved them too. When my friend, Su, asked me what she should make for a play date party she was hosting, my first thought was “food you can eat with one hand,” and my second thought was “meatball sliders!” I lamented not knowing Little Owl's recipe, but thought any recipe would suffice. I forgot how resourceful ol’ Su really is. No one is better at finding anything than Su. Two days after our conversation, I received an email from her titled “look what I found!” It contained the Little Owl recipe below and the photo above that was recently published in New York Magazine…THANK YOU, SU!

The secret to his tender meatballs is the humble ingredient, water. Surprisingly, all 2 cups of water will work itself into the meat as you stir it. It all makes sense now. Adding a liquid to the meat mixture prevents it from forming very strong bonds (think well done hamburger), yielding a tender ball. I made Joey’s recipe (for the Superbowl) with very good results. Next time, though, I would add a little garlic, and maybe play around with the type of liquid I use. Perhaps I’ll even try adding tomato sauce, as per the suggestion above. And, I would definitely use a non-stick frying pan to brown the balls; otherwise the cheese makes them stick. I didn’t make my own buns, but I think buying small rolls is an adequate substitute. This recipe makes a lot of balls (around 30), so plan accordingly. Not surprising, the leftover meatballs and sauce are also good on pasta – as we found out.

Joey Campanaro’s Meatball Sliders
New York Magazine Jan 28, 2007

For the meatballs:
1 lb. ground beef
1 lb. ground pork
1 lb. ground veal
3/4 cup freshly grated Pecorino Romano, plus 1/4 cup for garnish
1 cup panko bread crumbs
2 cups cold water
3 large eggs
1 bunch fresh parsley, chopped
Vegetable oil for frying meatballs (approximately 3 cups)
2–3 tablespoons olive oil
1 Spanish onion, chopped
1/4 cup fresh garlic, chopped
1 bunch fresh basil
1 tablespoon fennel seed
1 industrial-size No. 10 can (or 4 28-oz. cans) of whole peeled tomatoes
Salt and pepper to taste
Bunch of arugula

Mix the ground meat with the cheese, the panko, the cold water, the eggs, 3/4 of the parsley, and salt and pepper to taste. Form the mixture into 36 golf-ball-size meatballs. In a large shallow sauce pot or cast-iron pan, heat the vegetable oil. When the oil is hot, add the meatballs and cook until brown all over. With a slotted spoon, remove the meatballs and set aside on a plate. Discard the vegetable oil but leave the browned bits in the pan. In the same pan, heat the olive oil, then add the onion, garlic, basil, and fennel seed. Cook for 5–8 minutes until slightly brown. Add the tomatoes and half a No. 10 can of water. Cook the sauce for 30 minutes, pass sauce through a food mill, and return to pan. Add the meatballs to the sauce and cook for an additional 30 minutes.

For the garlic buns:
1 1/2 cups warm water
2 tablespoons molasses
1/4 ounce fresh yeast
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 cups all purpose flour
2 bulbs whole garlic, roasted

In an electric mixing bowl using the hook attachment, mix the warm water, yeast, olive oil, and molasses. Add the flour and the salt. The dough will become a wet mixture but will remain a little sticky. Remove the dough and place onto a floured clean surface and gently knead into a soft ball. Place the dough in a mixing bowl brushed with olive oil and cover. Store in a warm humid area for 30 minutes or until the dough rises to double its size. Wrap two bulbs of garlic in aluminum foil and roast in a medium heat oven until very soft. Squeeze the whole bulbs of garlic to release the soft interior. Slightly chop the roasted garlic until it resembles a puree. Portion the dough into 1 inch round balls, kneading in the roasted garlic while doing so. Place the portioned raw dough balls on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper approximately 2 inches apart. Cover with plastic and allow the dough balls to re rise again. After 20 minutes, spray the raw dough balls with cold water, sprinkle with a pinch of the freshly grated pecorino, salt and pepper, and bake for 20 minutes in a 400 degree oven.

Celebrity Chefs - Give Them a Break???

Like many foodies, I find it easy to find fault with real chefs who sell out to the Food Network, chain restaurants and the likes. I'd like to believe that like me, most chefs pursue a career in food because they actually love all aspects of food, and want to share their creations with people who will enjoy them. There was a time when working your way up to the position of head chef at a successful restaurant, and mastering the craft, was enough to satisfy even an ambitious chef. The higher the praise (for chef or restaurant), the more satisfied they would be. But not anymore. Being the chef/owner of a restaurant isn't even enough, and neither is owning 10 places. So, when is it enough?

