Wearm and Hearty Osso Buco
Finally coming off of my jet lag, and already anticipating the next round of jet lag (I’m off to Australia next week) I found myself craving something really filling and warm. Polenta is one of my favorite go to foods when I’m looking for something that will warm me from the inside out and make me feel comfortable. I have been known to sit on the couch with the pan fresh from the stove while spooning the golden, cheese filled morsels into my mouth and grinning all the while. But since Craig doesn’t consider a pot of polenta dinner, I needed to figure out something to top said polenta. (Sometimes I feel like I’m still living with my parents when he scolds me for eating potato chips or a bowl of ice cream for dinner. Isn’t that one of the perks of being an adult? You get to do stuff like that?)
I decided that Osso Buco (aka Osso Bucco) would make a fitting companion to my beloved polenta. I’ve never made Osso Buco before, but since I have yet to meet a braised dish I didn’t like the decision was made that dinner would be Osso Buco. Braising is almost as good as using a slow cooker – put the food in the oven and leave it alone, so easy. (One of the many reasons why this is the perfect date night meal.)
I’ve changed the traditional recipe a bit, but the results are a tender piece of meat that is saturated with flavors and smothered in a rich and satisfying sauce that includes mushrooms, wine, chicken stock, garlic, thyme and raisins.
Relationship Advice
Sometimes you both need to step back for a bit and bring out your inner child. I’m not saying to act childISH, but be more childLIKE. Remove “labels” from your relationship. He is an engineer, she is a sales rep, he is the fix-it guy, she is cook…why not be like kids and change up your label every once in a while? Like he is the cook one night, and she is the fix-it person, or better yet: he is the pilot and she is the flight attendant (get it? 
) Be more forgetful. How is it that when we were kids, we would be in the worst fight ever with our best friend and a day or two later it was like it never happened and it never came up again? How about forgetting about that time he suggested you wear a different dress to his work party (no he wasn’t subliminally telling you that you looked like a slut) or that time you told him to stop chewing his food with his mouth open. Neither of these things is worth bringing up later when you are arguing about something else. Odds are that you won’t be arguing about either one of these things again, so they really aren’t relevant to the new argument…are they? Stop being stodgy. Children learn new things everyday and look forward to it. As an adult you should be learning new things. Pick up a book, take a class or watch a television show to learn something new. These new activities will not only help your brain, but you’ll have new things to talk about with your partner and then you can put these new talents to use.
Serves 4
Ingredients
- 4 Slices of Veal Shank 1 – 1 1/2 inches thick (if you want them to stay together when cooked, tie circumference with cooking string)
- 3 Tablespoons Olive Oil
- 1/2 Cup Onions (diced)
- 1/2 Cup Celery (diced)
- 1/2 Ounce Dried Porcini Mushrooms Rehydrated and chopped (rehydrate in 1 1/2 cups boiling water for 20 minutes and save water)
- 1/4 Cup Large Golden Raisins
- 4 Cloves Garlic (crushed) Plus 2 Cloves Garlic Chopped Fine
- 1 Tablespoon Lemon Zest
- 2 Tablespoons Fresh Parsley Chopped Plus 3-4 Stems Fresh Parsley
- 1 Bay Leaf
- 5-6 Stems Fresh Thyme Stems
- 1 Cup Dry White Wine (chardonnay)
- 2 Cups Chicken Stock
- 1 1/2 Cups Mushroom Water (from re-hydrating dehydrated porcini mushrooms)
- Coarse Kosher Salt
- Fresh Ground Black Pepper
Directions
Preheat oven to 325 degrees Farenheit.
Heat olive oil over medium high heat in a large Dutch oven. Add the veal shanks and brown on all sides. Remove shanks to a plate and reduce heat to medium low.
If dutch oven is running dry, pour in another tablespoon of olive oil. Add onions, celery, mushrooms, raisins, garlic, parsley stems, bay leaf and thyme stems. Cook until vegetables begin to soften. Stir often so that they do not burn.
Return veal shanks to the pan with one side of the bone lying against the bottom of the Dutch oven. Arrange the shanks in a single layer. It’s okay if there are vegetables under the shanks. Season with salt and pepper.
Turn the heat up to high and add the wine, 1 cup of the mushroom water and one cup of the chicken stock. The liquids will only come up about halfway on the shanks. Bring the liquid to a boil.
Cover the pan and put into the oven for 1 hour.
