Braised Short Ribs - Learning another new technique

When I went to Whole Foods the other day to go grocery shopping, I didn't enter with a plan for a change. Instead I simply looked around to see if I could see something that would be interesting to make.  As I was checking out the meat counter, I noticed beef short ribs.  Having never actually made short ribs myself, and never having attempted to braise anything, it seemed like something worth trying (especially since I could experiment on myself).  So, I had them wrap up a pound and a half of spare ribs (basically 4 ribs), and headed home to pull out the cookbooks.

Of the 5 cookbooks that I own, two had recipes for braised short ribs; Bobby Flay and Michael Symon.  Looking at the recipes I quickly realized that I really only had ingredients to try and pull of the Bobby Flay version, so that's the one I decided to do.  I actually got started last night by adding salt and pepper to the meat to allow it to be more receptive to the flavors that I would be trying to incorporate and infuse.

After a long day at the office, I headed home to begin cooking.  It was at this point that I wondered to myself why I thought it would be a good idea to try braising short ribs knowing that the earliest I would be getting home is 6, and at a minimum it would take 3 hours to get the ribs to a nice and tender state (unless I had a pressure cooker of course...).  But, since I had already proceeded to apply the salt and pepper, I needed to make sure I cooked them.  So, I just dove in and decided that I would simply find myself a snack at some point in the evening.  Besides, after eating out for the past few nights, I needed a change and a home-cooked meal, even if my Urbanspoon ranking might suffer a little.

I started by putting together a simple spice rub while the oil heated.  It called for chile powder, cinnamon and black pepper.  Then I applied the rub to the ribs prior to putting it in the oil to brown.  At this point, I ended up making a couple mistakes.  The first was that I didn't shake the excess rub off so it fell into the oil.  This leads to burning, and a flavor that is not that desirable.  The second was that I had not pre-chopped my veggies that I would need, so I was trying to do that, and ended up cooking the ribs a bit past golden brown.  But, I pulled them out, and forged on ahead, where actually the rest is quite simple.  I added some onion, garlic, carrot and celery to a little bit of oil remaining in the pot.  I also decided to throw in a jalepeno for a little flavor (kinda cooked this a little long too).  Then I added the red wine and went to add the chicken stock when much to my shock, I realized I had none in the house.  This is quite the rare occurrence lately, but it happened just when I needed about 4 cups.  So, I improvised.  I added an additional two cups of wine and two cups of water.  I brought this to a simmer, added the ribs and put it in the oven at 275 (the Michael Symon recipe called for 225, and Bobby Flay's was 325, so I compromised).

At this point, I just went about my evening; going for a run, getting some work done, picking up the house.  All told, I left the ribs in the braising liquid for almost 3 hours.  Finally, I had to pull them out and eat.  I decided to opt out of the part of the recipe that called for a sauce to be made out of the braising liquid, put them on my plate, and dug in.  The first thing I noticed was that they were incredibly tender, even though they probably could have used another half hour or so.  I didn't need a knife to get to some bite-sized pieces.  The flavor though was a little weak.  Part of that owes to the spice rub not really being applied liberally and worked into the meat, and part of it was just weak ingredients.  The chile powder was just the kind you get with a spice rack and the cinnamon was not freshly ground.  But, the meat was very tender, and very moist, so I was quite pleased with that.

In the end, I had a good dinner, albeit awful late at night.  And, I learned a few things, mistakes I can correct for the next time such as working the rub into the meat, and removing the excess to prevent burning.  I also came up with a few other things to try like using Coca-Cola as the primary braising liquid, or doing the whole thing is a sweeter red wine.  Maybe mixing up the rub to have some different, more defined flavors.  Or I could be really crazy and make sure that I have the ingredients that the recipe calls for and actually make it the way the chef intended.  All I know is that now that I have a general understanding of braising, I'm going to be experimenting with that cooking style more often; just maybe not during the week.

An Attempt at Enchiladas de Coloraditos

It seems like it has been quite a long time since I have written a post about my cooking adventures.  With a week of vacation followed by work travel and guests, it was a whole lot of eating out; which was good for my food reviews.  But part of this blog is also about cooking for myself, learning techniques and all that jazz, so today I was finally able to get back at it.  And I figured I would dive back in by going big with the Rick Bayless Enchiladas de Coloradito.  

