Welcome to Sara Moulton.com/Weeknight Meals, the companion web site to my public television series, Sara's Weeknight Meals. The show is based on my last cookbook, Sara's Secrets for Weeknight Meals, and it's all about getting quick tasty meals on the table during the work week. Why devote a show to slow-cooked recipes in a series whose prime purpose is speed? Because if you cook one of these dishes ahead of time on a weekend, when you have a little extra time, there's nothing left to do on a weeknight but pull it out of the fridge and heat it up. And it's delicious. The beauty of most slow-cooked dishes, stews, and pot roasts (besides the fact that slow cooking develops great depth of flavor) is that they actually taste even better a day or two later and they freeze well. They also recycle nicely--the first night it's a stew, the next it's a topping for pasta or polenta. And even though the total cooking time for all of these recipes is significant, I have made sure that none of them occupies too much of your hands-on time.
First Recipe:
Braised Short Ribs, Sara's Secrets for Weeknight Meals, page 279 (recipe follows).
Recommended side dishes: Creamy Baked Polenta, Sara's Secrets for Weeknight Meals, page 259.
Recommended Wine Pairing: Merlot or Zinfandel.
Second Recipe:
Duck Confit in an Oven Bag, Sara' Moulton Cooks at Home, page 91(recipe follows).
Recommended side dishes: Roasted Lemon Potatoes, Sara Moulton Cooks at Home, page 252 and Green Beans Stewed with Tomatoes and Mint, Sara Moulton Cooks at Home, page 238.
Recommended Wine Pairing: Chardonnay or Pinot Noir.
 Print Recipe
Braised Short Ribs
This is actually an adaptation of a recipe by a very talented New York chef named Tom Valenti. Who (no pun intended) is known for his stick to your ribs cooking. We ran the recipe in Gourmet many years ago when he was the chef at a place called Allison on Dominick. Now he has two of his own restaurants on the upper West Side of Manhattan, Ouest and Cesca. The real secret to this recipe is (fasten your seat belt) one whole bottle of red wine. I have always known that wine is a conductor of flavor, but nowhere is it more clearly illustrated than in this recipe. I make this every Thanksgiving in lieu of turkey--that's how popular it is at my house. It freezes beautifully making it the perfect candidate for entertaining.
Makes 4 servings
Hands-on time: 30 minutes
Total preparation time: 3 hours
5 pounds beef short ribs (sometimes called flanken)
Kosher salt and freshly milled black pepper
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 large onion, coarsely chopped (about 2 cups)
2 medium carrots, coarsely chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced (about 1 tablespoon)
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 sprig fresh thyme or 1 teaspoon dried
1 Turkish bay leaf or 1/2 California bay leaf
One 750-ml bottle red wine
4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
2 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
Horseradish sauce (recipe follows) and celery leaves for garnish
Pat the ribs dry and season them on all sides with salt and pepper. Heat the oil in a Dutch oven or a deep, flame-proof roasting pan that will just hold the ribs in one layer over high heat until hot. Reduce the heat to medium-high, add the ribs, and brown them on all sides, 8 to 10 minutes. Transfer the ribs with tongs to a platter or bowl.
Preheat the oven to 350° F. Reduce the heat under the Dutch oven to medium; add the onion and carrots and cook, stirring occasionally, until golden, about 8 minutes. Add the garlic and cook 1 minute. Add the tomato paste, thyme, and bay leaf and cook for 2 minutes. Transfer the vegetables to the platter with the ribs. Add the wine to the Dutch oven and bring it to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to low and simmer it until it is reduced by three fourths (to about 1 cup). Add the broth and bring it to a boil. Add the ribs and vegetables along with any juices that have accumulated on the platter. Cover the Dutch oven tightly, place it in the center of the oven, and braise for 2 1/2 hours or until the meat is tender and falling off the bones.
Transfer the ribs to a plate with tongs and let stand until they are cool enough to handle. Meanwhile, strain the broth into a bowl. Discard the solids and return the liquid to the Dutch oven. Skim off any fat that floats to the surface. Bring the liquid to a boil, and reduce it to about 2 cups.
Discard the bones and any excess fat from the ribs. Knead together the flour and butter in a small bowl, add a few spoonfuls of the reduced broth to the mixture, and then whisk the butter mixture back into the broth. Bring to a boil and simmer 5 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste. Return the ribs to the pot and cook gently just until heated through. Divide the ribs onto warmed plates, spoon some of the sauce over top, and serve with the Horseradish Sauce.