After 1 hour, remove the pan and turn the shanks over. Pour in the remaining mushroom water and chicken stock. Put back into the oven for 1 more hour.
Once cooked, the veal will be very tender. Carefully remove the shanks to a covered dish and put back into turned off oven to keep warm while you make the sauce.
Strain the sauce from the Dutch oven and throw away any of the solids. Boil strained juices over high heat until they are thickened slightly. Add in the chopped parsley, garlic and lemon zest (the gremolata).
Remove the shanks from the covered dish and plate with risotto, polenta or mashed potatoes. If you tied the shanks, cut the string. Drizzle with sauce and serve.
Margarita Marinated Beef
Sometimes my inspiration for dinner comes from some really weird places. I wouldn’t exactly say that this one was so weird, but you just never know when or where inspiration will hit you.
Craig was mixing up a batch of margarita’s the other day, while I was trying to figure out what to make for dinner when it hit me. Hey, tequila and lime would taste pretty good as a marinade for beef. So off to the store I went…before he mixed a margarita for me. He groaned when I told him I still wanted one when I got home.
This is so easy to make. You could also use this for a chicken or fish marinade. Just make sure that if you use it for fish, you don’t let the fish sit in the marinade longer than an hour. The citric acid, in the limes, will “cook” the fish. But for chicken and beef, you can marinate for at least 2 hours up to overnight.
Once back from the store, I had him mix up a double margarita for me and I mixed up a pretty good size batch for the skirt steak.
Ingredients
Serves 2-4
- 1 1/2 Pounds Skirt Steak or Flap Meat
- 4-5 Cloves Chopped Garlic
- 1/2 Cup Tequila
- 1/8 Cup Lime Juice
Directions
Mix garlic, tequila, and lime juice in a non-reactive shallow dish, then add meat. Cover and refrigerate meat for at least 2 hours and up to overnight. Turn meat over, in marinade, at least half way through marination time so that both sides get a chance to get thoroughly coated in marinade.
Heat grill to medium-high (if using gas…or put directly over hot coals for charcoal). Grill steak for 6-8 minutes total, for medium rare. Remove steak(s) to cutting board and cover loosely with foil. Let sit for 15 minutes before slicing on the diagonal.
Serve with corn or flour tortillas, lettuce, onions, tomatoes, corn, cheese and sour cream.
Spaghetti and Meat Sauce
After 10 years of marriage, we don’t really go out on “dates” very often. It’s not that we don’t go to restaurants…if it was up to Craig, we’d eat out every meal. But, we don’t go out to eat very often. Takeout is as close to restaurants as we come most days. Of course, if I throw a big enough hissy fit, we go just so that he can shut me up…but you have to really use those sparingly or they lose their effectiveness.
I am usually okay with his restaurant choices for takeout, but our favorite Italian restaurant’s food just does not taste the same when we eat it at home. And I am not just saying that because the restaurant serves all you can eat, made from scratch, garlic butter foccacia bread either. So when the big dinner decision was made that he wanted Italian, and he suggested take-out, he got a really awful scowl thrown his way. No hissy fit, just the scowl.
I’m no Italian, in fact I’m a Polish girl from Cleveland, but I think I make a pretty mean meat sauce/ragu. So if Craig wants Italian, I thought I’d make some spaghetti with a meat ragu.
This is one of the best meals to make if you are trying to impress that special someone or if you somehow committed yourself to making dinner for that new guy you just started dating (and you have no idea what posssessed you to make that offer, but now your stuck with it). The great thing about the ragu is that not only is it easy to make, but you can have it cooking while you’re doing other things, like cleaning up (stuffing all your clothes into your closet and under your bed). The longer you can cook the ragu, the better it tastes.
Serves 4
Ingredients
- 2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
- 4-5 Cloves of Chopped Garlic
- 1 Large White Onion – Chopped
- 2 Tablespoons Dried Basil
- 1/4 Teaspoon Ground Cloves
- 1 Tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce
- 1 1/4 Pounds Ground Beef (lean ground beef 85/15)
- 3/4 Pounds Italian Sausage (casings removed and crumbled)
- 1 14.5 oz. Can Diced Tomatoes
- 1 15 oz. Can Tomato Sauce
- 3 Tablespoons Tomato Paste
- 1/2 – 3/4 Cup Dry Red Wine
- Salt and Pepper to Taste
- Parmigiano – Reggiano
In a large saucepan, over medium high heat, add tomato paste, diced tomatoes, and tomato sauce. Stir to combine and then continue to stir frequently. In a large pan, heat olive oil to shimmering and add garlic and onions. Cook garlic and onion mixture until onions are very soft and begin to caramelize (heat should be turned to medium/medium-high). Add 3/4 of onion and garlic mixture to simmering sauce. Stir to combine, then stir in wine and basil. Turn sauce down to simmer. In pan with the remaining onions and garlic, add crumbled Italian sausage and beef. Before meat is completely browned, sprinkle the ground cloves and a pinch of salt over the top and stir to combine. Once meat is browned remove from heat.