The thing about cooking from the Rick Bayless cookbook is that for me, the beginner chef, there are only two days I can tackle a recipe; Saturday and Sunday.  His recipes have many different steps that take a bit of time, and two or three hours can fly by before you even know it.  But, that's what makes it fun as well, to spend the entire time working on different components, seeing how things come together, and really expanding my cooking ability.  When I was deciding on the recipe to make this evening, this one jumped out at me for a couple reasons.  First, it was enchiladas, and who doesn't love enchiladas?  Second, it did not contain a lot of exotic ingredients so I knew I would be able to find them in Seattle without having to go to a specialty store.  And Third, while there were multiple steps, and it would take some time, nothing seemed too complex for me to handle at my current level of ability. 

After I returned home from my Sunday shopping trip, I pulled out all of the ingredients I would need and got to work.  The first step is to cook the pork shoulder by adding it to boiling water, and then lowering the temperature and letting it simmer with some aromatics like onion, marjoram and thyme.  While that's cooking, I started working on the ingredients for the sauce.  Boiling water was poured over some dried ancho chiles to help them reconstitute (after the seeds were removed).  I then added chopped onion, a little cinnamon, clove and black pepper, some canned tomatoes and bread to a blender.  When the chiles had soaked for half an hour, I put them in as well, and blended everything until smooth.  At this point I took a little taste of the sauce, and wasn't too excited.  The flavor was a little bitter, and I wasn't sure how it would come together.  But, there were still more steps to go, so I kept going, and added the sauce to some heated oil in a saute pan.  The goal is to fry and condense the sauce, another technique that I've never tried and one that I can't imagine attempting unless it is in a recipe like this.  After a few minutes, I added the saved water that the pork had cooked in, and set it to simmer for 45 minutes.  Right at the end of the time, I added a little bit of sugar and a dash of salt.

While the sauce was simmering, I went to work on the enchilada filling.  I started by taking the pork that had cooked earlier and shredded it.  I added that to a pan, along with some potato, onion and plantain.  I browned this for about ten minutes, and then added in a mixture of more tomatoes and one chile that I had left aside, and cooked this down to thicken.  All of this took right around 45 minutes, so I was finishing up just as the timer for the sauce went off.  

From there it was simple.  Put the filling into steamed tortillas (I ended up going half corn/half flour), then pour the sauce all over them.  I stuck in the oven for a couple of minutes, pulled them back out long enough to cover with some crumbled queso fresco, and put them back in for the cheese to begin to melt. After about five minutes, the enchiladas were good to go.  I put two on each plate, added a simple salad of spinach, peanuts, mandarin oranges and blue cheese with a Balsamic Vinaigrette, and dinner was complete.  

The final result was definitely good.  The flavors really came together nicely, providing a very flavorful meal that wasn't overly spicy and was actually surprisingly a little sweet.  I think this comes from the sugars being cooked out of the tomatoes, as well as the final dash of sugar at the end.  While the sauce was a lot of work, but was definitely worth it in the long run.  It is something that I think I can make again, and put over tortillas with different types of fillings for different meals throughout the day.  

This meal is one that I will definitely attempt again, though next time it will be better.  One mistake that I made was with the pork.  I didn't lower the temperature on the water soon enough, and cut the pieces a little too small so some of it was tough, and I ended up boiling off too much of the water.  Also, I forgot to get white bread, so had to settle for nine-grain sandwich loaf bread as a fill in.  And, I didn't get enough ancho chiles, so added a california chile to try and get enough.  Not to mention I don't have an appropriate colander yet (it's on the way).  But, through it all, I improvised and everything worked out.  Oh, and next time, I'll make sure the battery is charged in the camera so I can document the various steps along the way...

For this recipe, please refer to Authentic Mexican: Regional Cooking from the Heart of Mexico, by Rick Bayless, or visit his website at www.rickbayless.com

A Grocery Shopping Routine

When I'm not out on the ski slopes, or traveling for work, Sundays are my lazy days at home.  This usually consists of sleeping in, having a cup (ok, a pot) of coffee and grocery shopping!  Since today was one of those Sundays, I figured it was the perfect topic for a blog post.

The grocery shopping process has started to take on a little bit of a ritual for me.  In the morning, I start planning out the menu for the week.  I grab my four cookbooks and a cup of coffee and sit down on the couch.  My current collection consists of 2 Bobby Flay, 1 Rick Bayless, and 1 Michael Chiarello cookbooks.  It's a little limited at this point, but it's a nice variety that is helping me learn a little bit more about flavors and techniques.

