No this post is a little special. It's a changeling recipe. In that I made one thing, and used the leftovers to make something else. So the soul remains the same, but the products are different!
Let's go!
Recipe #1: Braised short ribs.
Braising may be my new favorite technique. It's funny, because in this fast-paced, steak-filled world, I feel many of us have forgotten how wonderful a slow-cooked piece of beef can really be. I just discovered braising after I bought a quarter cow from Morris Grassfed Beef. I'm pretty sure the cow we bought lived a very happy life in some green pastures. And that's how beef should be raised.
After I bought my quarter cow, I suddenly had a TON of cuts that I had no idea what to do with. I've never cooked a chuck roast, o-bone steak, shanks....none of it.
But braising....mmmmmmm
Start with:
3-4 lbs grassfed beef shortribs
bacon grease
2 heaping teaspoons (not measuring spoon) of tomato paste
1.5 - 2 cups of yummy red wine (plus a glass for drinking) - I had a bottle of Saarloos and Sons 194d8 open from the night before...man was it delish!
1 chopped onion
6-8 stalks of chopped celery
6-8 large, chopped carrots
dash of fish sauce (I prefer Red Boat Fish Sauce)
4+ cups of chicken broth (I keep home made stuff in my freezer)
3 cloves of clopped garlic
2 large sprigs of rosemary
6 small sprigs of thyme
20 peppercorns
OK, let's do this!
You're going to need to grab a handy dutch oven of some sort, and preheat the pan over medium high heat. I had never used one of these until I moved in with my husband, but let me tell you, one of these will be an investment that lasts a lifetime. I can't even tell you how often I put these things to work (especially in the winter!).
Put your bacon grease in the pot to warm up. While you're at it, preheat the oven to 200 degrees (yes, we're going low and slow here)...salt your short ribs too!
Once your pan has heated, toss your short ribs in, and flip after 2 minutes. Remove from pan and set aside.
Add your vegetables and let them sautee down. In the meantime, add the tomato paste to the broth and use a whisk to combine the two. Once your vegetables cook down a little, add the red wine!
Nestle your short ribs in amongst the vegetables and cover with the stock/tomato paste mixture. For the sprigs of herbs and peppercorns, I like to cram them all into a tea ball and drop the ball into the broth so I'm not having to try and remember how many peppercorns are in the broth so no one accidentally eats one....
So you'll put all of that in the oven and let it do it's thing for about 8 hours.
Because I'm new to this, I was so excited about eating the damn shortribs, that I forgot to take a picture....however, I will give you a picture of this! The wine and tomato paste I used. I was going for a very "local" dinner theme, so all the ingredients in this recipe were foraged within 100 miles of my home (with the exception of the beef).
Once we ate this, I just tossed the dutch oven in the fridge (with all the leftover delicious brothiness) to use for another day. It looked too good to throw away! Now, what did this recipe turn into?
Recipe #2: Beef Stew
What you'll need:
3-4 cups water
1 lb stew beef
4 chopped carrots
4 stalks chopped celery
1 heaping cup chopped mushrooms
1 chopped onion
2 medium size sweet potatoes, cubed
Let's do this!
Pull the dutch oven out of the fridge, put it on the stove and remove the layer of fat that's probably solidified on the top. Slowly heat everything in there (I had it on medium low heat for about 40 minutes before it got hottish), adding water before it gets warm. Warning: it's going to look weird.
Let that sit on simmer for approximately 4 hours. Then add the mushrooms and potatoes and cook for another hour. Because this is a paleo stew (as most of my recipes are), I will usually pull some of the cooked potatoes out, blitz them, and put the "potato mush" back into the pot to thicken the rest of the pot. The finished product is MIND BLOWING!
