Beef and Polenta Round 2 (I go down in the 3rd (day of cooking)

Tomato-Braised Short Ribs with Polenta and Escarole from the Washington Post

Well, on a second review of the ingredient list and processes for this dinner no wonder it was a bust.  I had high hopes since the success of the beef stew over polenta, and because short ribs are just delicious.   

I started this recipe off by not knowing how much poundage I had in meat.  I had 4 short ribs if that means anything, but ended up guessing on actual weight and decided to halve the recipe.  I ended up with TONS of sauce, not necessarily a bad thing but might have influenced the final flavor, not very meaty.  I easily had double the amount of sauce I needed. 

This recipe again called for lots of wine and no beef broth and again I used half the amount of wine and made up the difference in beef broth.  I’m eating beef, I want to taste it.

It also called for San Marzano tomatoes (rolls eyes at your name brand tomatoes) and arbol peppers, whatever they are.  After I made the recipe I finally looked up arbol peppers on the internet, they are small, long, skinny red peppers.  I replaced them with cherry peppers (hey, they were both red!) but if I did it again would replace with jalapenos for more bite. 

I also started this recipe off by not reading the instructions.  So, when I went to cook it the first thing I come across is marinate overnight.  Sunday afternoon and I am already behind.  I did that and massaged the meat as instructed.  Monday night, I get home from work and begin cooking.  I towel off the meat, season with salt and pepper, heat oil, brown on all sides, remove the meat from the pot, strain the marinade, add vegetables to the pot, sauté, add the meat back.  Add the marinade, cook for some time, add everything else, cook for 3-4 HOURS.  Remove short ribs, bay leaves and thyme and puree the sauce.  Add meat back to the pot.  Yea, 3-4 hours straight on to Tuesday night.  I arrive home, cook the polenta and heat up the short ribs in sauce.  By this point I said F the escarole.

It was tasty as beef, polenta and sauciness is, but the three day cooking was a giant negative.  It just wasn’t so great that I would attempt it again even though I could easily prep the meat on Sat and cook on Sunday for my dinner.

On the positive side, I had boatloads of leftover sauce.  Check back tomorrow for version two and three of this dinner. 

Success and Failures - Tuscan Beef stew vs Short Ribs with Polenta

Two recipes for beef with polenta, one uses short ribs and the other beef stew meat.  Tender beef and creamy polenta, sounds dreamy doesn’t it?   It is. 

I roughly followed this epicurious version of Tuscan Beef Stew with Polenta.  The original recipe did not call for beef broth, but I thought braising with only red wine sounded too winey, and if there is anything I hate it is whiners.  I do like wine though. 

Here’s what you need:

Olive oil

½ yellow onion

2 carrots

2 stalks celery

1 lb of beef “stew meat”
1 cup red wine
1 cup beef broth, this was my own addition I wanted more beef flavor. 
3 whole tomatoes , I used canned (about half of the 29.5oz can)

Thyme, I only had dried and chopped so used a pinch of that.

Salt & Pepper

Here's what I did:

I used my big Le Crueset that I do not get to use very often because it is massive. Start by swirling a couple glugs of olive oil in there, enough to coat the bottom.

While that is warming on med heat, dice half a yellow onion and add that to your pot. 

Let the onions cook for a few minutes while you chop up the carrots and celery.  Add them and allow all the vegetables to cook together for about 10 minutes.

Add the beef and brown it on each side, should take about 5 minutes.

Add the wine, beef broth, tomatoes and thyme, bring to a boil.

Hit it with salt and pepper, cover and reduce heat to medium low.

 Let the whole thing simmer, stirring occasionally for about two hours.  I set my alarm for an hour and half and check every ten minutes after that. 

The meat should fall apart when you push on it with a spoon.

Polenta: I use this method and it works like a champ.  Basically 4 cups of water to 1 cup of polenta, stream polenta into simmering water on low heat, stir consistently for five minutes, reduce heat to low, cover the pot with foil and leave it for 25 minutes.

When you return stir the whole mixture together, viola delicious, non-clumped, corn gruel or porridge.  Not a solid chunk of corn cement.  (heh, I like the solid clump but for this dinner I want the liquidy polenta)

Next toss in some butter and some grated parmesan.  Now look away while your other hand adds some more butter. Done!

I made the stew on Sunday and cooked the polenta on Monday after work while the stew was re-heating.  I also melted 1 tablespoon of butter in pan and added about a tablespoon of flour.  I stirred that until it was a goldy brown color and had no flour clumps and then added that to the stew to thicken it up a bit.  Yum, you can also make a little thickening paste with about a tablespoon of stew juice and a tablespoon of flour.  You are going for a liquid consistency. with no lumps of flour.  Stir that together so all the bits of flour are incorporated and then add that to the stew. 

Ladle some polenta into a bowl, top with stew and dig it, it’s delicious.  Success!

Tomorrow the same dish and yet, less delightful 

Sausage, Beans & Greens - Redux

Spicy Black Beans with Chorizo and Greens

Ok, it’s been awhile.  I got a job (yay) and blogging got away from me. 

I was invited to a potluck tapas party awhile back.  I brought a shrimp and chorizo dish; which of course required Spanish chorizo.  In my quest for chorizo with the correct nationality I picked up some Mexican chorizo in case I never found any Spanish.  I did find the Spanish chorizo, at World Market and tossed my Mexican chorizo in the freezer for a later date. 

Then in my recipe wanderings I came across this recipe in the Washington Post food section.  Spicy Black Beans with Chorizo and Greens.  It sounded tasty and I had all the ingredients so let’s go.  As anticipated it was super easy and used up half a tube of chorizo.  I halved the recipe for my own purposes in case I did not like it but roughly followed the recipe:

Here is what I did:

Splash of olive oil

Half a yellow onion, diced

Half a tube of Mexican chorizo

Half of a 15.5 oz can of diced tomatoes

1 can black beans, rinsed and drained

1 bunch greens; I used kale because I it's the green I usually buy

I warmed up a swirl of olive oil on med heat in my sauté pan and then added some diced onion.

Cook the onion until soft, about 10 minutes

Add your Mexican chorizo (hola!) and break it up as it cooks, another 5 minutes

Add tomatoes, black beans and broth and stir to incorporate

Add the greens and cover the mixture for another 2 minutes to allow the greens to wilt

After 2 minutes stir the now wilted greens into your mixture; you might need to cover and let your greens wilt for another 2 minutes.

Cover again and reduce the heat to medium-low, cook for 8-10 minutes.

Then I sat down to eat it and realized this is the Mexican version of my Italian sausage with white beans.  I soften add spinach to the Italian version, I will have to try it with some kale next time.  I loved the Mexican version, but I think I prefer my Italian dish.  I am not sure I will buy chorizo again for this dish.  But, I will try it with soy-rizo; which against my preconceived judgments is some pretty tasty stuff.