Braising

Low & Slow in a Pot



Perhaps it seems odd to have a favorite cooking method. I know it seems odd to me. But I love braising. There's something irresistible about taking a tough, cheap cut of meat and turning it into a tender cut of meat. And then there's the sauce.

For instance, a couple of weeks ago I featured canard au vin. This dish is a variation on Boeuf Daube and Coq au Vin. Popular throughout France, it's traditionally made with rooster (coq) past it prime, tough, and stringy. The coq is simmered for several hours in the region's wine (often a red) with aromatics such as onion, carrots, and celery and in addition to a bird that's fall-apart tender you end up with a deeply flavored wine sauce that is made for sopping up with a good country bread. This is a sauce that will make you think you're in heaven.

The best cuts for braising have several muscles running in different directions and, ideally, some bone.

The trick to cooking any meat in liquid is not boiling it. You should bring it just to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer it for three — four hours Boiling meat makes it tough and the goal in braising is to make it tender. The second trick is the meat should only be half covered. This means half of it roasts, albeit in steam (the pot should be covered), above the liquid heightening the flavor. I usually turn whatever I'm braising over several times during cooking. The last trick is that, although you can braise on the stove top, if you're not using a crock pot it's best to braise in a 250 degree oven. This is a gentler cooking technique than using the stove top and applies heat to the top portion to achieve the roasting effect in the last trick.

The best cuts for braising have several muscles running in different directions and, ideally, some bone. The connective tissue between the muscles melts and adds richness to the sauce. It also adds gelatin as do the bones, which increases the body of the sauce.

So, given the above, here are some of my favorite braising recipes. Some call for oven temperatures above 275 degrees, but I would reduce the temp and increase the time by at least 30 minutes. You can also make all of these in a crock pot, but you'll have to make the conversion yourself.

Beef Daube: French daubes are a perfect example of a peasant dish that deserves a place of honor. These are stews or braises where the meat is typically marinated in wine with aromatics for 12 to 48 hours before being gently cooked in the marinade. As I mentioned above, the Canard au Vin mimics this method.

Beef Carbonade: Carbonade is a Belgian with a Spanish names that means grilled — talk about an identity crisis. Nevertheless it's amazingly good. The Belgian and Irish cuisines make the most use of beer in dishes - surprisingly, the Germans seldom cook with beer, they figure beer is for drinking. But I'm with the Belgians and Irish: Beer is a great in food.

Braised Lamb Shanks: I hadn't anticipated having to smell these shanks cooking for so long. I expected an initial burst of aroma during the browning phase, followed by a sharp decline, and then a gradual building of aroma until it was ready. This is fair. This is predictable. But no the initial smell spike was higher and more pronounced than I expected (Was it the tomato paste I added to the browning vegetables? The juniper berries that opened new scent avenues?) and the decline far less after going into the oven. Simply not fair - but they sure were good.

Lamb Tagine with Figs and Prunes: Tagine, the cooking vessel and dish, are Moroccan — meaning Arabic — meaning the spices can be surprising to Western palates. Mostly because Arabs use a lot of spices we've come to associate with sweet dishes: cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, ginger… Our Western association isn't unreasonable, these spices do indeed complement sweet flavors, but Arab cuisine often adds sweet tastes to savory dishes and so it's not unusual to find fruit or honey paired with chicken and accented with cinnamon and nutmeg.

Milk-braised Pork: I used a pork loin in this case because that's what I had on hand. But since then I've made it using a Boston Butt (shoulder) roast and it's better because the Butt has connective tissue, bone, and is pretty damned cheap. I've also futzed with the recipe adding onions and carrots and herbs. Nope. Don’t do it. Keep it dead simple. You cannot make this better, all you can do is make it different.

Cuban Braised Pork: I developed this recipe (from a bunch of examples) in order to make a sandwich. I kid you not. I marinated a pork shoulder (boneless because I wanted to slice it) for 24 hours, then cooked it for three hours, and made bread just to experience a Cubano — the famous sandwich from Miami. I like sandwiches. But the roast isn't only good in a Cuban sandwich. I've also pulled it apart And served on rice drizzled with the sauce.

