{Eating}

Stick to Your Ribs

2.5.10
photo by george billard

G went hog wild in Dickson’s this week. Came home with some grass-fed beef stew meat, these two humongous short ribs (the butcher said they would be better if he didn’t cut them—why?), a couple of squabs, a red cockerel and a Boston butt. Most of it went into the freezer, to be doled out over many weeks, but the short ribs will be featured at dinner tomorrow night. We’ve got a couple of friends coming over. That’s exciting stuff up here in the boonies. I’m trying a new preparation with red miso, mirin and daikon radish. I’ll let you know how it turns out. Usually, I favor a more classic presentation, the one from Suzanne Goin’s Sunday Suppers at Lucques. (Yes, I’m droning on about her again.) I first had these at her Los Angeles restaurant on my 40th birthday. If you’ve never made short ribs, I suggest you start here. They are really quite simple: just a matter of assembling the ingredients, browning the meat and throwing it in the oven for 3 hours. Plan ahead, as these are at their best when you marinate them overnight, cook them, and then let them chill overnight again so you can easily remove all that fat from the pan juices. Trust me, it’s worth a little forethought. So if you want to serve them on Saturday, begin the recipe on Thursday. (It’s all part of my master plan to get you to start thinking about your meals in advance, planning, scheming, daydreaming, balancing your diet and getting into a rhythm of eating well…)

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{Eating}

The Piggyback

12.8.09
piggybackphoto by george billard

This bacon-infused bourbon cocktail was inspired by the Old Fashioned at PDT, a cocktail mecca in New York City’s East Village. I think the star-anise-infused cider syrup gives mine a nice complexity, and the fresh lemon juice sparks the dark, smoky flavors. I entered this drink as a contender on Food52, when the theme was “Your Best Pork and Apple Cider Recipe” and , although it didn’t win, it was one of the week’s editors’ picks. (Probably because it really stood out against all the ((admittedly delicious-looking)) recipes for cider-braised pork shoulder.) Read the rest of this entry »

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{Eating, Health}

Meat, the Fuckers

11.19.09

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I love animals and I love meat. It’s a mind-numbing conundrum and one you can read all about in the news these days. From the works of  Michael Pollan, Eric Schlosser and now even the novelist-turned-nonfiction-writer Jonathan Safran Foer, many of us have come to know a lot more about factory farming, industrial agriculture, our government and even our own hearts than perhaps we wanted to. And let me say right off the bat that I’m aware I’m writing from a position of privilege. I can afford to buy the boutique meats that let me breathe easier. But if you learn even just a little bit about factory farming—about how we’re forcing ruminant cows to eat our government-subsidized surplus of corn, thus destroying their digestive systems and making them so ill they need to be shot up with the antibiotics that are ultimately destroying our own health; about how the amount of methane gas released from factory farms far exceeds air pollution from cars—you know the answer is not just different meat. It’s less meat. In a perfect world, no meat. But this isn’t that. Still, for your own health and for that of the planet, it’s not a bad idea to consider building your diet around legumes and whole grains and vegetables. Invent a new paradigm for your plate, beyond the antiquated notion of meat, starch, vegetable.

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{Eating}

Cabbage Dispatch

11.8.09

I think of stuffed cabbage as a traditional winter dish. It’s somehow very cozy. Though it’s often stuffed with a combination of meat and rice, my version uses quinoa and chopped cabbage flavored with just a little chorizo. The rolls are cooked in a tomato-based sauce with an additional hit of smoky pimentón to offset its sweet-sour flavor. Read the rest of this entry »

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