Before I can start planning, I have to figure out what the weekly schedule looks like for us.  Some nights we have sports or meetings or happy hours that can alter dinner decisions.  Once I get that figured out, I start flipping through the cookbooks.  I usually like to pick one or two things that are completely new that I haven't tried before, and see what ingredients are needed.  Then I jot down a few of the other things I need to make sure I remember, and head to Whole Foods.

Once I get to Whole Foods, I start in the produce section.  I get fruit, typically oranges and pineapples, vegetables, and herbs.  I then look for some of the new ingredients based on the recipes.  This is how I've discovered tomatillos, a variety of peppers outside the bell family, and fresh herbs.  After a couple more laps, just to see what else is around (found passion fruit tonight!!), I head over to the meat section.  This is where I spend the most time.  I start by looking at the fresh fish, then to the pre-seasoned meats, just to get some ideas, and then work my way down the counter from beef to pork to poultry.  In my mind, I'm trying to balance out the proteins, as I don't like to serve the same thing two nights in a row.  Finally, I'll step up to the counter and make my decision.  Tonight I opted for halibut, lamb chops, bone-in/skin-on chicken and a beef rib roast for slow-cooking.  And of course some bacon.

From there, I head up and down each aisle.  There are definitely some things that I always get like milk, yogurt and bread.  Beyond that, I'm taking in the different things, trying to figure out what would be good to have on hand, what would be good to try, and what I need for lunch for the week assuming I'm not going to have leftovers to take with me.

All told, I usually spend anywhere from an hour to an hour and a half in the store.  When I walk out, I only have three or four bags of food, but it is enough to last the two of us a week, and maintain as much fresh food as possible (I end up freezing a few meats for later in the week, but that's all).  Before going home, I will stop by Safeway just to pick up a couple things I can't get at Whole Foods, namely Coke Zero.

All that is left at this point is to put everything away and get to work on a delicious dinner from all of the great ingredients.  Tonight that was a pan-seared pork chop, green chile rice and a simple spinach salad.  It turned out very good, thanks in part to the wonderful ingredients I picked up today.

A newfound passion...

About five and a half years ago, I met this girl.  Like any guy, I wanted to find any way to talk to her, and any way to impress her.  So, for one of our first dates I decided to cook her dinner.  It was a mess.  We ended up eating slightly undercooked steaks and potatoes in the dark.  But that date spawned something.  Maybe it was my desire to keep trying to impress her with my cooking prowess.  Maybe it was my understanding that she was never going to be the cook in this relationship.  Whatever it was, I kept trying new things, and slowly improving what I was doing.  I'm not sure what the tipping point was exactly (though I'm pretty sure it was right around the time I ate my first meal at a Bobby Flay restaurant), but in the past year, a new passion has taken hold.  So, like any 20 something in this high-tech, inter-connected world, I'm not just exploring it, I'm blogging about it.

Now, I'm not about to embark on something like the Julie and Julia (or whatever the title was) movie where I work my way through a cookbook.  And I'm not about to drop everything to go to culinary school and open a restaurant.  It's not about me becoming a great chef.  It's simply about me enjoying food; whether it be cooking it myself, enjoying the labors of others, or learning about new things in general.

So, that brings me to my point.  I've developed a new appreciation for food.  I've gone from the type of guy that prided himself on being able to purchase a month's worth of groceries for $100 to a guy that will spend twenty minutes just staring into the meat section at Whole Foods before selecting just what I want.  I went from having two pots and one pan to watching Iron Chef and adding things to my wedding registry because I was so intrigued by what they were doing (though I had to draw the line at vacuum sealer and imersion circulator).  I watch shows like Top Chef and Iron Chef America to get some ideas as much as for pure entertainment.  I went from Mac and Cheese to Roasted Red Pepper Risotto with Applewood Smoked Bacon and Orange Glazed Prawns.

But, it's not just about the cooking.  It's about the eating too.  I am already anticipating blog posts about restaurants that I've been too (guaranteed that CraftSteak and Mesa Grill are coming up).  I've actually created a spreadsheet of different restaurants in different cities that I want to try, given the opportunity of making it to the city through travel.  

I know I'm no different than many amateur chefs out there.  In fact, there are many that have far more talent that I do.  But, it is something that I absolutely enjoy, and I'm hoping that a few of you that read this will enjoy it as well.  And who knows, maybe as my skills continue to develop, one of these days I'll be able to share some of my creations with you.

As the French would say, Bon Appetit!