We Climb the Short Rib Because It's There

Hello & Merry Christmas from not-so-snowy Baltimore. I know some of you reading this up north - and down south - are rather snowed in, but the Christmas blizzard of 2010 was a bit overstated 'round here and we didn't even get enough to play in. Boo! I know, I know...a lot of you have been severely inconvenienced by the holiday snow and I am sorry for you, but I was really looking forward to getting cozy and vegging out a bit now that the Christmas rush has slowed. Ugh! And what a rush it was! Helping Santa is a busy, busy job and we had a lot of fun with friends and family, but now that it is over, I was all about being snowed in, having the husb build a fire and making something warm and comforting, like this ragout you're about to hear all about. But now I'm told that we're expecting temps in the 50's in a few days. Freaking global warming!! Al Gore was right...it really does ruin everything.

So, I say screw it. I'm making short rib ragout anyway. Join me, won't you?

This recipe came about in my favorite way possible; it came to me when I encountered an ingredient so impressive and fresh that I had to purchase it and come up with something to do with it. Specifically, I was in my favorite Italian market (Ceriello's at Belvedere Market, neighbors), buying something completely unrelated when I came across the biggest, most impressive beef short ribs I have ever seen before in my life. They looked like they were from a Brontosaurus. I had to buy them. But as wonderful as short ribs are, I sometimes find a plate of braised short ribs to be overwhelming. At worst, they can be greasy and heavy. At best, they are rich and delicious and, well, heavy.

But there they were, just like the Mt. Everest of short ribs. And, you know, whenever you hear that someone has perished on the way up Mt. Everest, you think "Why? Why would someone climb Mt. Everest?" And the answer, of course, is, because it's there. They climb it because it's there. Food is a bit like that. Sometimes we must cook because the food calls us to it. I think this is actually the best reason to cook something. We should always be looking for ingredients that are perfect, whether it be tomatoes at their seasonal, bright red, juicy peak or fresh tuna taken immediately off of a fishing boat along the Atlantic coastline. It's a European ideal that cooks should enter a market without preconceived notions of what they might cook tonight but instead, let the products available to them that day dictate what's for dinner. Unfortunately, it's the furthest thing from how Americans eat. We'd probably all be a bit healthier and a lot more satiated if we could teach ourselves to eat ingredients at their peak and not because we think we should have everything we want exactly when we want it. We are a bunch of entitled so-and-sos, aren't we? We should really get over ourselves. OK, lecture complete. Moving on to deliciousness.

So, if I want to eat the short ribs because they are perfection, but I don't want a plate of short ribs, what do I do with them? I braise them, of course, and I make thick, satisfying, savory pasta sauce and serve it over pappardelle (wide, rustic pasta). Duh. This is an all-day sort of recipe that cooks low and slow for quite some time in a dutch oven (ooh lala. Bonjour Le Creuset. Joyeux Noel.) but it's worth it and it's not at all hard. No mountain climbing required. If you'd like, begin the recipe the day before you'd like to serve it to allow the flavors to marry overnight. This will also allow you to easily skim a lot of the fat resulting from the ribs out of the sauce. Please enjoy it, and please, please have a happy, healthy 2011!

Beef Short Rib Ragout over Pappardelle

Ingredients:

3 - 3.5 lbs. beef short ribs (bone-in)

4 oz. really good bacon, chopped into 1/4" dice (it helps to freeze bacon slightly before attempting to chop it)

2 - 3 T. olive oil, divided

1 medium onion, finely chopped (I used a food processor)

1 large or 2 small carrots, finely chopped (ditto)

3 (or more, to your liking) cloves garlic, crushed

2.5 cups good red wine

2.5 cups beef or veal stock

1 T. tomato paste

2 bay leaves

2-3 stems each, fresh thyme, fresh oregano, tied in a bunch with cooking-safe string, to make bouquet garni

1 large can whole peeled tomatoes

1 15 oz. can diced tomatoes

1/2 cup fresh grated parmigiano reggiano or pecorino romano cheese, plus more for garnish

1/2 cup ricotta cheese

Fresh parsley

12 - 16 oz. pappardelle pasta, or other broad, flat pasta, or rigatoni

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Pat short ribs dry with paper towels and season liberally with salt and pepper. Heat about 1 - 2 T. olive oil in dutch oven on stove top. Sear short ribs on all 4 sides and remove from dutch oven. Set aside. Heat remaining oil and sautee bacon until well browned, but not burned. Remove bacon from the pan and set aside. Sautee carrots and onions in resulting fat until onion becomes translucent and carrots begin to soften. Return short ribs to rest on top of vegetables. Cover with wine & stock. Add tomatoe paste bay leaves, herbs and garlic, plus the reserved bacon. Open the can of whole tomaotes and coarsely crush tomatoes with your fingertips. Add tomatoes and juice to the dutch oven. Stir carefully. Cover and place in the oven for about 3 hours.

