Oxtail Stew with Lima Beans (SP)

• 3 pounds oxtails, cut into 2-inch segments
• 1 1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons corn oil
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 large onion, coarsely chopped
• 10 ounces carrots (about 2 large carrots), peeled and coarsely chopped
• 2 green bell peppers, cored, seeded, and coarsely chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, chopped
• 3 tablespoons minced fresh ginger
• 1 habanero pepper, finely chopped
• 3 plum tomatoes, coarsely chopped
• 8 ounces (3/4 cup) black bean paste [Um, Lee Jr and some other folks think this should be ubiquitous in supermarkets, but I had to use black bean sauce.  I do have fermented black beans, but I dunno if just whizzing them up in a food processor would make them a puree.  Those things are quite salty and 8 ounces is a lot of them.]
• 1 cup dry sherry
• 2 whole star anise
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 4 cups chicken stock
• 1 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1 cup fresh or frozen lima beans    

Soak oxtail in cold water for 30 minutes.  Pat dry, toss with flour, and brown.

Mise en place.

Sautee onions, carrots (I actually didn't have any.  They had gone bad in the fridge.), green peppers, garlic, ginger, and habanero pepper (I actually just used a jalapeno).

Add oxtail, tomatoes, black bean paste, sherry, star anise, sugar, and pepper.  Then add stock and allspice.

Simmer uncovered for 3 hours.

Add lima beans and simmer for 20 minutes.

 

I was still totally braising the dish when my parents were over.  My mother tasted the sauce and said it was pretty spicy.  When I actually sat down to eat some of this (It was more like 5 hours of braising), I had to agree.

I don't know why since all I used was a damn jalapeno.  I could perhaps blame it on the black bean sauce since lord knows what was in that.  Overall, a good dish but overly hot.

BTW, Edward Lee Jr was my favorite cheftestant on Top Chef Texas and and overwhelming number of the recipes I found in his cookbook definitely seemed accessible and enticing.

Crispy Braised Chicken Thighs with Black Bean Tapenade (GK)

Marinated Chicken

• 1/2 cup salt
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 orange, sliced
• 4 or 5 sprigs fresh thyme
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 5 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed with the back of a knife
• 1 tablespoon black peppercorns, toasted
• 1 tablespoon coriander seeds, toasted
• 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 3 pounds chicken thighs with skin (about 8), bone-in

Bring all the ingredients and 6 cups of water to a boil.  Then brine the thighs overnight.

Draining a bit on paper towels.

Sauce

• 2 tablespoon blended oil(half vegetable, half olive oil) [Just now realizing that the recipe called for the same two lines in the list of ingredients for 1 tablespoon blended oil.  In its second use in my execution, I said "Screw it.  I'm just using olive oil."]
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 4 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 quart chicken broth
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 2 tablespoons butter

Mise en place.

Browned chicken.

Browning the onion and garlic.

I realize here that I messed up by omitting the step of reducing the white wine (or in my current case, dry vermouth).  I brought it and the chicken to a boil in the same sauce pan.

Pour the liquid and aromatics all over the chicken, cover tightly with foil and braise in the oven for 2 hours at 275 degrees F.

Crisping the skin.

Reducing the strained liquid until it coats the back of a spoon.  Then enrich the sauce with butter.

Black Bean Tapenade

• 1/2 cup nicoise olives, pitted and roughly chopped [JP's Whole Foods didn't have any and I wasn't willing to make another trip for this dish before cooking it since I had delayed enough.]
• 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon fermented black beans
• 1 tablespoon chiffonade [Basically one rolls up broad-leafed herbs and cut super-thin ribbons of them.] of fresh mint
• 1/2 teaspoon sambal
• 1/2 teaspoon honey

None of these things are prepped.  I figured I would have enough time considering two hours of braising to do the prep during that period of time.

The dish was really damn good.  True perfection the night I cooked it.  Very moist, flavorful, rich.  Nice to see a sauce get so silky with the addition of butter.
I was worried about prepping a side (I rarely make side dishes), but the posole I made recently didn't stand on it own and proved an interesting complement.

Rolled Kaled with Tofu and Fermented Black Beans (HCEV)

• about 8 large kale leaves, washed (or collards, mustard greens and chard. I've been using chard because they consistently have large leaves at the moment.)
• about a pound of tofu (preferably baked, pressed, or panfried [I've gone with baked which is as easy and 1-2 pounds of tofu baked at 350 degrees F for 1 hour]
• 2 tablespoons neutral oil, like grapeseed or corn
• 2 tablespoons minced garlic
• salt and freshly ground pepper
• 1/2 cup sake or mirin (Honestly I don't think sake has a place here) or water
• 1/2 cup fermented black beans
• soy sauce and dark sesame oil to garnish

Pretty, pretty rainbow chard. I didn't even glance at my other options when I saw this at the Whole Foods in Central.

Chopped chard stems nestling with the "minced" garlic. Bittman claims that he only goes so far to finely chop the stuff. ATK believes garlic pressing is the way to go (which is what I do when I cook ATK). I read at least a couple of times that pressing bruises or muddies or whatevers the flavor of garlic. But then again I'm also told that prep of garlic and onion right before use (like when it goes in the pan and not 30 minutes before) is the only way to get the optimal flavor from these ingredients. What the hell you say? I've read too much cooking literature, but I still refrigerate tomatoes even though that destroys cell walls and loss of flavor.


Wikipedia:

Mise en place ( literally "putting in place") is a French phrase defined by the Culinary Institute of America as "everything in place", as in set up. It is used in professional kitchens to refer to organizing and arranging the ingredients (e.g., cuts of meat, relishes, sauces, par-cooked items, spices, freshly chopped vegetables, and other components) that a cook will require for the menu items that he or she expects to prepare during his/her shift.

Resting on a bed of Trader Joe's Tri-Color Quinoa.

I've been Post-It Flag-ing the hell out of the Legumes chapter of HCEV so really I have no excuse to start eating a bit lighter for a little while. After packing tomorrow's work portion of Risotto Alla Milanese, I'm only left with a bit of a snack so I really should throw together that do-over I've been planning of Tofu-Stuffed Chard (It could be kale or any number of things, but I think I have better luck getting big enough leaves with chard) and Fermented Black Beans (Actually not black beans at all but soybeans. BTW, I'm still talking about HCEV.). I made it last week and aside from removing the stems and chopping them the prep was negligible. I'm making it again because I had the bright idea of making way too much Baked Tofu (Hello HCEV!).
Also I plan on using mirin instead of sake this time because alcohol is best cooked away in food. That didn't really happen with the lid on.

I swear I'm not becoming a vegetarian since I just transferred my 3-pound package of short ribs (courtesy of Davis Square's Mckinnon's, Boston's best variety of butchered meat at the best prices) from the freezer to the fridge so I can braise Short Ribs with Cinnamon (HCE) for the fourth or so time again this weekend.

Blog posts forthcoming about each of these and eventually I need to start writing the one about the Arnold Palmer Cake. Although I probably won't publish that until I unwrap it on Sunday.