At this point, the sauce should be reduced by half. Pour off any liquid in the meat pan, then add meat to sauce. Add Worcestershire Sauce. Stir to combine then continue cooking sauce to desired consistency. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Spoon sauce/ragu over cooked pasta or polenta then sprinkle with grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese.
A Chocolate Breakfast
Around our house there’s one person who gets the chocolate craving…and it’s not me. Every so often, Craig goes through one of his chocolate phases. When he does this, it’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before. I had a roommate in college, of the female persuasion, who would go on a massive chocolate bender during “that time” of the month. King size versions of Hershey candy bars, Ho-Ho’s, chocolate Zingers, M&M’s…it was unbelievable. The truly maddening part for me, was the fact that she weighed all of 90 pounds when she was soaking wet! (If I look at a bag of M&M’s I gain 5 pounds.)
Well, Craig is a lot like my old roommate. If it’s chocolate…he’s eating it. This is really only a problem for me when he finds my hiding place for chocolate chips and candy bars. I keep these things around for baking, and have learned that I must hide them from him or they’ll get eaten during one of his benders. Then of course when I’m in the middle of making something requiring chocolate, I’ll have to make an emergency trip to the grocery store – argh.
The chocolate bug hit yesterday. It starts out very slowly but quickly crescendos into a deafening climax of empty foil wrappers, plastic bags and ice cream cartons.
I thought I’d try something new, hitting him with chocolate first thing in the morning. I mixed a little Nutella with some Pillsbury crescent rolls and came up with a tasty little morning treat. While these aren’t all that pretty, they taste fantastic and go perfectly with a glass of ice cold milk or piping hot coffee. If you wanted to pretty them up, you could use cookie cutters on the dough. I was just looking to feed the beast.
Ingredients
- 1 Tube of Crescent Rolls
- 1 Container of Nutella
- 1/2 Cup Powdered Sugar (optional) *
- 2 Teaspoons Milk (optional) *
Directions
Follow baking directions on tube of crescent rolls and pre-heat oven. Open tube of rolls and remove dough. On a clean and flat surface, roll out dough to 3/16″ thick rectangle. Either cut into 16 rectangles or use a cookie cutter to cut dough. Spoon 1 Tablespoon of Nutella into each shape. Fold over dough and press to seal edges. Place filled dough onto cookie sheet and bake in oven according to baking directions on the package of dough.
*If desired, mix up a powdered sugar glaze (1/2 Cup Powdered Sugar combined with 2 Teaspoons of Milk) and drizzle over the top of baked rolls.
Sassy Sweet and Spicy Beef Rub
I got a request, from the husband, to make him something that comes from a cow…no more chicken or fish. Okay, it really went something like this: “if I don’t get to eat some kind of red meat in the next couple of days, I’m going to do nothing but make clucking sounds everytime I am supposed to speak around here.” Point taken. Once I thought about it, I realized that I hadn’t cooked any kind of red meat in weeks. Although, I did entertain the thought of seeing just how long he could keep up the clucking and see which one of us would go crazy first. I also thought about taking on the clucking experiment because it would be nice to get some kind of an answer from him, for a change.
But, in the end, I decided to go with my wifely instincts and not go down that path. The man would get some red meat. Easier said than done.
My usual go-to stores, for regular cuts of meat, had nothing particularly good on sale (and since we were out of propane, the grill was out). They had cross rib roasts and 7 blade roasts, they did not have any brisket (my roasting meat of choice). I went to get the cross rib roast, and of course, they didn’t have any. So I sweet talked the butcher into de-boning a 7 blade roast and was on my way.
So I got home and mixed up a variation of a rub I had run across on girlsatthegrill.com and went from there. You can use this as a rub or a dust on just about everything.
