Braised Short Ribs and Mushroom Risotto

It’s summer time in “Hot-Lanta.” That means it’s time for ribs. But what kind? Baby back, spare ribs, St. Louis cut? And of course we’re talking Barbeque or grilling aren’t we. Well no, not even close. I’m talking about beef ribs, short ribs to be exact. Cooked indoors in a well air conditioned kitchen.  I’m not stupid, it’s 100 degrees out there.

What are short ribs? “Short ribs can be cut numerous ways, but come from the area of the ribs a bit further down towards the belly than rib steaks or strip steaks (which come from closer up towards the back). When cut into long slabs with bone sections about 6 to 8-inches in length, they are referred to as "English cut." When sliced across the bones so that each slice receives four to five short sections of bone, they are known as "flanken style."[1]

“1. Boneless Short Ribs

Cut into thick pieces for braising or stews, or ask your butcher to slice this marbled portion thinly and prepare them bulgogi[2] style.

2. English-Cut

When the ribs are separated from one another along the bone, the meat sits up top. You’ll see this style either in long slabs, or cut crosswise into 2″ pieces. They’re an ideal choice for braising.

3. Flanken Style

Cross-cut across several bones, these are also great slow-cooked. Or, ask your butcher to cut them thinly lengthwise, then marinate and grill for pleasantly chewy, super-flavorful results.”[3]

I went to our local farmers market to purchase six short ribs and the only style cut they had was the Flanken.  Since I’m braising these ribs which calls for low and slow cooking in a liquid, Flanken cut worked out great.

I took a very organized approach to the ingredients I would use in this recipe. I had everything measured or cut to size as the recipe called for. Here’s what I used.

·         6 Short Ribs

·         Kosher Salt

·         1 large Vidalia Onion

·         2 ribs celery

·         2 carrots

·         2 cloves garlic

·         1 ½ cup of tomato paste

·         Fresh thyme

·         2 bay leaves

·         2 cups of red wine

Here’s the first step in cooking.

Season each short rib generously with salt. I used an enameled cast iron dutch oven. Next add a tablespoon of olive oil and bring to a high heat. Add the short ribs to the pan and brown very well, about 2 to 3 minutes per side. Do not overcrowd pan. Cook in batches, if necessary.

While the short ribs are browning, puree all the vegetables and garlic in the food processor until it forms a coarse paste. When the short ribs are very brown on all sides, remove them from the pan. Drain the fat, coat the bottom of same pan with fresh oil and add the pureed vegetables. Season the vegetables generously with salt and brown until they are very dark and a crud has formed on the bottom of the pan, approximately 5 to 7 minutes. Scrape the crud and let it reform. Scrape the crud again and add the tomato paste. Brown the tomato paste for 4 to 5 minutes. Add the wine and scrape the bottom of the pan. Lower the heat if things start to burn. Reduce the mixture by half.

Return the short ribs to the pan and add 2 cups water or until the water has just about covered the meat. Add the thyme bundle and bay leaves. Cover the pan and place in the preheated oven for 3 hours. Check periodically during the cooking process and add more water, if needed. Turn the ribs over halfway through the cooking time. Remove the lid during the last 20 minutes of cooking to let things get nice and brown and to let the sauce reduce. When done the meat should be very tender but not falling apart. Serve with the braising liquid.

Recipe courtesy of Anne Burrell

As an accompaniment to the braised ribs I decided to include something else I’ve never cooked, Mushroom Risotto. Risotto is a northern Italian rice dished cooked in a flavorful broth to a creamy consistency. The key factor in a successful risotto dish is the rice that is used. There are so many types of rice, each having it’s own unique characteristic. Classic risotto calls for a short grain with a high starch content. The most common type is Arborio.

Here’s the ingredient list.

4 cups chicken broth, low sodium

2 tablespoons olive oil, divided

1 onion, diced, divided

2 garlic cloves, minced, divided

1/2 pound fresh crimini mushrooms, sliced

2 bay leaves

2 tablespoons fresh thyme, chopped

2 tablespoons fresh Italian parsley, chopped

2 tablespoons butter

Salt and pepper

1 -ounce dried porcini mushrooms, wiped of grit

1 cups Arborio rice

1/2 cup dry white wine

1/2 cup fresh Parmesan cheese, grated

Fresh Italian parsley, for garnish

It’s time to sauté the mushroom and herb mixture.  Here I used 8 ounces of cremini mushrooms and 1 ounce of dried porcini mushrooms.  Before adding the porcini they need to be reconstituted in 1cup of hot chicken broth. Add them to the broth and wait about 10 minutes. They should be plumped up and easy to chop. 

Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil to a skillet and heat until the oil is shimmering.  Add the onion, mushrooms, bay leaf and thyme. Once this is cooked and the onions are translucent remove them for addition to the rice later in the process.

Since you’ll be adding simmering chicken broth to the rice, 4 cups should be brought to a simmer and kept nearby. You’ll be making 1 ladle full additions of broth to the rice during the cooking process. Allow each ladle full to be completely absorbed before adding the next.

To begin with the rice should be toasted in an open skillet with butter and onion or shallots.  Shallots are sometimes preferred but since I had access to fresh sweet Vidalia onions I used that. For one cup of rice, I used ½ cup of minced onion with 1 tablespoon of butter.  Cook rice, onion and butter for about 1 minute making sure each grain of rice is well coated with butter.  The purpose of this is to help the rice retain its starches during the cooking process.

If the first steps weren’t easy enough, the next will be even simpler. Add one ladle full of chicken broth and stir to combine. You don’t have to constantly stir, but keep an eye on it.  You’ll know when it’s time to add the next portion of chicken broth when you take spoon or spatula and draw it across the bottom of the pan.  If you leave a clean swath without chicken broth running to fill in the gap then it’s time to add the next ladle full of broth. Repeat these steps until you’ve used all the broth.

Add the mushroom mixture and Parmesan cheese and stir.

Here’s the result…

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[1] http://www.seriouseats.com/2012/05/the-best-inexpensive-steak-for-the-grill-part-3.html

[2] BULGOGI is paper-thin slices of rib-eye

[3] http://www.bonappetit.com/test-kitchen/cooking-tips/article/beef-short-ribs

Low-Country Boil

I’m sure a lot of you have heard of a regional dish call Low Country Boil. But really, where the heck is the low country?  Are we talking about Holland? You know the place where they make young children

stick their fingers in dikes to hold the ocean in thereby heroically saving their community. Probably not, I think they are talking about the coastal lowlands of South Carolina

and its neighboring barrier islands.  When I think of South Carolina low country, Charleston immediately comes to mind.  I live in metropolitan Atlanta and one of my favorite places to go is Charleston. It’s not that far away and they make a lot of really good food there.  Here’s my attempt to make the famous Low Country Boil.

According to a Costal Living magazine[1] article, Low Country Boil, “Once called Frogmore Stew, this one-pot wonder was created by a National Guardsman when he needed to cook a meal for 100 soldiers.”

One thing that seems to be constant are the basic ingredients, water, red potatoes, shucked corn on the cob, kielbasa, shrimp and Old Bay seasoning. There are of course variations which change up the type of seafood, or make a mélange of seafood delicacies such as crab, clams, mussels, crawfish (I’m sorry we here in the south never learned to say crayfish,) and even lobster.

The recipe I’m going to use follows,

·         2 pounds small red potatoes

·         2 1/2 quarts water

·         1 (3-ounce) bag of crab boil seasoning

·         2 tablespoons Old Bay seasoning

·         1 pounds kielbasa or hot smoked link sausage, cut into 1½-inch pieces

·         3 ears of corn, halved

·         2 pounds large fresh shrimp, peeled and deveined optional

·         Cocktail sauce

Add potatoes to large pot, then add 2 1/2 quarts water and seasonings. Cover pot and heat to a rolling boil; cook 5 minutes. Add sausage and corn, and return to a boil. Cook 10 minutes or until potatoes are tender.

Add shrimp to stockpot; cook 3 to 4 minutes or until shrimp turn pink. Drain. Serve with cocktail sauce. Serves 6.

Let’s get started.

First up, peel and de-vein the shrimp.  I went to my local farmer's market and bought 2 pounds of 26-30 count white shrimp.  This means that there are approximately 26 to 30 shrimp to the pound. This size is manageable while not hurting my cooking budget too much.

Although the recipe didn't call for it, I added a dozen Little Neck Clams, so name for  the region they come from, Little Neck Bay on New York’s Long Island.

Once the shrimp are peeled and cleaned and the clams rinsed, set them aside and add about 2 1/2 quarts of water to a large stock pot.  Bring the water to a roiling boil and add the two tablespoons of McCormick's Old Bay Seasoning. Also add one bag of shrimp and crab boil. This is a spice packet also made my the McCormick company.

"Old Bay Seasoning is a blend of herbs and spices that is marketed in the United States by McCormick & Company, and produced in Maryland. It is produced in the Chesapeake Bay area where it was developed by German immigrant Gustav Brunn in 1939, and where the seasoning is very popular to this day."[2]

Now's the time to add two pounds of red potatoes

, quartered to the pot. Boil these for five minutes before the next two additions.


