Braise the Roof!

A recent snow day afforded us the opportunity to really put our slow cooker to the test, and braise some short ribs for over 8 hours.  The timing couldn't have been more perfect.  I've been a bit hesitant to leave the crock pot plugged in while Justin and I are both away at work, so being snowed in was the perfect time to let these babies braise.

I'd seen this recipe come through my email, and we merged it with a short rib recipe from Nom Nom Paleo.  Both recipes had similar ingredients in the braising liquids, so we thought it'd be easy to merge the two recipes.

We fired up the crock pot, and placed our seasoned short ribs inside.  To that, we added some roughly chopped carrots, celery, white onion, green onion, a handful of garlic cloves, and some ginger.  We also had some lemongrass on hand, so we added a bit of that to the crock pot too.  For some added sweetness, we tossed in some gula jawa, as well as a few cloves of fermented black garlic that we had on hand.

For the braising liquid, we combined about 1/2 cup soy sauce, a splash of fish sauce, a touch of apple cider vinegar, 1 cup beef broth, and enough water to cover the top of the ribs.  Then we just put the lid on, and let the ribs simmer the day away.

About halfway through, the aroma of the short ribs and braising liquid started to spread throughout the apartment, and it was hard to resist.  We let them cook for a solid 8 hours.  By the time we were ready to eat, the meat was so tender, it just fell off the bone and melted in your mouth.  Be sure to skim off as much fat from the braising liquid before spooning it over your short ribs.

To accompany our short ribs, we whipped up some rice, and snow pea greens sauteed with garlic.  The rice helped soak up some of the delicious braising liquid too, while the snow pea greens added a crisp, fresh component to the dish.  The short ribs were garnished with some toasted sesame seeds.  It was the perfect, hearty dinner for a wintery snow day.

Super Bowl Spread

We've had our fair share of sports this weekend...a Wake/Maryland basketball game yesterday, the Caps/Pens game this afternoon, and the Super Bowl to round things out.  So what better way to cap off the weekend than with a proper spread of delicious bar food?  On the menu tonight were some wings, buffalo chicken dip, and "crack bread".

So let's start with the wings...a bar/sports staple.  We seasoned the wings with a little roasted garlic salt and some pepper, and placed them on a cooling rack, on top of a baking sheet.  This helps get all sides of the chicken crispy, and lets some of the fat drip off.  After about 10 minutes, we flipped the wings to make sure all sides were equally crispy.

 

While the chicken baked, we mixed together the sauce for our wings.  We went with a coriander chutney for some spice, and mixed it with Greek yogurt for a little extra tang.  Once the chicken was cooked through, we dunked them in the chutney/yogurt mixture.  Back into the oven they went to crisp up again.  Think of it like tandoori chicken...the yogurt and chutney bake into the chicken, the outside is nice and crispy, while the meat stays really juicy.

The wings cooked for another 15 minutes on each side.  To the leftover sauce, we added a little cilantro, lime zest and lime juice to use as a dipping sauce for the wings.  Once the wings came out of the oven, they got a sprinkling of cilantro and squeeze of lime juice.

Dish 1 down.  Now on to dish 2...the "crack bread".  Its basically a pull-apart bread with cheese and bacon.  Think of it as an alternative to loaded potato skins.  We started with a loaf of sourdough, cutting it horizontally and vertically, but not all the way through.  You're making nooks for all the cheese and bacon to go.  Rather than using bacon bits, we cooked up our own bacon.  And the secret to it all is the melted butter mixed with a little bit of ranch dressing mix that gets drizzled over the entire loaf.

The recipe calls for slices of cheese, but I've found that shredded cheese is easier to sprinkle into all the nooks and crannies.  Its best if you can have one person spread the bread apart while someone else sprinkles the cheese.  Once you've distributed the cheese evenly, do the same with the bacon.  Then you drizzle the butter/ranch mixture over the entire loaf.  Pop it in the oven, wrapped in foil for about 15 minutes, and then another 10 minutes uncovered.  What you're left with is a crusty, melty, savory finger food.

