Braised & Enthused

Sorry for the brief hiatus!  Between work, and the upcoming holidays, it's been a bit crazy around these parts.  We've mostly been cooking easy, standby recipes, so there haven't been many new recipes to post here.  However, we did receive some nice looking short ribs in a recent share and put those to good use, cooking them low and slow.  This method of cooking leaves the meat nice and tender, practically falling off the bone.

We're big fans of Top Chef, and Edward Lee, a contestant from the season based in Texas, just put out a cookbook combining his Korean roots and southern tradition called, Smoke & Pickles.  We followed his recipe for the short ribs, and it was quite delicious.

If there's a lot of excess fat, you'll want to trim some of it off.  Then parboil the ribs in a dutch oven for about 8 minutes, in about 4 cups of water.  Once they start to cook, pull them out of the water, and set them aside.  You'll want to skim some of the fat out of the liquid, and then reserve 2 cups of the cooking water.  The rest of the water can be dumped out, and you'll want to dry out your pot.

Once your pot is back on the stove, heat a couple tablespoons each of sesame oil and vegetable oil.  When it's nice and hot, drop in a few short ribs at a time.  You want to get a nice sear on all sides of each short rib, so you'll want to do them in batches.

Once all of the short ribs are seared, place all of them back in the pot, add your chopped onions, ginger and garlic, and let it cook for a few minutes.

Next, add your soy sauce, chicken stock, mirin, and the 2 cups of reserved cooking liquid and bring to a slow simmer.  To balance out the saltiness of the liquid, stir in some sugar and honey.

Then just let it simmer away, giving your short ribs a turn every now and then.  After an hour, add in your carrots, parsnips, and pine nuts.  The recipe also calls for raisins, but I'm not a huge fan, so we left them out.  There was enough sweetness already from the sugar and honey.

Let everything simmer until the short ribs are tender, and the liquid has thickened.  This will be about another hour or so.

While we were in the final stages of braising, we whipped up a side dish of roasted Brussels sprouts.  We halved the brussels sprouts and tossed them in a marinade of miso paste, ponzu, rice wine vinegar, and sesame oil.  We also stumbled upon some black garlic at Trader Joe's, so we sliced up a couple cloves and added them to the sprouts.

Black garlic gets it's color from being fermented for weeks.  It develops a nice sweet flavor, with hints of balsamic vinegar.  It may look a bit unappetizing, but it's quite delicious.  Once your sprouts are evenly coated, place them on a baking sheet and let them roast in the oven for about 20 minutes.  We topped them with some sesame seeds and bonito flakes, for a punch of umami.

Rice would be the traditional accompaniment for this dish, but Edward Lee pairs his short-ribs with edamame hummus. We went in a similar, but different direction, and  whipped up some roasted garlic mashed potatoes with some spuds we got in our share. They were a great way to soak up the delicious gravy.

The meat was super tender, and fell right off the bone.  The Asian flavors in the braising liquid really soaked into the meat, and was a nice balance of salty and sweet.  We will be making this recipe again if we get more short ribs, or if they're on sale at the market (if Justin gets his way!).

Magnificent Miso Mollusks

If you're looking for a quick weekday meal, look no further than some seared scallops.  They don't take much time to cook up, and make for a very tasty meal.  The sweet scallop is perfectly complimented by the salty and umami from the miso paste.

You'll want to start by patting your scallops dry.

Then we mixed up a marinade of miso paste, mirin, rice vinegar, ginger, and a touch of sesame oil.  We used this recipe as a guide.  We let the scallops marinate in the sauce for about 30 minutes while we prepped our sugar snap peas and toasted up some almonds.

When you're ready to cook your scallops, get your pan nice and hot.  Place your scallops in the pan, and let them get a nice, golden brown sear before flipping them.  Searing them gives them not only a great taste but nice textural component as well.  Be sure to keep your attention on the pan, they only take a few minutes to cook on each side.

We topped our scallops with some freshly chopped scallions, and had a nice little salad of mixed greens, sugar snap peas, and almonds.  The outcome is a fresh, sophisticated, warm weather dish that looks as great as it tastes.  That's it--quick, simple, and delicious!

Miso Hungry!

We were fortunate enough to receive more fresh oysters in our recent share, but we didn't want to just fry them up.  I asked a fellow foodie for suggestions and he recommended a cold miso soup.  We happened to have most of the ingredients on hand, and it sounded like the perfect light, summer dinner.

We started by making a dashi, following Alton Brown's recipe.  It's essentially the Japanese equivalent of a broth, imparting the flavor of seaweed and bonito flakes in water, the same way you would a chicken or beef stock.  Though we didn't have any kombu on hand, we did have nori, so we used that instead.  They're fairly similar dried seaweeds, and it proved to be a decent substitute.

Start by soaking your seaweed in water for about 30 minutes.  Then heat the pan so the water comes to a slow simmer, and let it cook for another 10 minutes.  This will help flavor the water.  Remove your seaweed, increase the heat, and let the water boil for another 5 minutes.  Reduce the heat again, and add your katsuobushi, or bonito flakes.  Let the bonito flakes simmer for about 10 minutes.  I love the smoky, umami smell of the flakes on their own.  Once the bonito flakes have simmered, strain the liquid through a fine mesh strainer or cheesecloth, and your dashi is ready!  You can reserve the bonito flakes for another use.

Now you're ready to make your soup.  We found another Alton Brown recipe for miso soup, with a few additions.  With the dashi we just made, we heated it in a pot and brought it to a low simmer.  While the dashi warmed up, we pressed our tofu, to get the liquid out of it.  We just sandwiched it between paper towels and plates, with a weight on top.

Once the dashi is warm, ladle out a cup full.  Whisk your miso paste into this cup, and then add it back into your pot.  When the pot is simmering again, add your tofu.  You can cut your tofu in cubes, though for us, it was easier to just break it into small pieces with my fingers and add it to the pot.  We also chopped up some chanterelle mushrooms that we got in the share and tossed those in for some additional earthy flavor.    Just before we were ready to eat, we dropped in the oysters.  It took about 1 minute for those to cook up.  We seared off two of the mushrooms to top off the soups.  Then you're ready to serve!