Braised Short Ribs

I got this one from Mark Bittman. His recipe calls for an onion, but I didn't have one so I used the mushrooms. I made this once before with the onion and I think it came out better that time.

4 beef short ribs
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 large dried chili, chopped
1/2 cup dried porcini mushrooms
2 shots espresso
3/4 cup red wine

Rehydrate the mushrooms in a bowl of water. Season the ribs with salt and pepper. In a heavy pot, heat some oil on medium high heat until the oil just starts to smile. Sear the ribs, meaty side down until they get a nice crust then take them out and set aside. If they're large, sear on a couple sides.

Lower the heat and in the same pot cook the garlic, chili and mushrooms for a couple minutes. Save some of the mushroom liquid. Pour in the wine, coffee and mushroom liquid. Raise the heat and reduce the liquid by half.

Lower the heat, put the ribs back in and cover the pot. Let it all simmer for 2 to infinity hours. The longer you let it simmer the more tender the ribs become. If your doorbell rings, it's your neighbors wanting to know what smells so good. As Mark Bittman says, these things are just sexy. Make them for someone you love.



Here's a link to Bittman's video blog on the NYTimes website where he makes this recipe: http://video.on.nytimes.com/?fr_story=b864e7ab2f2c7ed5ba373917696c67b14555cc2f

Chili Garlic Lime Shrimp and Chile Roasted Mushrooms

I got a good tip from the guy at the fish counter- always season your meat/fish/whatever before you put olive oil on it. It sounds like it makes sense to rub with olive oil first so that the seasoning sticks, but if you do that the oil forms a barrier and the seasoning doesn't actually season the food.

So here we go-

Chili Garlic Lime Shrimp

1 Tbsp chopped dried chili
2 cloves chopped garlic
1/2 pound shrimp
1 lime

Chop up the dried chili, removing the seeds if you don't want it to be too spicy. Clean and de-vein the shrimp, pat dry. Season the shrimp with S&P, the garlic and the chili. Place the shrimp in a zip loc bag with about 1 and 1/2 Tbsp of olive oil. Let marinate for 30 minutes. Right before cooking squeeze in the juice from half of the lime.

Heat a large skillet on med-high and add just enough olive oil to coat the pan. Dump the contents of the zip loc bag into the pan. Let the shrimp cook on each side for just a few minutes. Only about 5-6 minutes in all, depending on the size. Plate them up and squeeze some more juice from the other half of the lime.


Chili Roasted Mushrooms

1 Cup oyster mushrooms
1 Cup cremini mushrooms
1 Tbsp chopped dried chili
1 small shallot, chopped
fresh parmesean

You can substitute other interesting mushrooms as available. Preheat the oven to 425'. Chop the mushrooms into large pieces and mix together with the chili, shallot, S&P and 1 and 1/2 Tbsp olive oil.

Dump the mushrooms into a roasting dish and bake in the oven for 15 minutes. Plate up the roasted mushrooms and grate some fresh parmesean on top. Goat cheese also goes well on top.

Seared tuna steak with wasabi mayo sauce

You can get a decent frozen tuna steak from trader joes. Just let it defrost in the fridge overnight and...

Marinade:
soy sauce
sesame oil
rice wine vinegar and/or mirin
(or white wine vinegar and lemon juice in my case since I had neither)

Mix this stuff in a zip lock bag, throw in the tuna, and let it marinate on the counter for about 30 minutes. You want it to warm up a little.

Heat a small amount of sesame oil in a skillet on Med-high heat. Once hot, put the tuna in the skillet and sear it for about a minute on each side. Seared tuna is best served seared. Rare. So don't overdo it. Shown here served with jasmine rice and the wasabi mayo sauce.

Sauce:
Wasabi paste
Mayonnaise
Soy sauce- just a little bit



This steak was about a pound. Which is easily two servings.

Q: When is a salad no longer a salad?

A: When it involves rendered bacon fat.

Here's a pretty simple salad with a balsamic vinaigrette. (Thank you firefox spell check for telling me I don't know how to spell vinegarette.)

Salad:
1 bag mixed field greens
3 slices thick cut bacon
1 package white button mushrooms, sliced.
some goat cheese

Dressing:
dijon mustard
balsamic vinegar
olive oil
lemon juice
S&P

Cut the bacon into ~1/2" pieces. Cook in heavy cast iron pan (is there any other kind?). Scoop out the bacon and drain on a paper towel. Sautee the mushrooms in the hot bacon fat. Scoop these out and set aside with the bacon when they're done.

Combine all the dressing ingredients and whisk together. Dress the salad. Toss the salad. Add the bacon, mushrooms, and goat cheese. Toss again. Serve.

Tapas

This post originally said "stay tuned to see how I made this," but you might as well just read the sheet of paper cause I'm not writing anything up. I just adapted from some recipes in a tapas cookbook and some recipes online.