 

And last but not least...buffalo chicken dip.  If you haven't had the fortune of experiencing this delightful treat, you should go ahead and make this right now.  We seasoned 2 chicken breasts with salt and pepper and popped them in the oven to cook for about 20 minutes.  While those cooked, we fired up the crock pot and threw in a brick of neufchatel cheese to soften up.  You can use cream cheese instead, if you want.  Because we had some extra yogurt and ranch dressing mix, we threw them together and added that to the crock pot as well, in place of the blue cheese dressing.  Its our slightly healthier spin on the dip...I mean, it was 0% fat greek yogurt ;)  For the blue cheese part, we added in blue cheese crumbles.  And to top it off, add in buffalo sauce.  We went with Frank's.  Once the chicken is cooked, shred it up and add it to the pot.  Then sprinkle a bit of shredded cheese on top and let it heat up and melt together.  What you're left with is a delicious dip that you can serve with chips, celery and carrots.

All 3 dishes came together rather quickly and with few dishes to clean up (my favorite kind of dishes!).  Throw in a few beers, and you have the makings of a great Super Bowl spread!

Tools of the Trade

I know its been almost a month since Christmas (where did the time go???), but I thought I'd go back and do another little recap.  But this time, I want to talk about the gifts Justin and I received.  Just about every present was food related, whether it was tools to add to our arsenal, cookbooks for inspiration, or random ingredients my mom found at a Hispanic market (I mean that Santa had his elves whip up in the shop).

So let's start with the equipment...

1.All-Clad 13 inch French skillet with lid.  I have a couple smaller All-Clad pans and they are awesome!
2. All-Clad Tool Set.  When mom asked what I wanted for Christmas, I didn't giver her much to work with. I just said that I needed a ladle.  So she came up with an entire tool set.  The one she found me is similar to the one pictured but also includes s slotted spoon and another spatula.
3. Salt box...though mine is currently holding pepper.
4. Iron Wok  Its made out of one piece of metal, so the entire thing gets hot, hence gift #9.  The wok made its debut when we made stir fry.
5. Granite Mortar & Pestle.  I still need to season it, but it should get plenty of use down the road.
6. Pirate Chef Apron.  Justin tends to be a little messy when he cooks.
7. Ceramic Mortar & Pestle.  It just so happens that Justin's parents had the same idea and got him a mortat & pestle too.  You may recognize it from our pig head post.
8. "Eat With Your Hands". This cookbook was listed as one of the top cookbooks of 2012.  My favorite part is that along with the recipes, Pelaccio gives recommendations for what to listen to and what to drink while cooking that recipe.  Justin has already read it cover to cover and is ready to start trying some of the recipes.
9. Silicone Pot Handle.  So the idea was for this handle cover to go with the wok.  Unfortunately, the handle of the wok is too thick for it to wrap around.  But I have another cast iron grill pan that we can use the handle on.
10. Gnocchi Paddle.  Now we won't have to use a fork to make the ridges!
11. 6-qt. Crock Pot.  Until now, I've just slow cooked things in my dutch oven.  But we broke her in by making some chili yesterday.

And then we unwrapped a few food items...

1. Squid Ink.  Santa brought both Justin and I a few packets of squid ink.  We're not sure how exactly we'll use the ink, but we've got some ideas in the works.
2. Bottarga.  If you're not familiar, this is cured fish roe.  The one that we got is mullet.  After our first experience with bottarga at the Feastly dinner, we're excited about using it ourselves.
3. Flavored Salts.  Not to be confused with bath salts...I don't think you'd want to snort or smoke these.  For Justin, I picked up the sriracha salt, roasted garlic salt, and aged balsamic salt.  They were so fragrant, you could smell them through the tins.  We sprinkled a bit of the roasted garlic salt onto our steaks.