After 3 hours, remove dutch oven from your oven. Remove bay leaves and bouquet garni. If you're working a day ahead, at this point you would allow the whole thing to cool a bit before placing it in the fridge overnight. Then, the next day, remove the fat solids from the top of the sauce and proceed by removing the ribs and bringing the sauce back up to a simmer on the stove top. If you are working within one day, remove the ribs from the sauce and use a serving spoon or ladle to skim as much fat from the surface of the sauce as possible and proceed by bringing the sauce to a simmer on the stovetop. Remove the meat from the bones and separate fat from the meat. Discard fat and bones. While you are dealing with meat, bring the sauce to a simmer on the stove top and add the diced tomatoes and parmigiano, stirring to loosen any bits stuck to the bottom. Return the beef from the ribs to the pot and simmer sauce until slightly thickened. Reduce heat to a low simmer. Cook pasta according to package. Turn sauce off and add ricotta cheese. Stir to incorporate. Drain pasta thoroughly and add it directly to the sauce, tossing gently to coat. Serve immediately with grated cheese, a sprinkle of fresh parsley, and a big, fat glass of red wine. Enjoy!

My Bake-Off Career (and Sugar Shuttles)

I would like to be on one of the Food Network recipe contest shows. Specifically, Ultimate Recipe Showdown, the one hosted by Guy Fieri. They typically have a mixed bag of contestants. There are talented home cooks with interesting techniques and recipes and there are truly awful recipes from some harebrained amateurs. I recently saw an episode where a contestant was pureeing sauteed chicken with hot sauce in a blender. For what purpose, I don't know. I had to click through and watch something less disturbing like "Jerseylicious."

The most disturbing display of amateur cooking I've ever seen was on one of Gordon Ramsey's show. One of the contestants thought it was good idea to cook a whole chicken inside a pumpkin. Ramsey gags as he pulls the pale wet chicken from the belly of the pumpkin. The pumpkin had birthed the chicken - twisted. Regardless, I want to be on a show as a serious contestant. As important days go in my life, it would rank pretty high. Not before the day I married my husband or the day my son was born, but I think being the winner on a show would come in a solid 3rd.

I've tried to win cooking contests before, and I have never won. I recently lost in a bake-off at my office. I even submitted two recipes in the hope that would increase my odds. I actually intended to submit three, thank God I didn't. That would have been humiliating.

I made crispy salted oatmeal white chocolate cookies and the recipe below -- sugar shuttles. I made the oatmeal cookies a few years back for another bake-off. I got a 3rd-place finish, which was fairly disappointed considering the top prize went to a Duncan Hines cake. The sugar shuttles didn't win either in last week's bake-off, but I guarantee they're worth making (and eating). They're soft and buttery and different, and they come from the same book I've been using a lot lately, The Gourmet Cookie Book. This was Gourmet magazine's best recipe from 1951. Enjoy.

Sugar Shuttles

1 cup of flour
1/4 cup of sugar
2 egg yolks, whites reserved
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla

Mix flour, sugar, butter, egg yolks, salt and vanilla in a bowl with a spoon or with your hands. It’s easier with your hands. Once a dough is formed, let rest covered in the refrigerator for 1 hour.

Pre-heat oven to 350, and line a baking sheet with parchment paper

While dough rests, beat the egg whites, and pour about ½ cup of sugar into another bowl.

Take dough out of refrigerator, and pinch off about 1 to 1 ½ teaspoon sized portions. Roll into log shape, about 1 ½ inches long. Dip in egg whites and roll in sugar.

Bake in oven for 8-10 minutes until barely brown on the edges.

Makes 18-24 cookies

Maple Shortbread Squares

I found another gem in The Gourmet Cookie Book. The official name of the cookie is "Skibo Castle Ginger Crunch." It's British. It had one ingredient exclusive to the U.K. The recipe calls for Lyle's Golden Syrup. Not sure what that is, so I replaced it with maple syrup. I also replaced the ginger with cinnamon. I thought the cinnamon made better friends with the maple syrup then ginger.

