From a while back. Used the delicious pork stock made from some pork rib bones. Fantastic.
Rooster sauce!
Tag Archives: red meat
ATK Oven-BBQ’d Ribs
After botching some grilled ribs (note to self: buy a grill thermometer), I decided to try the America’s Test Kitchen Over-Barbecued Spareribs (lame paywall). A bit fussy – like a lot of ATK recipes. But it works well. Grooooood ribs. I think I was using babyback, rather than spare (because that’s what was on sale).
Incidentally, that wine is awesome. Casillero del Diable – a Chilean Carmanere. Pretty inexpensive, very very good.
NC Steak Frites
You will nevermind, please, the intense mess behind the food. And the fact that we’re always eating on TV trays. Dinner time is about the only time Kristin can take a break from school work to relax and watch some tube, so no judging, okays?
Steak, sweet potato “frites,” frisee salad w/ homemade vinaigrette, a really nice (and cheap) 2009 bordeaux (which I will be buying more of), not to mention fresh whole wheat bread and brie. Holy North Carolina South Yet Somehow French, Batman!
I swear, sooner or later I’m going to stop with these probably jealousy-inducing posts and get around to some good old honest food talk, maybe share some recipes, that kind of thing. Sorry folks. In the mean time, I am in the process of planting one heck of a container herb garden. More updates to follow!
Leg of Lamb
Lambs.
Cute. Frolicky.
Delicious.
I like to eat a lot of different species. Is that so wrong? I’m not content with white potatoes, chicken, beef, and (if you’re lucky) pork. So I hauled my butt down to the local meat market (we actually still have one around here and I’d like to keep them in business) and bought an obscene amount of leg of lamb. I made an intense roux, and mashed in some roast eggplant, more or less following this recipe.
Of course I had to modify it a bit. The recipe called for lamb shoulder, but the market only had leg, so I switched from braising to roasting (seemed to be the M.O. with this cut). But the eggplant paste-crap (say it in French at it will sound good, i swear) was one of the coolest food things I’ve ever done. Delicious and fun to make. Anyone else do lamb out there?
Focaccia and Steak
Tried my hand at focaccia for the first time. This is a bread I have been wanting to make for a long time. Tried it twice, the first one I didn’t let rise long enough but was tasty so did it again and this one was fantastic. Used this recipe with some slight changes (see below). Complimented it with some steak with simple salt and pepper on it. I tried it in an iron skillet and didn’t let the skillet get hot enough so didn’t have the crust I like on steaks but they were still good.
I added some salt to the dough itself. I mixed about a tablespoon of oil and a teaspoon of dried rosemary together to rhydrate the rosemary. If I was using fresh rosemary (fresh herbs are almost always preferred) I don’t think we would have used as much. And then of course sliced tomatoes really thin and cooked it for 10 minutes and then added the cheese and cooked it for 5 minutes before.
Here is a pic of my first attempt, see how thin it is.
All of the traditional recipes I have seen have required using a sponge, though it was called something else (starts with a p if anyone remembers it I would be happy to relearn it.) A sponge is when you mix some yeast, water, and flour before hand and let it sit out. All sourdough starts with a sponge and true sourdough doesn’t use any extra yeast afterward. Adding this flour and water together allows it to autolyse and form nice gluten strands and adding the yeast allows the yeast to ferment and grow giving bread that nice robust flavor. Since this focaccia didn’t use a sponge I feel like I am missing some of the complexity of the flavors, but then again it only took an hour to make. I am going to try using a sponge next time and let you know how it turns out.
Other comments: This dough is one of the wettest that I have ever worked with. It should be sticky which allows it to be light and airy and not too dense. Downside of it is that it gets messy and is a little harder to work with, but the end result is worth it.
