Tonight's Recipe

From: Dana Sack
To: Jason Sack, Mina Sack
Date: Tue, Jul 1, 2008 at 12:42 AM
Subject Tonight's Recipe

Classic braised meat dish:

Chop equal amounts of carrot, celery and onion. One large carrot, one large stalk of celery and one-half a medium onion. Double, triple or quadruple for the number of diners. Saute them in a fry pan with one tablespoon of butter and one tablespoon of oil, olive oil is best.

While that is sauteeing, wrap an English short rib in two slices of bacon, attaching the ends with toothpicks. Classic recipes call for tying the bacon on with string. Toothpicks are easier. Tonight I did two English short ribs and two sausages (only one slice of bacon for each sausage).

When vegetables are soft, transfer to a deep pot. Saute meat in the same fry pan, until the bacon is cripsy and the meat browned on all sides. Transfer to the big pot.

Next, brown potatoes in the bacon fat, 3-4 fingerling potatoes would be best or small red potatoes. Do not try to cook them through. They will cook through in the big pot. Just brown the potatoes for flavor. Add them to the big pot.

Finally, measure out a cup of beef stock and a cup of red wine, and swirl some of it in the frying pan over low heat to "deglaze" the pan. Deglazing means to free all the bits of meat, vegetable and cooked on meat and vegetable juices, by swirling the fluie d around in the pan. You can use a soft spoon to free up the bits and pieces. A good way to end up with a clean pan at the end.

Add the deglazing fluid to the pot, along with the rest of the beef stock and wine. It should be enough to just cover the meat.

Simmer for 1-2 hours. Stir occassionally to keep from burning to the bottom of the pan. I cook this 20-30 minutes in a pressure cooker. The idea is to meld all the flavors. With the pressure cooker, the whole thing takes less than hour. Best cooked the night before and reheated the next night, or, agian, use the pressure cooker to soften the meat and get all the flavors melded togeher, without waiting for an hour or more. The beef should be soft enough to cut with a fork and full of flavor.

Chicken or pork could work, too, but beef has the most flavor. Chicken stock for chickent, but still use red wine.

This is classic braised meat or pot roast. For more people, you could use a tritip or sirloin roast, also less expensive than steak, but tough and needs the braisihng (boiling) and the time or pressure cooker.

Serve with salad or green beans or zuchini.

Enjoy.