Pre-heat oven to 350, and butter a 13 x 9 pan. Line with one sheet of parchment paper long enough so that about 2 inches hangs over each end of the pan.

Shortbread Base
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
3 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 stick cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes

Mix dry ingredients, and then add butter. The best way to combine the butter with the dry ingredients is with your fingers. If you have a pastry cutter, use that to help with the process. It'll take about 5-8 minutes.

Once completed, pour mixture into your greased pan and with your hands press down and spread to cover the entire surface.

Bake in oven for 15-18 minutes until lightly browned.

While it bakes heat the ingredients below on medium-low heat in a saucepan for about 5 minutes.

Topping
6 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon maple syrup
1 cup confectioner's sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

It will become smooth and gooey. When the shortbread comes out of the oven, pour the topping over it. Let cool on counter for about an hour, and then put in the refrigerator over night. This will make it easier to cut.

The parchment paper hanging over the edges is the key to getting this out of the pan. You should be able to lift with ease, and cut into as many pieces as you want. I made this into 24 squares.

Super Soup, with apologies to Ro Zucc

Hello?? Where am I? What is this thing? A blog? What's a blog? Oh. That sounds neat. I'd like one of those. what? I have one? ME?!? Where?!? THIS ONE? Whaaaat? This is my blog? That's so weird. You must be mistaken. I don't have a --- wait! Do I? That does seem familiar. WAIT! I do! I do have a blog! Hello blog! It's been forever! What have you been up to? Nothing? And it's all my fault? Because I haven't posted anything? Hmm. I guess you do have a point there. Sorry about that. Oh, come on! Don't be angry! I'm sorry for ignoring you! I won't do it again! Can't we just move forward? We can? Thanks, blog. I've missed you too. I really am sorry. I promise to make up for it. Right now. With the best soup ever.

So, once upon a time, I was in college. I say "once upon a time" because I still go to the gym at said college and, judging by the appearance of the co-eds around me, they are very young which would make me sort of, um, vaguely, relatively, old-ish. Regardless, my beloved co-blogger Beth & I met there at Loyola College (now Loyola University Maryland. Another subject for another day. Don't get me started.) and I have many, many fond memories of my time there. From what I recall. Pieces are hazy. But I think it was great.

A really great thing about Loyola was the housing. Most of it was re-purposed apartment buildings that had been built for real people, then purchased by Loyola and used as student housing which meant that there were very few traditional dorms. It was pretty sweet. Other kids were totally jealous. We had kitchens. We had in-room bathrooms. We had living rooms. The trade-off? We had LOTS of roommates. At first, there were 5 of us in my room, and later 4. So, that's more than one roommate. By up to 400% more. I think. I wasn't a math major.

Regardless, as any of you who has maybe lived with one 19-year old girl can attest, 4 or 5 of us in one room was sometimes a lot. And I don't think I was super good at it. My intentions were good, but it was almost like my intuition regarding my own species was somehow sort of off, like the cow that gets confused and wanders away from the heard only to get caught in a barbed wire fence. It was sometimes wonderful, and sometimes a struggle but ya know what? When I look back on it, I remember a lot of good stuff, and I'm still friends with all of those girls that I ever lived with and that makes me happy. They all have good lives and GORGEOUS kids and they're happy, too. And we're all still in touch. Except this girl Brenda who lived with us briefly who had a really weird relationship with her brother and wore a lot of overalls. I don't know what happened to her. But for the rest of us, I wish we could see each other more.

My roommate Toni was my direct roommate our Freshman year. That meant we shared a bedroom in a larger apartment.There was a lot of really good stuff about living with Toni. She is very funny. She is neat as a pin, which just made me feel bad that she had to live with me. She has an excellent wardrobe and always let me borrow her sweaters. She would occasionally pluck my eyebrows for me. She believed that when things went bad, it was probably best to go to the mall. But Toni's family also owns the best pizza place in Wildwood, NJ - Sam's Pizza - and whenever she went home she brought back a BIG stack of pies for us. AWESOME. Although, being a seasonal business, Sam's would close for a big chunk of the school year. And you would think it would be sad. And it was. BUT! When there was no pizza, Toni used to bring back her mom's chicken soup. Ro's (her mom's name is Ro) Super Soup. Or was it 'Soup'er Soup? Dunno. Never asked her to spell it. Don't care. It was so delicious, so comfy. It was traditional chicken & rice soup, with carrots & onions and chicken (duh). And you wouldn't have thought it would be remarkable, but it was. It sooo was. It was SUPER thick with shredded chicken and rice and it literally warmed your soul. And we would heat it, and eat some, and then heat it again the next day (or later the same day), and eat some more. And it just kept getting thicker and better.

