pickled cabbage

This is great with chicken or fish, on a sandwich or taco, or by itself. 

The ingredients:
(mix the next three ingredients together and stand for at least 5 hours)
4 cups thinly sliced green cabbage
.5 cup thinly sliced red cabbage
2 T salt

.5 cup thinly sliced shallot
1 small carrot peeled and shredded 
.5 cup flat parsley leaves
.5 cup cilantro leaves
1 tsp chili flake
.5 tsp crushed coriander seed
.5 cup pickling liquid from my recipe

Preparation steps

After the green and red cabbage have "cured" in the salt overnight submerge them in cold water and drain to rinse the salt off. Repeat this step two times. Next you need to expel the excess water... you can either squeeze it out with your hands or place the cabbage in a kitchen towel and twist it until no more water comes out. I find the second method to be more effective.

Once you've done that simply mix the remaining ingredients with the cabbage. You should let it sit for an hour of so before you eat it. You will find that the longer the vegetables marinate in the pickle the more delightfully pink it all turns. The cabbage will keep in the fridge for at least a week.

too short ribs

 

















The ingredients you will need:
4 pieces of short rib (about 2# with the bone in)

(for the marinade... just mix this together and let the short ribs soak in it overnight)
1 cup red wine
2 celery branch rough chopped
2 bay leaves
2 cloves garlic
black pepper

(for the braise)
dutch oven
the short ribs dried off and seasoned with salt and pepper  
the short rib marinade
1 oz olive oil
1 cup diced yellow onion
2 cups carrot large cut
1 bulb garlic with the top cut off and smeared with bacon fat
1 medium tomato diced
1 tsp diced fresh rosemary

(and for the sauce)
2 cups chicken or beef stock
4 oz red wine
everything from the braising pot after you remove the short ribs and skim off the fat
4 oz mushrooms... I used king oyster mushrooms
1 T butter
salt and pepper

You can start by getting your dutch oven hot on the stove and preheating the oven to 325°. Now pour the olive oil in the pot when it starts to smoke add the short ribs. Turn the heat to medium and brown the meat on all sides. Once you've done that remove the shorties from the pot and reserve the excess fat. Return the pan to the heat and add the onion and carrots allow them to get a bit of color. Add the tomato and rosemary. Once the pot starts to stick place the shorties back in along with the marinade and garlic put the lid on and stick it in the oven. It should take about 2.5-3 hours depending on how tender you like the meat.

After the shorties have reached your desired tenderness remove the from the bone and set aside. Add your stock to the pot, while you let it simmer for five minutes or so, and scrape all the caramelized bits off of the pot and into your sauce... then strain it skim off the fat and set aside.

In a hot sauce pan toss a bit off the beef fat, the mushrooms, and a pinch of salt. Cook until the mushrooms start to caramelize then add the red wine, burn off the alcohol and pour in the stock/braising liquid. Let this reduce by about half then put the shorties back in the pan to warm up. Once they are hot plate'em, perhaps with some pomme puree or roasted root veggies, whisk the butter into the sauce season the sauce and pour it on top. 

I always like to top the too short ribs with some flat Italian parsley... they should be really good.

pickled pearl onions

I love pickled onions! They are good with some cured meat, on a salad or atop some pasta. The following recipe is just a basic pickle solution that can be applied to any veggies but the focus here is onion. For onion I like the pickle to be a bit sweet hence the sugar... for say cucumbers I would add less sugar, a bit more salt and some dill. I also like to use a vinegar that matches the color of the veggie. The recipe below turns a nice golden yellow... that's why I like it for the pearl onions. If you're pickling red onions, or beets replace the champagne vinegar with red wine vinegar. So you can tweak it as you see fit.

First ingredients for the pickle:
(the next three spices are to be toasted)
1 T coriander seed
1 T fennel seed
1 tsp pepper corns

(you'll add these next)
1 cup apple cider vinegar
.5 cup champagne vinegar
.5 cup H2o
.75 cup sugar
1 t salt

(then these)
1 tsp mustard seed
.5 tsp chili flake

(this last)
1 10 oz package of pearl onions, peeled

Cooking steps
First, on low heat, toast the coriander, fennel and peppercorns in a sauce pan that will fit all the ingredients. Once the spices become fragrant and maybe smoke just a touch add the water. You don't want to add vinegar to a hot pan without proper ventilation or it will become very uncomfortable for your eyes and throat. So now that the pan has cooled off a bit add the vinegars, sugar, salt, mustard seed and chili flake. Let it cook on medium heat until the sugar dissolves and then on low for five minutes more, remove the pan from heat and let it sit at room temp, so the spices will steep.

Now it is time to prepare the onions. I find the simplest way to do this is as follows. Fill a large pot with about three quarts of heavily salted water and bring it to a boil. While the water is getting hot slice off the very end of the root side of the pearl onions. This should cut into the onion no more than a 1/16 of an inch. You will also need an ice bath large enough to fit the onions. Once the water is boiling add the onions... leave them in the pot for about a minute, drain and place them in the ice bath. After they cool for a few minutes they should peel with ease. Just pick one up and squeeze from the top... the onion should pop right out of the peel! Repeat this until you're finished.... place the onions in a jar and cover with the pickling liquid. You can strain the pickle first for a more refined look. Let them sit, refrigerated, in the pickle for a week before you eat them. This is so they will soak up the vinegar and become tender.