Curried Chicken: Chicken is not innately tough, in fact the breast is innately tender, consequently it doesn't need to be cooked as long as beef, lamb, or pork and chicken breasts aren't a particularly good choice for braising. But chicken thighs and legs can stand the longer, slower cooking and get much better. This curry recipe gently simmers thighs for and hour and half and during that time the legs will make their own sauce as if by magic.

Chicken Parpikas: Paprikas is one of my favorite chicken dishes, again thighs are chosen for their flavor and ability to stand up to 90 minutes of cooking. I've been berated for including mushrooms in my version, as well as dill. But I've run across other recipes calling for one or the other, and besides, it's a peasant dish. That means that as long as you keep to the spirit of the dish pretty much anything goes. In this case the spirit is a rich paprika-flavored sauce that's delicious on noodles or even rice.

Technorati: Food | recipe | kevin d weeks | seriously good | braise | main dish

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SG Archives:Beef Short Ribs

Keep it Simple



So far we’ve had an unseasonably warm and dry fall and I'm getting fed up with it. There are soups and stews and casseroles and roasts to make that can't really be enjoyed properly when it's a bright, clear sunny 78F outside. I find myself envying the flooding in New Hampshire and the snow storms in Colorado. The weather may be bad but the food makes up for it.

Nevertheless, when I was at the farmers' market last week Valley Farms (a local farm) had beef short ribs on special so I bought some despite the mild weather. Monday night I braised them.

Dr. Biggles recommended ale and I decided to take his advice and picked up a bottle of Brown Sheep ale.

The ribs were pretty fatty so I trimmed off most of the fat (which still left a lot) then I pulled out my Le Crueset dutch oven. This is the pot I bought last spring and have barely used so far. It weighs about 150 pounds and holds around six gallons -- at least it seems so. Though it hasn't seen much use to date, that's because it's a pot for stews and braises and soups and summer is not its season. Now it can make up for lost time.

I started by cooking about three strips of thick smoked bacon. Setting the bacon aside, I generously seasoned the ribs, browned them in the bacon fat, and put them aside. A couple of sliced onions several carrots and celery stalks went into the pot next to brown.

In thinking about the ribs I'd gone back and forth about the braising liquid -- wine or beer. Dr. Biggles recommended ale and I decided to take his advice and picked up a bottle of Brown Sheep ale (an English ale). The ale went into the pot to deglaze it, then the ribs went back in along with some homemade beef stock. I decided against adding any herbs or seasonings beyond the aromatics I'd browned and salt and pepper.

With all the ingredients in place, I brought the pot to a simmer and then put it in a 300F oven for three hours.

Obviously I needed something starchy to soak up and complement the broth and I settled on polenta. To round out the meal, I cooked up a mess (that's the proper Southern term for "a bunch of") of collards seasoned with curry powder. I learned in South Carolina that curry really complements collards.

Even though the weather refused to cooperate and remained warm and pleasant, the meal was delicious and the grass-fed beef had a wonderful meaty flavor. I was right to keep the ingredients simple.

Try these short ribs with...
Braised Red Cabbage
Roasted Rutabaga
Fudge Brownies

Technorati: Food | recipe | kevin d weeks | seriously good | main dish | beef | braise

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Beef Short Ribs

Keeping It Short



So far we’ve had an unseasonably warm and dry fall and I'm getting fed up with it. There are soups and stews and casseroles and roasts to make that can't really be enjoyed properly when it's a bright, clear sunny 78F outside. I find myself envying the flooding in New Hampshire and the snow storms in Colorado. The weather may be bad but the food makes up for it.

Nevertheless, when I was at the farmers' market last week Valley Farms (a local farm) had beef short ribs on special so I bought some despite the mild weather. Monday night I braised them.

