Stewed Beef with Turnips (Lucky Peach 5)

Danny Bowien, "Cooking What Chinese People Eat"

• 4 lb beef tongue
• 2 1/2 lb honeycomb tripe
• 3 lbs bone-in short rib
• 1 onion, unpeeled
• 1 carrot, split in half
• 1/2" piece ginger, smashed
• 1 1/2 lbs pork bones
• 1 large sheet kombu
• 1 bunch mustard greens
• 1/2 package soft tofu
• 1/2 bunch cilantro
• 1 large daikon, peeled and sliced into 1/2" rounds
• white vinegar
• kosher salt
• vegetable oil
• cheesecloth
• parchment paper

Peeling the beef tongue.  This recipe marks my first time working with both tongue and tripe.

All the meat arrange on a parchment-line baking sheet and sprinkled heavily with kosher salt.  Refrigerate overnight.


Soak tripe in cold water with a splash of white vinegar for a half hour.  Then thoroughly scrub the tripe against itself under cold water.


Burning the outer layers of the onion off over an open flame.  Apparently a common step for the Vietnamese noodle dish pho as well.  I sort of remember my mom doing this.
I kind of remember this dish in general, but according to my mom, that's a false memory.


Day 1 mise en place.


Browning the short ribs and tongue.


Place the meat, cheesecloth bundle (bay leaves, carrot, onion, ginger), kombu and enough cold water to cover everything by an inch (or in my case, as much water as I can get it without overflowing).  Cook for 3 hours.


Add daikon and cook until everything is fork tender.


Day 2 mise en place.


Cook mustard greens in a quart of the reheated meat broth for 30 minutes.  Then add cilantro and tofu.


The meat is supposed to be served in a separate bowl from the vegetables and broth, but I was simply too lazy for this.  If I was able to find red jalapenos I would have made the accompanying fermented salted-chili condiment, but I ate the dish as is.
The dish is very simply flavored and austere which isn't necessarily the direction I usually find myself going in.  It was interesting to work with ingredients like tripe and beef tongue.  I'm pretty excited to work with beef tongue in a Mexican taco sense.  Soon...

Spaghetti Puttanesca (CATKTV)

• 3 medium garlic cloves, minced or pressed through a garlic press (about 1 tablespoon)
• Table salt
• 1 pound spaghetti
• 1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes, drained and 1/2 cup juice reserved
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
• 4 teaspoons minced anchovy fillets (about 8 fillets)
• 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1/2 cup pitted kalamata olives, chopped coarse
• 1/4 cup minced fresh parsley leaves
• 3 tablespoons capers, rinsed

Mise en place.

Cook garlic (loosened with a tablespoon of water), anchovies, red pepper flakes and oil until garlic is fragrant.

Add tomatoes and cook until lightly thickened.

 

Add parsley, capers, and olives.

Toss cooked pasta (I didn't have a full box of spaghetti but I had 2 open boxes of pasta and combined the two) with liquid drained from canned tomatoes and then with sauce.

A good, simple classic Italian pasta dish.

Pork Chops with Vinegar and Peppers (CATKTV)

• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup table salt, plus more to taste
• 4 (8-10 ounce) bone-in rib loin pork chops, 1/4 to 1 inch thick, trimmed of excess fat
• Ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 medium onion, minced
• 1 medium red bell pepper, stemmed seeded, and cut into 1/4-inch-wide strips
• 1 medium yellow bell pepper, stemmed, seeded, and cut into 1/4-inch-wide strips
• 2 anchovy fillets, minced (about 1 teaspoon)
• 1 medium sprig fresh rosemary
• 2 medium garlic cloves, minced or pressed through a garlic press (about 2 teaspoons)
• 3/4 cup water
• 1/2 cup white wine vinegar, plus 2 tablespoons to finish the sauce (optional)
• 2 tablespoons cold unsalted butter
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves [Didn't have this on hand at the time though I do now after the next recipe I'll blog about]

Dissolve sugar and salt in 2 quarts water.  Brine chops in fridge for 30 minutes.

Mise en place.

Browned chops.

Cook onion until just beginning to soften.  Do the same with the peppers added in with anchovies and rosemary.  Add garlic and cook until fragrant.

Add water and vinegar and reduce.

Nestle in the pork chops and cook in a 400 degree oven until center of chops registers 140 to 145 degrees.

Swirl butter into the sauce and peppers.

Another punchy, vinegar-infused Italian this though this time enriched with butter.  Pork chops were quite moist.

Didn't do a side dish, but I had salad and a bit of the Tuscan stew still on hand.

Hearty Tuscan Bean Stew (CATKTV)

• Table salt
• 1 pound (about 2 cups) dried cannellini beans, picked over and rinsed
• 6 ounces pancetta or bacon, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
• 1 large onion, chopped medium (about 1 1/2 cups)
• 2 medium celery ribs, cut into 1/2-inch pieces (about 3/4 cup)
• 2 medium carrots, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch pieces (about 1 cup)
• 8 medium garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
• 4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
• 3 cups water
• 1 bunch kale or collard greens (about 1 pound), stems trimmed and leaves chopped into 1-inch pieces (about 8 cups loosely packed)
• 1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes, drained
• 1 sprig fresh rosemary
• Ground black pepper

Mise en place with the beans that were soaked on the higher end of 8 to 12 hour range for this dish.  I think I've soaked beans once overnight.  I usually just skip the process.

Cook bacon in oil until lightly browned and fat has rendered.

Add vegetables and cooked until softened and lightly browned.

