The beef
It’s rainy and cold around here right now. T.S. Eliot said that April is the cruelest month and he certainly hit the nail on the head. Funny how weather like this in Paris didn’t even phase me but here it sure does get me down. That and the fact that my fearless minivan, hauler of trees, compost, groceries, and kids, has broken down and been at the shop since last Thursday. I’m torn between wanting to stop sinking money into repairs and get something new, fuel efficient, and small and wanting it to pull through so I can do some bondo work on its rust spots this summer…perhaps even give it a snazzy, arty, creative paint job. We’ll see how this saga ends up soon enough. Until then I’ve been driving Dave’s car and logging a lot of drive time as I drop Dave and the boys off and then pick them up again later in the day.
Braised short ribs are perfect for when your life becomes unreasonably hectic and stressful. Begin the day before you want to eat them. In a deep, large dutch oven brown each piece. Add 1/2 bottle of red wine, 1 onion peeled and quartered, 5 garlic cloves, bashed but not peeled, and a can of whole roma tomatoes. If the liquid amount is low feel free to add water. Also add salt and pepper and a bay leaf or two. Cover the pot and stick it in the refrigerator. On the day you want to eat them you should preheat the oven to 325F about 3 hours before you want to serve them. While the oven is preheating put the pot on a burner and heat up the contents then pop the ribs into the oven. 3 hours later they’ll come out of the oven looking like little succulent pot roast. There is nothing that well-marbled, braised, grass-fed, locally-raised beef won’t cure…well maybe there is… but it sure does fix me up after a bad day.
Enjoy those ribs with some nice smashed potatoes, a nice pool of reduced braising juices lapping at their base, and a delicious pile of haricot verte to contrast. Don’t forget the wine.
Beef was raised by and purchased from Eric and Carrie Johnson at Jordandal Farm.
Porky deliciousness
I wish I knew what to call this pork creation. I suppose if I’d rolled them into balls they could be meatballs but actually I was trying to recreate a dish Dave ordered in Paris…it had a big long French name written in cursive on a chalkboard and when the waiter kindly translated it for us he called it “pork salad”. But oh, it was so much more than that! I actually had plate envy as I had foolishly ordered the endive salad…and after tasting the pork I wanted to marry it. It was that good. In order to quell my unbridled lust for this porky dish I decided to try to recreate it. Not so easy to do since Dave would only share one bite and then refused to tolerate my queries about the presence of chervil, shallot, and such as he smugly devoured every last remaining morsel. There you have it…my one regret regarding Paris is that we didn’t order another plate of that heavenly pork.
My version is good, in fact it’s fabulous but it’s not the pork salad from L’ AOC. It didn’t have that incredibly rich unctuousness nor the crusty, caramely exterior. I suspect that lard was used…perhaps even wrapping the pork in leaf lard before cooking and the seasoning was probably much simpler than what I attempted. But there were no complaints at the dinner table last night and I’m looking forward to the leftovers for my lunch.
I served the pork (which I will hereinafter refer to as porklettes until I have a better name) with a potato, celeraic puree, sauteed mushrooms, and baby bok choy that I chased around an incredibly hot pan for a few minutes. It was the perfect combination. I’ll keep trying to improve the porklettes…they have a lot of potential for flavors and I can imagine how excellent they would be with ripe heirloom tomatoes…mmmmm.
Porklettes
inspired by the “pork salad” served at L’ AOC, Paris
printer-friendly recipe
16 ounces pork shoulder
4 ounces side pork
1 shallot, peeled
2 inches ginger, peeled
2 cloves garlic, peeled
1 tablespoon Penzeys fines herbes
1 egg
1 tablespoon bread crumbs
3 tablespoons white wine
salt
pepper
Using the food processor, pulse the pork shoulder and the side pork until it is coarsely ground. Transfer the meat to a mixing bowl. Put the shallot, ginger, and garlic in the food processor and pulse until it is chopped fine. Transfer it to the mixing bowl. Rehydrate the fines herbes using a tablespoon of water, add that and the remaining ingredients to the bowl and using your hands mix lightly until combined. Store overnight in the refrigerator.
Prior to cooking allow the pork mixture to come to room temperature. Form it into whatever shape size suits you. Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a skillet and add the pork just before the butter smokes and cook over medium heat until browned, flip and brown the other side.
Buckwheat galette …WHB
This post should actually be called “what I learned on my vacation, part 1″. That’s because I never ate a buckwheat galette until going to Paris and now it’s all I think about. Wow, do I have some ground to make up. But isn’t it always the case…you’re chugging along through life, you go on vacation and BAM, you learn all kinds of new things and return home wondering how you can possibly live anywhere that doesn’t have a crepe stand or creperie restaurant at least every five blocks… or whatever it is you become obsessed with. Obviously I’m currently obsessed with crepes…since I’ve been home I’ve made nutella and banana crepes for the guys every morning and last night I turned my attention to the savory side…a buckwheat galette.
First off, my crepes aren’t round, they’re rectangle because I have an electric griddle that is perfect for this and it’s a rectangle. Secondly, buckwheat crepes aren’t called crepes, they’re galettes and they can’t be made on a whim…the batter has to age overnight in the refrigerator…I’m just telling you up front because I didn’t know that until I read the instructions (duh!). Third, you need buckwheat flour…and that’s where we get to the good part.
Buckwheat isn’t a grain at all…it’s a seed and it’s related to the rhubarb family. The seed is similar to the sunflower seed in that it’s a single seed within a hard shell. The inner part of the seed is white, the outer layer is green or tan, and the hull is brown or black…which explains the appearance of buckwheat as a dark, rather coarse flour with a nutty scent and flavor. All of which makes it the perfect post to add to Weekend Herb Blog, hosted this week by Kalyn herself.
My recipe for the buckwheat galette comes from David Lebovitz and while I didn’t change it this time I think I’ll add more butter and salt the next time. I filled it with cheese, bacon, chunks of potatoes, creme fraiche, red onions, and parsley. The inspiration for the filling was a galette I ate in Paris that had that exact same combination. Served with a side salad, a glass of vin rouge, well it was almost parisian.
There was leftover batter and filling ingredients so this morning when I was cranking out the banana nutella crepes for Alex and Dex I whipped up another galette for GH and topped it with an egg. That’s another thing I learned on vacation…the french put eggs on lots of things like galettes, croque monsieur (which turns it into a croque madam….funny, huh?), salad, pastry…etc. It does have the way of making a nice sauce…the broken yolk pouring down into the gooey fillings.
It’s time for some linky love. Erin over at Cooking and Eating in the Windy City recently gave me the “You Make My Day” award (hereinafter referred to as the Clint Eastwood Award) and while I’ve not had the time to pass it on, nor have I had the time to catch up to the memes that have been sent my way, I do appreciate the attention. Erin has a killer picture/recipe of Braised Chicken with Shallots, Garlic, and Balsamic vinegar that I’m hoping to try out next week.