I decided against adding any herbs or seasonings beyond the aromatics I'd browned and salt and pepper

The ribs were pretty fatty so I trimmed off most of the fat (which still left a lot) then I pulled out my Le Crueset dutch oven. This is the pot I bought last spring and have barely used so far. It weighs about 150 pounds and holds around six gallons -- at least it seems so. Though it hasn't seen much use to date, that's because it's a pot for stews and braises and soups and summer is not its season. Now it can make up for lost time.

I started by cooking about three strips of thick smoked bacon. Setting the bacon aside, I generously seasoned the ribs, browned them in the bacon fat, and put them aside. A couple of sliced onions several carrots and celery stalks went into the pot next to brown.

In thinking about the ribs I'd gone back and forth about the braising liquid — wine or beer. Dr. Biggles recommended ale and I decided to take his advice and picked up a bottle of Brown Sheep ale (an English ale). The ale went into the pot to deglaze it, then the ribs went back in along with some homemade beef stock. I decided against adding any herbs or seasonings beyond the aromatics I'd browned and salt and pepper.

With all the ingredients in place, I brought the pot to a simmer and then put it in a 300F oven for three hours.

Obviously I needed something starchy to soak up and complement the broth and I settled on polenta. To round out the meal, I cooked up a mess (that's the proper Southern term for "a bunch of") of collards seasons with curry powder. I learned in South Carolina that curry really complements collards.

Even though the weather refused to cooperate and remained warm and pleasant, the meal was delicious and the grass-fed beef had a wonderful meaty flavor. I was right to keep the ingredients simple.

Technorati: Food | recipe | kevin d weeks | seriously good | beef | short ribs | braise | main dish

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Paisano: Guazzetto

Gesundheit!



Paisano and I were cruising through the meat department trying to decide what to fix for dinner when Paisano cried "GwaCHETto," to which I responded with a polite, "Gesundheit."

"No, no, no. Oxtails! GwaCHETto!"

"Ok, so what's that?"

Turns out it's a pasta sauce, or soup, or maybe stew made with oxtails, or fish, or maybe beef or pork ribs. I even found a recipe for frog legs. As I later learned, guazzetto as it's actually spelled means "splashed" and specifically splashed with wine and tomatoes.

Paisano cried "GwaCHETto," to which I responded with a polite, "Gesundheit."

So we bought the oxtails and returned to his friends' house and made guazzetto, pasta, and baby artichokes. Oddly — well, maybe not so oddly, he is the Paisano after all — he served the guazzetto over browned cubes of stale bread. Pretty damned tasty.

Guazzetto
Serves 6.

1 1/2 lb oxtails
1/2 oz dried porcini
2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion — finely chopped
1 carrot — finely chopped
3/4 c red wine
15 oz can diced tomatoes
2 tbsp tomato paste
2 tsp anchovy paste
2 bay leaves
1 whole clove
3 - 4 sprigs fresh rosemary
4 - 6 sprigs fresh thyme
2 c homemade beef or chicken stock or 2 c canned chicken stock
salt and pepper to taste

Heat oven to 275F.

Bring 1 cup of water to a boil, remove from heat, and add dried porcini. Allow to rehydrate for 15 minutes. Remove mushrooms and reserve. Strain the water the mushrooms soaked in though cheese cloth or a coffee filter and reserve.

Generously season oxtails with salt and pepper. Heat oil in a dutch oven over medium high heat and brown oxtails on all sides. Set oxtails aside.

Wrap clove, rosemary, thyme, and bay leaves in a small cheescloth sack ad tie with string.

Reduce heat to medium low and sweat onions and carrots for 10 minutes with a generous pinch of salt. Increase heat to medium high, add wine, and deglaze pot. Add all remaining ingredients including oxtails, mushrooms, and mushroom liquid. Add enough stock to just cover the oxtails.

Bring almost to a boil and transfer to a lower rack in the oven. Cook for three hours, topping up liquid with water or additional stock as necessary. Remove from oven. Remove oxtails and shred meat, reserving. Place pot on stove top and reduce to about 2 cups over medium-high heat. Add shredded meat and serve over polenta.

