Cooking with St. Arnolds amber and my first attempt at braising.

One of my dear friends got me tickets to a braising class over the holidays.  We drank some wine and ate a few amazing dishes.  At the class I realized that I had no experience whatsoever with the technique.  The class was very straight forward and informative, but for some reason I was completely intimidated by it.  Well, I found this recipe last week and decided it was time to give it a go.  Braising and beer together defiantly got me motivated.  So here it is.  This was so easy.  There are a lot of steps, but the outcome was worth all the time spent.

Ingredients

•  2 racks boneless country style pork ribs
• Salt
• Paprika
• 3 tablespoons olive oil 
• 1 large white onion
• 1 12-ounce bottle amber ale, I used St Arnold's Amber 
• 1 1/2 cups chicken broth
• 3 bay leaves
• 8 sprigs thyme
• 2/3 cup apple cider vinegar
• 3 tablespoons honey

Directions

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

Pat the ribs dry and season with salt and paprika

Heat the olive oil in a dutch oven over medium heat. Add the ribs in batches and cook until browned, about 8 minutes per side. 

Looks like this:

Remove the ribs from the dutch oven.

Add the onions and cook until browned, about 10 minutes. Add more salt and paprika.

Pour in the bottle of beer and bring to a good boil until the liquid is reduced by half, about 8 minutes, while boiling be sure to scrape all the good stuff of the pan with a wooden spoon.

Add the chicken broth, bay leaves and thyme; when the liquid begins to simmer return the ribs to the pot and put into the oven. Cook, uncovered, turning the ribs once or twice for an hour.



Mix the vinegar, honey, and more paprika in a glass. Remove the pot from the oven and place on the stovetop; bring to a simmer over medium heat. Add the vinegar mixture and bring to a boil, then return the pot to the oven.

Continue to cook uncovered for 20 more minutes.

Return the pot to the stovetop and remove the ribs.

Bring the sauce to a rapid boil over medium heat.  Reduce the sauce until it's almost as thick as a bbq sauce.

Put the ribs back in the pot just to reheat them and cover them in the onions and sauce.

Now, I'm just waiting for my beer salted caramels to be done.  If they are good, recipe and pictures to follow.

Shepards pie, even though it's still 90 degrees out...

The picture does it no justice.  Christian made one of the best shepards pies I have ever had.  He couldn't find his recipe for it so he just winged it and it was awesome!  I'm gonna have to get him to give me the secret to how he made it.  We ate it with some rosemary focaccia from Sams Club that was way better than expected.  I just started buying some of the specialty breads there and they are super good and cheap.

Rosemary Flank Steak with Worcestershire Roasted Veggies

At first I thought using the same marinade on the meat and veggies was going to be a bit redundant.  To my surprise, the flavors were quite different.   It added a really nice sweetness the the vegetables.  I had forgotten how much a enjoy parsnips.

Ingredients:

• 2 Sprigs rosemary, chopped
• 5 carrots, quartered lengthwise for med-large, halved lengthwise for small
• 5 parsnips, quartered lengthwise 
• 2 cups broccoli
• 2 1/2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
• 3 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
• Salt & pepper
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• Flank Steak, cut into serving portions

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425.

Toss half the rosemary, 2 teaspoons Worcestershire, 1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil, salt and pepper with the veggies. Put into a baking dish and roast for about 25 minutes, or until tender, stirring once.

Mix garlic, salt, pepper, 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil, and remaining Worcestershire together.  Rub onto steaks. 

Heat large skillet on med-high heat, cook steaks in batches, if needed, 3-5 minutes on each side.  Ours were still quite rare after letting them set and flank steak tends to be very chewy when rare, so we broiled them about 2 min on each side in the oven and got a perfect med-rare.

Serve steak and vegetables with the pan juices drizzled over them. 

Mascarpone love...

I have always enjoyed mascarpone, but recently have started using it in a lot more ways.

I've started using it to substitute butter, because it is better for you, but I have also noticed you can use it to substitute butter and milk in some richer dishes.

Try using it in mashed potatoes and omit butter and milk.  Also, add it to your favorite pasta dish for added creaminess.  And of course, it is always delicious on some toast with some prosciutto for a snack.

Herb Roasted Haddock & Veggies

  This recipe is super easy if you want something with little prep time.  You can really use any fresh herb you'd like, I used basil this time around.  I also made some garlic wild rice and orzo (out of the box) to accompany it.  The herb butter was really awesome, so I made a bit extra and served in on a toasted baguette...it went fast.

Ingredients

• 4 tablespoons butter, room temp
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil (you can also use another herb, like tarragon)
• 2 cups sliced mushroom (use whatever kind you like, or mix)
• 2 stalks of celery, sliced
• 1 bunch scallions, sliced
• Salt & pepper ( I used white pepper)
• 4 Tilapia filets

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. 

In a small bowl, mix the butter and basil together.  I did this a few hours early so the basil would really flavor the butter well.

Lay out 4 large pieces of foil. Put 1/4 of vegetables on each piece of foil, season, and top with a spoonful of butter.

Season filets on both sides with white pepper and salt.  Place on filet on each vegetable bed.  Top each filet with a spoonful of butter.


Fold each of the four pieces of foil into tightly sealed packets.

Place the packets on a baking sheet and bake 18-20 minutes.

You should probably wait a few minutes to unwrap the foil packets so you don't burn yourself.  I just grabbed a dish towel and unwrapped them immediately.