Kitchen Drunkard

Ancho Chocolate Short Ribs

I made this for dinner last night.  Quite labour intensive, but delicious!

1.  First, put 5lbs of short ribs, 1 tablespoon of peppercorns, 1 tablespoon of salt, 1 bay leaf, 10 smashed garlic cloves, and 1 of the quartered onions into a large pot.  Cover with water, and simmer for 2 hours. 

2.  Put 2 tomatoes and 1 quartered onion on a sheet pan, and drizzle with olive oil.  Chop the top off a head of garlic, wrap it in tinfoil, and toss it on the sheet pan.  Put it in the oven for 1 hour at 400 F. 

3.  Seed and de-stem 15 dried ancho chiles.  Tear the chiles into pieces.  Wear gloves.  Seriously. 

4.  Once the tomatoes, onion and garlic done, toss the tomatoes, onion and garlic in the blender (squeeze the head of garlic, and all the goop will come out).  Puree.  You may need to add a splash of water to make it come together.  Also, don’t bother to clean the blender after this step.  You’ll use it again for the same sauce.   

5.  When the meat is done, remove it from the pot and put aside.  Strain the cooking liquid and discard the rest of the stuff from the pot. 

6.  Add 3 cups of the cooking liquid to the chiles and let sit for 15 minutes. 

7.  Put the mixture in the blender and puree.  

8.  Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil to a large pot on medium heat.  Add the chile puree and stir until heated through.  Add the tomato puree and 3 cups of the cooking liquid.  Bring to a simmer, then put the meat back to the pot.  Simmer on low-medium heat for 2 hours or until the meat is very tender.

9.  Add one 110 gram bar of Mexican chocolate, finely chopped, to the sauce at the very end.  Stir until melted.  Voila! 

I served it with sweet potato mash.  No recipe.  Just boil chopped sweet potato until soft, mash, add butter, salt, pepper and milk to taste. 

Chile Rellenos

Tyler Florence makes it look so easy.  It was not. 

1.  Broil 6 poblano peppers in the oven (or roast over an open flame) until blistered. 

2.  Put peppers in a bowl and cover tightly with plastic wrap for a couple of minutes.  Rub the skins off very gently. 

3.  Make one long slit down the length of the peppers.  Open up the peppers very carefully to de-seed and remove the ribs.  This is really hard, so do it slowly.  I even made extra peppers because I assumed that I would mess this up. 

4.  Fill the peppers with crumbled queso fresco.  Stick a toothpick through the peppers to close the seam. 

5.  Dredge the peppers in flour. 

6.  Beat 6 egg whites until stiff peaks form, then dip the peppers into the mixture. 

7.  Heat a pan with 1/4 inch of oil at the bottom on medium/high heat (depending on your stove – mine is really hot).  Fry the peppers until golden, then put on paper towels. 

8.  Put the peppers in a 350 F oven for 10 minutes to heat the cheese through. 

Voila! 

May I suggest stuffing leftover risotto in a hollowed-out tomato, topping it with a mixture of bread-crumbs and herbs, then baking in the oven for 30 minutes? No?
How about I suggest forming the risotto into balls, rolling in egg-wash, dredging in bread crumbs then frying until golden brown? No again? Well forget you. You can just throw your leftover risotto in the garbage then.

I saw this recipe in the Globe and Mail a couple of weeks ago, and the author was Massimo Capra from one of my favourite fancy restaurants, Mistura.  Naturally, I had to try it, but first, I needed to make some stock as I had recently run out.  Lucky for me, I had a turkey carcass leftover from the turkey we smoked over the summer.   Check out this bad boy!

Homemade Smoked Turkey Broth

1 Turkey carcass, cut up in chunks

1 Onion, skin left on, quartered

2 Carrots and 2 ribs of Celery, cut up in chunks

Pour a little olive oil in a big pot (or two, if you, like me, don’t have a stock pot), and sweat the veggies for a couple of minutes.  Add the turkey pieces, and brown a little.  Toss in a splash of white wine, and let it evaporate.  Then cover with water and simmer until your whole house and wardrobe smells like soup. 

Risotto

Method

Sweat the onion in the oil until golden, using a heavy-bottom pot, add the squash and cook for a minute, add the rice and let toast a few minutes, then add the wine, let evaporate well and add enough stock to cover the rice by an inch.

Simmer gently, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking.  Add more stock as needed.  I didn’t use the full 8 cups. 

When the rice is cooked, turn the fire off and add some butter and the truffle paste.

For the fonduta

In a saucepan at medium heat melt the butter and then add the flour, stirring well to eliminate lumps. Add the milk and continue heating until it reaches the boiling point. Remove from heat and add the cheese. Whip it well to melt the cheese. Keep warm and do not overheat.

Place a scoop of fonduta on the bottom of a flat plate and spread to the edge of the bowl. Place the risotto in the middle on top and voila!  You’re big pimpin’.

I’m getting some from Phil! He’s ordering another box, and we’re going in on it with him. I’ll save you a pack of two, my friend!

When we smoked a turkey breast this summer, our butcher talked us into buying the whole turkey instead since it would cost about the same thing. He kindly vac-packed the thighs, drumsticks and wings, and they have been sitting in the freezer ever since. So when Thanksgiving came around, I figured it would be the perfect time to use it.

Everyday Food Magazine recently had a feature on cheap braises, including a recipe for braised turkey thighs with apples. So I gave it a try yesterday, and the results were… okay. Unlike the roasted apples pictured in the magazine, my apples became apple sauce. But on the whole… Fairly tasty.

Braised Turkey with Apples
1. Season the turkey pieces with salt and pepper.
2. Set the oven to 350F.
3. Add some olive oil to a pan, and brown the pieces, working in batches if necessary. Remove from the pan.
4. Throw in lardons from 3 slices of bacon, then render down.  Toss in the 2 diced shallots until translucent, then 4 peeled and quartered apples (if I could do it all over again, I’d go for cortland, but the recipe calls for granny smith).
5. Pour in 2 cups of apple cider and 1 3/4 cups of chicken stock.
6. Toss the turkey back in, and bring the pot up to a boil.
7. Put the pot in the oven, covered, for 1.5 hours.
8. Take the lid off, and cook for 30 minutes more.
9. Take out the turkey to rest. If your apples didn’t turn into sauce, take them out too. Reduce the gravy while you let it rest.
10. Serve with squash (I had buttercup) and steamed veggies.

Tonight, monstrous lamb chops.