Lime drizzled shrimp
Chorizo in red wine
Sauteed garlic mushrooms
Spinach/chorizo and spinach/potato empanadas

Lamb chops with Balsamic Reduction and Lemon Pepper Green Beans with Slivered Almonds

For the lamb chops-

2 Lamb shoulder chops
2 Tbsp Chopped fresh rosemary
1 Tbsp Herbs de Provence
S&P
1 Tbsp Olive oil
1/4 C Minced shallots
1/3 C Balsamic vinegar
3/4 C Chicken broth
1 Tbsp Butter

Rub the lamb chops with the chopped rosemary, S&P and other herbs. Let the chops absorb the flavors of the herbs for 15 min.

Heat oil in a skillet over M/H heat. Cook the chops 4 minutes per side for medium, at little shorter for medium-rare. Set a side on a warm plate.

Add the shallots into the pan and let them brown up for a few seconds. Stir in the balsamic and scrape up the lamb bits on the bottom of the pan. Stir in the chicken broth. Let the sauce cook for about 5-7 minutes, until it reduces by half. Turn off the heat and a little butter. Spoon the sauce over the chops and serve.

The recipe I used was written for 4 lamb rib chops. It also called for dried rosemary, basil and thyme, but anything fresh is better.

For the green beans, I really eye balled this one, so these are estimates-

1/2 Lb Green beans, rinsed and trimmed
1/4 C Slivered almonds
1 tsp Olive oil
Juice of 1/2 lemon
S&P

Heat oil in pan on M/H heat. Sauté beans for 5-6 minutes until crispy but tender. Taste one, you'll know when. Toss in the almonds and let them get a little toasty. Season with S&P and squeeze in the lemon juice. Toss them around a little more and serve.

The only thing missing was a starch. Some mashed potatoes would've been great, especially with the leftover sauce from the chops.

Australian Empanadas

This week's post is brought to you by special guest blogger, Jessica. We made these empanadas a few weeks ago and they were delicious!

Here's what Jessica has to say about them-

Before you can appreciate these, you need to know from whence the name originates. In Australia we have sausage rolls, in Argentina, empanadas. These are the closest thing to Australian sausage rolls that can be made with ingredients commonly found in an Argentine supermarket (and also Rodmans in Friendship Heights). Hence the name Australian empanadas.

You need:
Empanada pastry, preferably a moderately flaky kind (the best is masa hojaldre, and for a brand, I like La Salteña)
Argentine Chorizo (not Spanish – instead it’s a light pink colour and stays that colour when cooked)
Onion
Eggs
Breadcrumbs
Grated Cheese (mozzarella or cheddar or a mixed bag is good)


I don’t do well with quantities so this is all a bit of a guessing game. Preheat the over to moderate to high heat. Slice the sausage casings lengthwise and extract the meat. In a bowl, mix with an egg or two, some chopped onion, breadcrumbs and cheese. The mixture should be wet-ish but should easily retain its shape. Once mixed, place the mixture in the round pastries sheets, doubling them over to make a half moon. Seal the edges using a fork and brush them with egg. Place the half moons on a greased baking tray and bake until golden brown. I like them with Tomato Sauce/Ketchup but that’s up to your tastes…

Baked Acorn Squash

It's fall. Time for squash and stuff. These are really easy to make.

1 acorn squash
2 pats butter
2 tsp. honey (or syrup or brown sugar)
cinnamon, salt & pepper

Preheat oven to 400'. Cut that squash in half lengthwise, scoop out seeds and pulp*. Put them up in a lined baking dish. Put some butter and honey in those things and get some cinnamon up in there. Bake for an hour.


* Don't throw out the seeds- toast them like pumpkin seeds. Separate them from the pulp and rinse them off in a colander. Let them dry out on a paper towel while your squash is baking. When the squash is done, lower the oven to 350'. Spread the seeds out on a cookie sheet and season with a little salt. Bake for about 10 minutes. Keep an eye on them and take them out just when they start to get a little color. I devoured mine before I thought to get a picture.

Scotch eggs

...Seems wherever I live, I whip some of these up and people (who've inevitably never heard of them before) are horrified. I don't get it. What's not to like about a hard-boiled egg, wrapped in sausage, dipped in beaten egg, rolled in bread crumbs, and then deep-fried?

I've only deep-fried them once; I couldn't get a large enough volume of oil hot enough to do it up right, and baking leads to a healthier product, relatively speaking. Note the different shades of breading in the latter photo; the ones on top are breaded with corn flake crumbs, while the bottom are normal bread crumbs. Verdict: corn flake eggs are tastier hot, and standard are better cold. They're both DELICIOUS.

(In the background, you can catch a rare glimpse into my cooking environment. Notice large Maryland sporting-event cups full of essential utensils, the KitchenAid mixer of Amy's that'll last until the next ice age, several sorts of tea, and the ever-present cast iron skillet. With the right equipment, even a pathetically small kitchen can produce delicious food.)

Vietnamese Summer Rolls

I filled the rice paper wrappers with shrimp, lettuce, basil and rice vermicelli and served the rolls with peanut dipping sauce. I used a bagged lettuce mix that had some herbs already in it. The recipes I looked up said to add mint and cilantro as well. I'll save that for next time.

The rice papers come in a package as brittle sheets. When you soak them in warm water for a few seconds they soften up and behave like saran wrap. If you're not careful they'll start to cling up and stick to themselves.

The technique is to layer the fillings on one-third of the wrapper and then just roll it up like a burrito.