Add garlic and stir until fragrant.  Add broth, water, bay leaves, and beans.  Bring this to a simmer and cook in a 250 degree oven until the beans are almost tender.

Add kale and tomatoes.  Cook in the oven again until beans and greens are fully tender.

Remove pot from oven, submerge a sprig of rosemary in the stew, cover, and let stand for 15 minutes.  Remove sprig and bay leaves (I usually just remove bay leaves when I come across them while eating a dish).
The dish hit many of the same pleasure buttons at Top Chef's Stefan's Veal Goulash.  I probably could've cooked the dish a little longer (a problem I seem to be having recently), but I'm not quite sure it's something I'd do again.

Hungarian Beef Stew (CATKTV)

• 1 boneless chuck-eye roast (about 3 1/2 pounds), trimmed of excess fat and cut into 1 1/2 inch cubes
• Table salt
• 1 (12-ounce) jar roasted red peppers, drained and rinsed (about 1 cup)
• 1/3 cup sweet paprika
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 3 teaspoons white vinegar
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 6 medium onions, minced (about 6 cups)
• 4 large carrots, peeled and cut into 1-inch thick rounds (about 2 cups)
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 cup beef broth, warmed
• Ground black pepper

Sprinkle meat evenly with 1 teaspoon salt and let stand for 15 minutes.

Paprika cream mise en place.  Paprika cream is actually sold commercially in Hungary and prevents this dish from tasting gritty from the 1/3 cup of paprika.

Breaking out the inexpensive blender I ordered from amazon.  Not amazed but it eventually did the job of processing the pepper, paprika, tomato paste, and vinegar.

General mise en place for the dish

Cook the onions, covered, until softened but not brown.

Add paprika mixture and cook until the onions begin to stick to the pan.

Add beef, carrots, and bay leaf and braise in the over for longer than I care to talk about.

The stew should be served over egg noodles or boiled potatoes, but I was seemingly too lazy for either option and ate the stew as is.

The beef was under-braised (the cooking had already consumed 3 days worth of free time) and I wasn't in love with the flavors, but I'd have been hard-pressed to know that there was a 1/3 cup of spice this dish.  I didn't buy sweet paprika for this dish but the normal paprika worked just fine.  I wonder exactly how inedible the dish would have been if made if pimenton picante.

Plantain and Meat Casserole (WBR)

Platanos Maduros (sauteed ripe plantains)

• 3 or 4 very ripe plantains, peeled
• Corn, grapeseed, or other neutral oil for frying

The mise en place for this dish.  Took ages for the plantains to get to this stage.  The first time around, they started to rot and attract fruit flies and I had to start over.

Shallow-frying the peeled and sliced plantains.

Finished product.

Plantain and Meat Casserole 

• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil or neutral oil, like corn or grapeseed
• 1 pound ground beef
• Salt and black pepper to taste
• 1 large onion, roughly chopped
• 1 red or green bell pepper, stemmed, seeded, and roughly chopped [Spaced on this]
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1 tablespoon paprika
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin
• 2 teaspoons dried oregano, preferably Mexican
• 2 cups chopped tomatoes (canned are fine)
• 1 recipe Platanos Maduros
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten, optional

Mise en place.

Browning the ground beef.

Cook onion and pepper (if I had any) until quite soft.

Add the garlic, spices, and tomatoes and cook until saucy.

Layer everything together, pour egg over (though I didn't notice it much the finished dish), and baked until heated through.

A tasty enough dish even though it didn't bowl me over.  Nice to see that sauteed plantains are really straightforward as long as you've got the ripe plantains.

My roommate Vanessa walked in at an early point in the dish and remembered hearing a Dominican friend of hers who often cooked a plantain and meat lasagna.  Bonafide culture, I guess.

Soy-Braised Lamb Shanks

from Home Cooking with Jean-Georges: My Favorite Simple Recipes by Jean-Georges Vongerichten

• Grapeseed or other neutral oil
• 4 whole (2-pound) lamb shanks, trimmed and patted dry
• 2 medium yellow onions, sliced
• 2 medium shallots, sliced
• 13 garlic cloves, sliced
• Kosher salt
• 2 Asian pears, cored and cut into 2-inch chunks
• 1 bunch scallions, green parts only
• 2 lemongrass stalks, smashed and thinly sliced
• 5-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and chopped
• 1 fresh long red (finger) chile, stemmed, seeds, and sliced [Neglected to remember this one]
• 4 whole star anise
• 1 1/4 cups semidry Gewurztraminer or Riesling [I used a random white wine I had already opened rather than going out to buy the right kind of 2 servings]
• 1 cup champagne vinegar [They only had normal white wine vinegar at Stop & Shop]
• 3/4 cup soy sauce
• 1/2 cup honey

Cut the portions of lamb shank in half since I was only cooking for 2.  I would have had to brown them in batches clearly if I had purchased more.  They barely fit.

Mise en place.

Cooking the onions, garlic, and shallots until golden brown and tender.

Dump the braising liquid in, bring to a boil, and then throw in the oven for about 3 1/2 hours.

Reducing the resulting liquid.

Resulting dish alongside parmesan encrusted summer squash from the same cookbook.  The squash is not really complicated enough to warrant the usual blog treatment but it was tasty.  The suggested side for the dish was a Jalapeno and Green Apple Duo but I'm not going to approach a side dish for 8 while cooking for two.
The braised meat was nice enough for braised meat, but I wish the flavors had been a bit more in my face.  The chile probably would have helped.

Ori said he liked watching me cook with such determination.