I don't mind if chefs have a small empire of restaurants. I don't even mind chefs having their own cooking shows, since I would like to believe that some people still watch cooking shows to learn how to cook. Even if shows like iron chef debunk my belief. The problem for me is when the cooking show turns into an eating show, which then turns into a line of cookware, crackers and periodic cookbooks. The "phoned-in" cookbook has to be one of the more annoying offenses in my book. These chefs put out cookbooks so often, it is no wonder that the same recipes get recycled by just altering one or two of the ingredients. And God knows how many people they have on staff to do all the leg work for these cookbooks, for which they take all the credit.

This is also assuming that every celebrity "chef" is actually a chef, which sadly, they are not. Apparently, anyone who looks good in front of the camera, has broad appeal, and can hold a knife can become a celebrity chef. Yikes! Does anyone remember Bobby Flay's attractive side-kick on his cooking show, 'Hot of the Grill with Bobby Flay'? Well, her speaking role on that show turned into a cookbook deal. I was very surprised to see her romantic cookbook at the bookstore, with more pictures of her half-dressed than there were of the food.

Then there's the perky, overly-enthusiastic Rachel Ray, the overly processed (in every sense) Sandra Lee, and the volumptuous Giada, who describes flavor by orgasmically listing ingredients. I could go on and on with the incredibly long list of "celebrity chef" offenses, until I read this book, The United States of Arugula by David Kamp. In the book, Kamp describes how America evolved from being the home of processed food junkies to the world leader in food quality and trends. The unfortunate bi-product of that being the idolization of chefs, and the art of cooking turned entertainment. Of course most of the blame lies with us Americans who are so eager to people up on pedestals only to drag them down. (Guilty!) Who wouldn't love a chef who can take run of the mill ingredients and turn them into soul statisfying food that keeps us yearning for more?

I got to thinking, are the celebrity chefs really to blame? They just want to do what they love (presumably cooking), and if people want to give them kudos and adulations, why would they turn that down? And if just cooking wasn't enough, and people wanted to see them on tv, in magazines, bookstores & supermarkets, isn't that just a testament of how much people like them? And who could turn that down? Of course it is a slippery slope for celebrities in general when it comes to product endorsements. You start off supporting organic produce and before you know it, you're pushing Cheeze Whiz. And, that is where I have the problem, when they start spreading themselves too thin and putting their name & face on too many things or just bad things. I get it, chefs are no dummies. They want to make money just like anyone else, but shouldn't they also be interested in improving the culinary state of affairs in America? Is it bettet to have a McDonald's at every airport terminal or a Wolfgang Puck Pizza Restaurant? I'd like to think the latter, but when does Wolfgang become the new McDonald's? I digress...

One "personality" in particular who got on my nerves was the aforementioned Giada. People go ga-ga over her, and I have yet to figure out why. Sure she's pretty, has a nice rack (which always seems to be front and center), and comes from a prominent Italian film family, but still. She has a few cookbooks, at least 2 shows on the Food Network, plus her stint on the Iron Chef, and now she is a part-time host on the Today Show. The Today Show? How did that happen??? I thought she was a chef, albeit not the best chef, but now she's a talk show host? I've seen her on the Today Show, and she's really not that good. No, not because I'm biased, but because she regularly misses her cues, looks at the wrong camera and flubs her lines. I honestly don't understand how that happened.

But after reading The United States of Arugula, I learned that Giada and I went to the same cooking school, Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. She used to be a caterer in LA. I do a little catering in LA. She's Italian, I'm Italian (even if my parents aren't famous). Then it dawned on me, that I could have been the Italian peach on the Food Network, annoying people with my adolescent boy humor and potty mouth. Was it her fault that the network gave her publicity and anoited her the Italian principessa? That's when I decided to have mercy on Giada. Maybe she's not so bad afterall, just going with the flow of her newfound popularity. People say she's is laid back and pretty cool in person. If circumstances were different, maybe we'd even be friends. OK, maybe I was too hard on Giada afterall. Maybe it is time I give all the celebrity chefs a break.

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That was where the post was going to end. That is, until I got the latest Crate & Barrel catalog in the mail. Guess who was on the cover, but my new bff, Giada. I was ok with that, until I realized why she was on the cover. She was hawking her new olive oil, balsamic vinegar & spice blends. No she wasn't promoting an artisinal brand of olive oil made from her family's estate in Italy, she was promoting Giada XVOO! I could see if she felt the need to fill a niche in the market, or if we were still stuck in the 80's and she wanted to bring authentic extra virgin olive oil to us unknowing American. But in this day and age, why would she slap her name and picture on someone else's products when there are so many really good ones on the market made by experienced people? I know, for the money. Now I've had enough. I'm back to being down on Giada. It only goes to show, I should have trusted my first instincts. View the entire line of Giada products.