Paisano is a ficticious character.

Technorati: Food | recipe | kevin d weeks | seriously good | guazzetto | oxtails | italian | stew | braise | paisano

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Paisano: Boeuf en Daube

Paisano: Beef en Daube



My "Paisano" column on Gather.com is focused on peasant dishes from around the world, but you may wonder what constitutes a peasant dish. First and foremost, the ingredients are local and cheap. The food is grown on the farm, or the farm next door, and it's often food that either can't be sold, or isn't worth selling. Offal — heart, liver, pig ears — is a common ingredient as are the tough cuts of meat like shoulders, shanks, and ribs. The vegetables are also, often, of relatively poor quality: bruised onions, partially rotten potatoes, and bug-infested fruit are all made-do with. The style of cooking is designed to take these grade-B (or -C) ingredients and transform them into something not merely edible, but actually delicious.

One technique for improving the taste of borderline ingredients is marinating. A marinade can do a great job of hiding and even transforming the flavor of a cut of meat that's going off. Keep in mind, too, that in Europe prior to the 19th century (and even into the 20th century in some rural areas) meat was often intentionally allowed to age far beyond what we would consider edible, so by "off" I mean seriously off.

French daubes are a perfect example of a peasant dish that deserves a place of honor.

Another common technique was cooking low and slow. Stews and braises made tough cuts more tender and, properly seasoned, would hide and even transform the flavor of impending rot. Particularly if gently simmer for two to four hours. Note: When making a stew or braise the cooking liquid should be brought just to the boiling point and then reduced to a simmer. Boiling the meat will make it even tougher, the opposite of what you want.

These days we avoid ingredients that are beginning to rot and we often don't have access to local ingredients. But we still have tough cuts of meat that need transformation into something tender and delicious. So both marinades and braises still have a place in every cook's repertoire — and during the fall and winter such dishes are particularly welcome.

French daubes are a perfect example of a peasant dish that deserves a place of honor. These are stews or braises where the meat is typically marinated in wine with aromatics for 12 to 48 hours before being gently cooked in the marinade.

Boeuf en Daube (Beef Daube)
Serves 8.

3 lb beef chuck roast — cut into 1" cubes
Marinade:
2 carrots — finely chopped
1 lg onion — chopped
1 stalk celery — finely chopped
12 peppercorns
3 sprigs fresh thyme — bruised in your hands
2 sprigs fresh rosemary — bruised in your hands
3 cups robust red wine (I like an Australian Shiraz)
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
three strips orange rind
Daube:
1 tbsp olive oil
3 oz salt pork
1 c beef stock
1 medium onion — diced
1 bay leaf
salt and pepper to taste

Place meat and all marinade ingredients in a large zipper storage bag, and place int the refrigerator to marinate for 8 to 48 hours. Turn bag over and mix up a bit every four to six hours.

Pour marinade through a strainer into bowl and set aside. Discard everything except the meat. Pat the meat dry and season with salt and pepper.

Heat oven to 325F.

Cut salt pork into batons about 1/4" square in cross section and 3/4" - 1" long. Place a large dutch over medium heat and add the pork, cook until fat is rendered and pork is crisp. Remove with a slotted spoon and reserve. Increase heat to medium high. Brown beef in three or four batches (to avoid over-crowding) and set aside.

Reduce heat to medium low and cook onions stirring occasionally, until they begin to brown. Return beef and salt pork to pot and add reserved marinade, beef stock, bay leaf, and saly and pepper to taste. Increase heat to high, bring just to a boil, then immediately cover and place pot in the oven and cook for 2 - 2 1/2 hours. Note: the liquid should not quite cover the meat.

This is one of those dishes that is significantly better the day after cooking. I usually serve over mashed potatoes or soft polenta so I don't lose a drop of the sauce.

Technorati: Food | recipe | kevin d weeks | seriously good | beef daube | beef stew | french

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