The next two ingredients are corn and kielbasa, or polish sausage.  I use fresh yellow corn on the cob, shucked and depending on size cut into three or for pieces.  Cut the kielbasa into about 1 1/2 inch pieces. 

Add these to the pot and continue to boil for ten minutes.


Lastly add the shrimp and the clams.  Cook these for 3 minutes and you're done. Drain the entire mixture into a large colander and finally plate onto a large platter covered with newspaper. I made up some quick cocktail sauce by adding 2 1/2 ounces of ketchup and 1 ounce of horseradish sauce. Serve this up with some fresh sourdough bread and enjoy a classic low-country favorite.

Thanks for stopping by and be sure to check out the next entry of "What's On the Burner."

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[1] http://www.coastalliving.com/food/entertaining/lowcountry-boil
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Bay_Seasoning

A Quick Late-Night Supper

A Quick Late-Night Supper

For a long time I was the type of shopper who would buy groceries for the week and even with all my best intentions, cook pretty boring meals.  There has been a sea change in how I shop now. I’m starting to discover that fresh food is my new best friend. As it relates to cooking fresh food has me going to the store every couple of days, but the trade off is vibrant exciting and simple food instead of processed, shelf stable, sodium laden crap. If you look hard enough and keep an open mind you’ll find some gems out among the plethora of food purveyors.

I have definite opinions about where to get the best produce.  It used to be I did all my shopping at Publix but as time went on I would realize that the produce they had was really not that appealing.  The next big store was Kroger.  I honestly think you can get better looking produce there and a larger variety. But this gem I’ve been talking about hiding among all the others is Nam Dae Num farmers market

nestled sweetly behind a defunct Block Buster Movie Rental building, a Bank of America, and a Sonic Drive in.

There are other stores for quality fresh food, Whole Foods, Fresh Market and Sprouts. There is a new Fresh Market being built very close by which will give me another option for fresh food.

That’s enough preaching about fresh food.  What's On the Burner? I decided to make Mary (my Wife) and I a late supper of Dover Sole with a lemon butter caper sauce and some grilled peaches.

The peaches take the longest. I cut 4 peaches in half and removed the pit. I have a grill pan that fits nicely on top of my gas range and I put it there and started to heat it up. Once it's gotten to a nice heat I lightly brush the grill with oil and also oil the flesh side of each peach half.

When the peaches are soft and have nice grill marks on them I removed them from the grill and placed them on a plate with tented aluminum foil.  Next comes the compound butter.  Take 1 stick of unsalted butter at room temperature place in a bowl. Then add 2 tablespoons of sugar and 1 tablespoon of cinnamon.  Mix the butter mixture well.  When ready to plate the peaches put about 1 teaspoon of the cinnamon butter on flesh side of the peach.

Next came the Dover Sole. 

The common sole, Dover sole, or black sole is a species of flatfish in the Soleidae family. It has a preference for relatively shallow water with sand or mud covering the bottom. It is found in the Eastern Atlantic Ocean, from the south of Norway to Senegal, and in almost all of the Mediterranean Sea. Chefs prize Dover sole for its mild, buttery, sweet flavour and versatility, and for its ease of filleting. The fish yields fillets that hold together well in a variety of recipes.

I got three filets, about 1/2 lb total,  on sale at our local market. It was about $4.00 tops for that amount.  The filets are very light in color and somewhat delicate so I didn't want to get out the charcoal grill for these guys.

I patted the filets dry with a paper towel and then lightly seasoned them with salt and pepper--that's it. I put a couple of teaspoons of canola oil in a non-stick pan and cooked them on the first side for three minutes. I then flipped them and cooked the other side for two minutes.  Take them out of the pan and put them on a plate with an aluminum foil tent while you make the sauce.

The sauce was almost as easy as the fish. Take two tablespoons of butter and melt it in a small saucepan. Once melted take a spoon and remove the clarified butter leaving the solids behind. Clean out your saucepan and put the clarified butter back in.  Heat this up slowly while giving you time to juice one lemon. You'll need about two tablespoons of fresh lemon juice.  While you're at it, take that rasp I told you about in the last recipe and zest one lemon, making sure you don't go to deep and get any of the white, bitter pith. Add the lemon juice and lemon zest to the clarified butter and lastly add one Tablespoon of capers. If you haven't tried these before be adventurous and go for it.  I think it lends an interesting taste to the sauce. When the sauce is heated through, but not boiling spoon over the fish and serve with those grilled peaches you just finished. 

This turned out to be a healthy, inexpensive and totally fresh late dinner that I'm sure you'll have great success with.

I hope you enjoyed this and don't forget to check us out next time to see "What's On the Burner."