Ingredients
- 1/8 Cup Hungarian Paprika
- 3 Tablespoons of Brown Sugar
- 1 1/2 Teaspoons of Cumin
- 1 Tablespoon Chipotle Pepper Powder
- 1 1/2 Teaspoons Black Pepper
- 1 1/2 Teaspoons Onion Powder
- 1 1/2 Teaspoons Garlic Powder
- 1 1/2 Teaspoons Dried Thyme
- 1 1/2 Teaspoons Kosher Salt
I have included the directions for the dish that I made, but remember – you can use this on just about anything (including scrambled eggs). I keep a container of it in my fridge to add a little bit of flavor to all kinds of things.
Directions
Rub top and sides of roast, liberally, with the rub up to a day in advance and refrigerate. (I used a 3 1/2 pound roast.)
Pre-heat oven to 300 degrees Farenheit. Put the roast in a 13″x9″ pan. Add one 12 ounce bottle of beer (don’t pour it over the meat or you will wash off the rub). Thinly slice 1-2 large onions and sprinkle over the top of the meat. Cover with foil and put in the oven for 4 hours. After 4 hours, remove the foil and cook another 30 minutes. Removing the foil allows the onions on top to brown. When done, remove from oven and let rest for 20 minutes.
One Pot Wonder - Dark Beer Chili
If bacon makes everything taste better, then beer is a close second. Not only is this chili super easy, it’s really delicious. I use the recipe for Beef and Dark Beer Chili from the February 2007 issue of Bon Appetit. But of course, I can never leave well enough alone, and have to add my own little touches and the things that my husband likes go in, and the stuff he doesn’t is left out. That’s one of the beautiful thing about chili…it’s fully customizable. Not that I’d ever had any complaints from the original version…but now I’ve found that I never have any leftovers when I serve this version.
Ingredients
- 1 generous tablespoons ground cumin
- 1 tablespoon ground coriander
- 3 pounds ground sirloin (I buy the boneless top sirloin steaks and have the butcher double grind it)
- 2 tablespoons canola or olive oil
- 2 large onions, coarsely chopped
- 1 red bell peppers, seeded, coarsely chopped
- 1 yellow bell peppers, seeded, coarsely chopped
- 1 large jalapeño pepper with seeds, chopped (about 1/3 cup)
- 3 generous tablespoons chili powder
- 1 1/2 tablespoons minced canned chipotle chiles in adobo sauce
- 1 28-ounce cans crushed tomatoes with added puree
- 2 15-ounce cans pinto beans, 1 drained, 1 not drained
- 1 12-ounce bottle dark beer
- 2 ounces of whiskey (I use Jack Daniels)
Add-Ins
- sour cream or Greek yogurt
- chopped cilantro
- chopped green avocado’s
- shredded sharp cheddar cheese
Directions
Toast cumin and coriander in skillet over medium heat until darker and beginning to smoke. This doesn’t take that long, so pay attention to it. Occasionally stir it, so that it doesn’t burn in any spots.
Sauté beef in heavy large pot (I highly recommend a dutch oven for this) over medium-high heat until no longer pink, breaking up as it cooks. If you get the meat double ground, this is much easier. At the same time, put the beer and whiskey in heavy sauce pan, over medium high heat to reduce. Be careful not to let this boil over. It contains whiskey and will turn your stovetop into a campfire. Reduce the beer and whiskey mixture to 1 cup (or until it’s reduced by 1/2). Heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add onions, bell peppers, and jalapeños. Sauté until vegetables begin to soften, but don’t brown the vegetables. Add the peppers and onions to the meat. Next, add in the toasted cumin and coriander, chili powder, and chipotle chiles. Add crushed tomatoes, beans, and beer/whiskey mixture. Bring chili to a boil, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat and simmer 30 minutes, stirring often. Season with salt and pepper.
This will have a pretty good kick to it from the hot peppers. If you don’t want it that hot, you can reduce the amount of peppers. Also, if yellow peppers are really expensive in your area right now, go ahead and use 2 red peppers. Do not substitute green bell peppers. They have a bitter taste to them and they tend to overpower with their flavor. This chili has a nice deep/rich flavor and the whiskey adds a subtle sweetness. If you like your chili a little more on the watery side, don’t drain the beans and add the beer, and add only 1 ounce of whiskey directly to the chili when adding the other ingredients just before boiling and simmering. ( Serves 8 )