Now, I wasn't the culinarian that you see before you now back at Loyola. I was just starting to dabble. And I think it was probably years before I really started to think about Ro's soup and how to recreate it. But I'm having a soup moment right now, so I decided this was the year to figure it out. 'Cause I don't live with or near Toni anymore, or Ro for that matter, and my babies need this soup! So, I set off on the soup making, and I made my own stock from a whole cut-up chicken. And then I pulled all the meat so it was perfectly shredded like Ro's. And I chopped carrots and onions. And I simmered. And I added rice. And I seasoned. And I tasted. And it was not right. Thin, brothy, blah. And I simmered. And I seasoned. And I put it to bed for the night to let the flavors marry. And I did it all again the next day. And it still sucked. And then I got desperate and added some saffron that co-blogger Beth left at my house months ago which I swore I would never use because she left it acidentally and saffrom threads are EXPENSIVE. But Ro's soup was definitely a beautiful yellow shade and I had to. (So sorry Beth! I swear I will replace it!) But the soup was still just soup, not Souper.

And then fate intervened. My daughters, specifically, intervened. It was their dinnertime and they were fussy and cranky and difficult and I forgot about my soup. I left it simmering away. And we got through dinner, and I got the little one bathed (she is slippery like an eel, that one!) and then I realized my soup was boiling. Boiling! And probably ruined. Probably stuck to the bottom of the pot and burnt. Probably awful.

Or, perhaps, perfection. It was thick, hearty, yellow, soothing, comforting, delicious, better-than-it-should-be perfection. In a word, Souper. I'm going to share it with you because it is the sort of thing that might help us all towards happiness and world peace. But I'm gonna preface with apologies to Ro, 'cause I'm sure this isn't her way or the right way, but it filled the hole in my world left when I graduated and got circumstantially cut-off from the real deal. Now, if I can only get Sam's to deliver to Baltimore, we'll be all set.

Souper Soup

For Stock:

Ingredients:

1 Whole Chicken, cut into about 6 or 8 pieces

1 whole large - or two small - onions, skin on, quartered

2 carrots, cut into several large pieces

2 celery stalks, cut into several large pieces

2 bay leaves

12 - 20 whole peppercorns

1 T. Kosher salt

Enough water to cover completely, at least 10 cups

Instructions:

Place chicken, vegetables & seasoniongs in a large stockpot and add water to completely cover all ingredients. Cover stockpot and simmer for at least three hours. Remove from heat, cool slightly and remove chicken. Set chicken aside to cool (I retained my carrots, chopped them and added them to my soup later, too). Strain stock into another large pot, cover and refrigerate overnight. Discard remaining vegetables. The next day, remove chicken skin and bones and chop or shred further if necessary, and remove any fat from surface of stock. Continue with soup recipe as below.

For Soup:

Ingredients:

2 T. olive oil

2 medium or large onions, chopped, not too finely

3 carrots, peeled and sliced into thick coins

1o cups chicken stock (as above)

3 -4 cups chicken, shredded (from stock recipe as above)

2 cups uncooked rice (I used brown)

2 bay leaves

1 1/2 T. fresh thyme, stems carefully removed

1 - 2 tsp saffron threads

Salt and pepper, to taste

optional: 1 1/2 c. sliced mushrooms, sauteed in olive oil

Instructions:

Warm 2 T. of olive oil in a large stockpot. Add onions and carrots and sautee lightly until onions are just barely softened. Add chicken stock, chicken and rice, bay leaves & thyme. Stir. Simmer soup, covered, for about an hour, stirring occasionally. Add saffron (and mushrooms, if desired...they weren't in Ro's soup as I recall), and season with salt and pepper, remembering that you can always add more, but you can't take it out. Turn up the heat just a bit to acheive a gentle boil and leave the pot uncovered, stirring regularly until the soup starts to reduce and thicken to your liking. When soup has reached the consistency you desire, serve it in big bowls with good crusty bread. Enjoy!