borscht

The first time I ever had borscht was at the Russian Tea Room in NYC. It was meaty and had an amazing depth of flavor – the beets married with the beef perfectly. The restaurant itself may be kitschy and odd, but the food was outstanding. I tried another borscht not too long after that, I don’t remember where, and was sorely underwhelmed.

What I realized was that the trick to perfect borscht is the broth. You absolutely must have a highly seasoned, deeply flavored beef broth to really pull it off. My secret is using the broth left over from braising short ribs. Once you’ve braised the short ribs with plenty of veggies and red wine, remove the ribs and use and then puree the remaining mixture in the bottom of the pot and throw it in the fridge overnight. The next day chip off all the solidified fat on top and you’re left with the thickest, heartiest soup base you could ever ask for.

Some recipes call for shredding the short ribs and using them in the borscht, but I prefer not to do that. Better yet, make some short rib pirogues to go with it. If you don’t plan on making short ribs, you can always just use regular old beef stock. Just be sure to add a little extra bouillon paste to up the flavor.

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Mustard Braised Corned Beef Brisket

I’ve only ever had corned beef brisket once before. It was sometime around St. Patrick’s Day a few years ago while living in Monterey, CA. We stopped into an Irish bar for dinner and I assumed it would be delicious – Irish bar, St. Paddy’s, corned beef – what could go wrong?

Well, aside from the rather delicious Guinness there weren’t too many redeeming qualities. It was tough, dry, and bland. A washed out pink-y color with a hint of shoe leather and a bouquet of meh.

I decided that this year I’d try making my own, even if I didn’t finally get around to it until the day after St. Paddy’s. While I was searching around the internets looking for methods of preparation I discovered that the cooking style of choice was boiling.

Boiling?

Who boils meat?

Poaching? Yes. Steaming? I suppose. Boiling? No, not so much.

I decided to take the middle of the road and slather the top of the brisket with some whole grain mustard and braise it real low and slow for a couple of hours. The result? Intensely flavorful, beautifully fragrant, fork tender brisket.

Yes, please.

Mustard Braised Corned Beef Brisket

3 lb. corned beef brisket (preferably Animal Welfare Approved)

1/3 cup whole grain mustard

Preheat oven to 300⁰F

Slather the fatty side of the brisket with the mustard. Place in a dutch oven with a tight fitting lid and cook for 2 ½ hours, or until the brisket is fork tender. Slice against the grain and serve.



smoky three-bean chili

This is probably one of the better chilies I’ve had recently. I’m sure that it will never please a chili purist, but a chili purist I am not. I think chili can have beans and meat, either or both. It can be flavored and cooked in a myriad of ways. The only thing that should matter in the end is how it tastes – and this tasted damn good.

The smokiness of the chipotle in adobo and the smoked paprika were a pleasant diversion from the standard peppers and chili powder flavors of most chilies. It has a lot of heat – if you’re not one for spiciness I’d highly recommend substituting green bell peppers for the Anaheims and maybe omitting a chipotle pepper. I personally love the contrast of the smoky, spicy chili with the coolness of the sour cream and the richness of the avocado on top.

This recipe does call for a bottled jar of sauce. This isn’t something I usually do for recipes, but I had it on hand for a different recipe that required its use for a contest. I never ended up making that specific recipe, nor did I gain entry into the contest, so there it stood, staring at me from the counter. I didn’t feel like going to the store to grab diced tomatoes and tomato paste, so I used the bottled sauce. I have to admit, it was delicious and I’ll probably use it again in the future. That being said, if you are anti-processed food (and who can blame you after the monstrosity that is Sandra Lee) feel free to compensate by using diced tomatoes, a couple tablespoons of tomato paste plus some oregano and red chili flakes.

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red wine braised short ribs

Once relegated to the scrap heap, trendy restaurants all over have revamped the short rib and transformed it into contemporary rustic cuisine. After marinating some in red wine for two days and braising them nice and slow for a few hours I can definitely see why.

Short ribs have long received the same bad wrap as the Boston butt roast (pork shoulder), but that's due in large part to people who have been cooking them improperly. These fat marbled, cartilage ridden cuts of meat require a nice, long, low-heat bath to slowly transform all that greasy fat and yuck into meltingly decadent, fork tender meat that quite literally falls of the bone with the merest of touches.

These are a great weekend meal because they do require attention every 45 minutes for turning - in total about 3 hours or so of braising. But, braising is great because even though it does take a significant amount of time to cook, most of that time is hands off. 

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Salty Steak Deliciousness

This morning I was all set for making some out of this world Gruyere Soufflés. Sadly, around noon our power went out. For like four hours. This has happened before, the power flickering in and out, but not usually for so long. Funny enough, last time the power went out at our house we later found out it was because a seagull flew into the power lines. Priceless, eh?

Today I was not in the mood for their little birdy antics so when the power blipped off and didn't immediately come back on I went to the window and peered through the blinds. I was hoping for some serious seagull carnage in the power lines to justify my power shutting off.

Okay, I'm really a big softy when it comes to any living creature, (Except people. Most people suck. Screw people.) so I didn't really want to see some feathery fluff ball engulfed in flames. But man, I was really looking forward to those soufflés.

New plan of attack for cooking scrumptiousness: Yummy steaks on the grill.

Though it doesn't happen very often, I do on occasion really enjoy a nice big hunk of red meat. Sadly, because I'm not exactly a frequent beef shopper, I usually end up coming home with something that looks tasty but is tough as shoe leather. This is mainly because I'm not willing to fork out 8+ dollars for a single steak. I know, I'm a cheap ass, but what are you gonna do, right?

While I was surfing the interwebs this morning I ran across this amazing and wonderful website: Steamy Kitchen She describes how to turn lesser cuts of meat into yummy tasty meat-candy. And it totally works. Seriously. It involves liberally (and she means LIBERALLY) salting the meat for up to an hour before grilling. I managed to turn some tough as shoe leather eye-of-round into relatively tender delectable steaks. I even cooked them a little too long and they were still worth putting in my mouth. They were a touch salty, but I like salty so it's all good in the hood. I think next time I'll make a better effort in washing them off, or use kosher salt and see if there's a difference.

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