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A Frakkin' Good Time
(Asian Braised Short Ribs + Ross's sci-fi lovin' colleagues)
Ross invited a couple of work friends and their SOs over and I was working from home that day and the day before, AND I was planning to go to the Korean supermarket anyway, so it was a "perfect storm" that led to me deciding to make braised short ribs. This is a tricky one for me because it's one of my favorite things in the whole world but it takes so long, you have to be sitting around your house for 5 consecutive hours or so, and there is a fair amount of fiddling around. But in the end, it's so worth it. I have tried a lot of short ribs recipes, but this one is my favorite. It's from the NY Times a while back, but as I've made it more and more I've changed it in little ways. One fantastic thing about it, is that you can basically make the entire dinner ahead of time, and heat it on the stove. The Korean market has really meaty, inexpensive, fresh short ribs so I prefer to buy them there.
In this recipe (as in many other slow-cooked meat recipes) you cook the meat with carrots and onions and garlic and then you strain out the sauce, leaving behind a kind of saucy mush of aforementioned vegetables in the strainer. In a restaurant you would throw this mush away. At home I save it because although not visually appealing, it is deliciously infused with all of the rich, salty meat flavors. You can cook some pasta (or rice) up and toss the pasta and some of this "sauce" in a saute pan, or make a sandwich with it. It's pretty overbearing on its own so it needs some plain carbs to back it up. It may not be to everyone's liking, but definitely don't throw it away without a taste!
I was doing a little experimenting with some crazy mixed grain rice I got at the Korean market, that was all different colors and that I had no idea how to make. It's a mix of black rice, red rice, brown rice, barley, and some other unidentifiable things. It took a few tries to get the mix to come out with the right texture but once I did they were neat-looking and tasted terrific. In the end I decided the grains were too hearty and had too much sass to support the short ribs on their own, so I made about a cup of it, and mixed it into 3 cups of jasmine rice for color and texture interest. It was good and looked pretty but was totally unnecessary, 100% jasmine rice is just as tasty and much easier than making 2 kinds of rice.
We had a great time talking about geeky stuff with everyone, since it's something we share in common- there was no shortage of talk about Farscape, BSG, and what have you. Brian and his wife were visiting from Seattle so we had fun talking about our favorite Seattle things (the Science Fiction Museum and Purple are probably my top two.) It was a fantastically dynamic group, and hopefully we can entice them to come over again soon, because they were frakkin' fun.
If only THEY were at dinner. That. Would. Be. Frakkin'. SWEET!
we ate: Braised Short Ribs, Carrots, and Potatoes over Rice, and Mixed Greens with Apriums, Pistachios, and an orange-ginger dressing
for dessert: Somewhat Homemade Mint Chip Ice Cream Cake
Ross invited a couple of work friends and their SOs over and I was working from home that day and the day before, AND I was planning to go to the Korean supermarket anyway, so it was a "perfect storm" that led to me deciding to make braised short ribs. This is a tricky one for me because it's one of my favorite things in the whole world but it takes so long, you have to be sitting around your house for 5 consecutive hours or so, and there is a fair amount of fiddling around. But in the end, it's so worth it. I have tried a lot of short ribs recipes, but this one is my favorite. It's from the NY Times a while back, but as I've made it more and more I've changed it in little ways. One fantastic thing about it, is that you can basically make the entire dinner ahead of time, and heat it on the stove. The Korean market has really meaty, inexpensive, fresh short ribs so I prefer to buy them there.
In this recipe (as in many other slow-cooked meat recipes) you cook the meat with carrots and onions and garlic and then you strain out the sauce, leaving behind a kind of saucy mush of aforementioned vegetables in the strainer. In a restaurant you would throw this mush away. At home I save it because although not visually appealing, it is deliciously infused with all of the rich, salty meat flavors. You can cook some pasta (or rice) up and toss the pasta and some of this "sauce" in a saute pan, or make a sandwich with it. It's pretty overbearing on its own so it needs some plain carbs to back it up. It may not be to everyone's liking, but definitely don't throw it away without a taste!
I was doing a little experimenting with some crazy mixed grain rice I got at the Korean market, that was all different colors and that I had no idea how to make. It's a mix of black rice, red rice, brown rice, barley, and some other unidentifiable things. It took a few tries to get the mix to come out with the right texture but once I did they were neat-looking and tasted terrific. In the end I decided the grains were too hearty and had too much sass to support the short ribs on their own, so I made about a cup of it, and mixed it into 3 cups of jasmine rice for color and texture interest. It was good and looked pretty but was totally unnecessary, 100% jasmine rice is just as tasty and much easier than making 2 kinds of rice.
We had a great time talking about geeky stuff with everyone, since it's something we share in common- there was no shortage of talk about Farscape, BSG, and what have you. Brian and his wife were visiting from Seattle so we had fun talking about our favorite Seattle things (the Science Fiction Museum and Purple are probably my top two.) It was a fantastically dynamic group, and hopefully we can entice them to come over again soon, because they were frakkin' fun.
If only THEY were at dinner. That. Would. Be. Frakkin'. SWEET!
we ate: Braised Short Ribs, Carrots, and Potatoes over Rice, and Mixed Greens with Apriums, Pistachios, and an orange-ginger dressing
for dessert: Somewhat Homemade Mint Chip Ice Cream Cake
To add more context for anyone considering a Seattle trip:
Science Fiction Museum == awesome.
Music Experience == too much hype for too little value.
I must also add mention of the best thing in all of Seattle; The rickety wooden roller coaster in the parking lot behind the Paul Allen explosion. It's great because you get real Gypsy operators- which means a real chance of death!
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