Horseradish Sauce
Makes about 1 Cup
About 1/4 cup bottled horseradish
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1/2teaspoon dry mustard
Kosher salt and freshly milled black pepper
Place the horseradish in a small strainer over a cup and press until the horseradish is quite dry. Measure and set aside 2 tablespoons drained horseradish and 2 tablespoons of the vinegar from the horseradish. Strain more if you don't have enough.
Whisk together the sour cream, mayonnaise, reserved horseradish and its vinegar, the mustard, and salt and pepper to taste.
Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.
Baked Polenta
Serves 4 to 6
1 cup yellow cornmeal or regular (not instant) coarse polenta
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, thinly sliced
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon of freshly milled black pepper
2 ounces provolone cheese, grated (about ½ cup)
2 ounces Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, finely grated (about 2/3 cup)
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Combine 4 cups of water, the cornmeal, butter, salt, and pepper in a 1 1/2- quart baking dish. Bake, uncovered, on the middle shelf of the oven for 40 minutes
Remove the polenta from the oven, give it a stir, and bake for another 10 minutes. Remove it from the oven; stir in the provolone and salt and pepper to taste; let stand 5 minutes before serving. Serve topped with Parmigiano-Reggiano.
Print Recipe
Duck Confit in an Oven Bag
Makes 4 servings
Hands on time: 15 to 20 minutes
Total preparation time: 2 hours 45 minutes
1 1/2 table spoons kosher salt
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh thyme
3/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1 bay leaf, preferably Turkish, crumbled
One 5-pound duck, cut into 8 pieces, all fat and skin left on
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
Serves 4
Combine the salt, garlic, thyme allspice, and bay leaf in a small bowl. Mix well and rub the mixture over all the meaty sides of the cut-up dusk. Place in a plastic bag with resealable closure and marinate in the refrigerator for 12 to 24 hours.
Preheat the oven to 300F. Spray the inside of an oven cooking bag with nonstick vegetable spray. Add the flour to absorb the juices from the ducks as it cooks. Rub the marinade off the duck with paper towels and place the pieces in a flat layer inside the bay. Follow the bag manufacturer's instructions for providing proper ventilation during cooking. Place the bag in large baking dish and cook until tender when pierced with the tip of a knife, about 2 1/2 hours*. Set aside until cool enough to handle.
Before serving, heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Place the duck skin side down in the skillet and cook until the skin is crispy and the meat is heated through, 3 to 4 minutes. Serve at once.
Note: when I retested this recipe in preparation for the show, I decided that the duck needed longer in the oven than I had suggested in my cookbook, so please follow these directions.
What is the best way to skim off fat from a stew? The easiest method by far is to chill the stew overnight with everything in it (which keeps the protein moist and flavorful) and then the next morning the fat will have floated to the top and hardened and be easy to scrape off. If you don't have that kind of time, a gravy separator (see tools) is a good idea. You can always just skim off the fat from the top using a large kitchen spoon which is ok in a pinch but not very efficient. If there is just a little fat left on the top I run a paper towel over it. The paper towel will just absorb the fat and leave the gravy behind.
You can find a gravy separator from most kitchen supply stores as well as kitchen mail order sources like cooking.com. A particularly good one is made by Oxo.
The right pot for a slow covered stew, braised item or soup is enameled cast iron. It provided the even heat of cast iron but because it is coated with enamel it doesn't react with the food the way non coated cast iron can (particularly with acidic foods). A good brand which comes in many fun colors is Le Creuset.
A Short-Rib Primer
There are two main kinds of beef short ribs which you will find at the supermarket or at the store and either would work fine in this recipe. However, it is confusing because they look very different. Short ribs are cut from the 12 ribs that extend from the back toward the belly and are found in the plate, rib section, chuck, and brisket; butchers don't usually indicate which section the ribs come from. English-style short ribs are cut parallel to the rib bones and between each rib. They are boneless and have a rectangular shape. flanken-style short ribs are cut across the ribs bones and have a longer rectangular shape. I prefer the flanken-style because the attached bones give the final braised rib more flavor. Either kind is going to come with a fair amount of fat, which I remove after cooking.
Grits, cornmeal, polenta - what's the difference?
All three come in different grades of coarseness:
Grits - a meal made from ground dried hominy. Hominy is white field corn, soaked in an alkali, husked, degermed, and then frozen, canned or dried.
Cornmeal - a meal made from ground dried white or yellow corn kernals whose outer husk and germ have usually been removed. (Whole-grain cornmeal, meaning cornmeal with the germ still in, is not only more flavorful but more nutritious and can be found at health food stores. It turns rancid quicker, so keep it in the fridge).
Polenta- is the same as yellow cornmeal
Instant polenta and instant grits have been precooked.
|
