Osso Buco

It's going to snow in San Francisco... it's going to snow in San Francisco... NOT! After a non-stop hoopla in the news in the past week, snow did not arrive in San Francisco this weekend. Although it was cold, it was sunny all weekend long and it reminded me of the days when Arthur just laid out on the balcony or in front of the window enjoying the sun. My beautiful dog Arthur passed away 2 weeks ago because of lymphoma cancer, he came to my life, turned it up side down for good and I missed him dearly.

I made this Simply Recipes' Osso Buco in expectation that it would be an overcast wet and cold weekend and in memory of Arthur because I know that he would enjoy gnawing the bone marrow out of the shanks. I couldn't find any veal shanks so I used beef shanks instead which means I had to cook it for another hour to get it tender. I served this delicious goodness on top of steamed white rice, sprinkle with gremolata and a side of Stir-fried Yu Choi and Shiitake Mushroom.


Ingredients:
1/4 pound pancetta, diced 1/4 inch cubes (do not substitute bacon)
2-1/2 to 3 pounds veal shanks (4 to 6 pieces 2-3 inches thick)
1/2 cup diced carrot (1/4 inch cubes)
1/2 cup diced celery (1/4 inch cubes)
1 medium onion, diced 1/4 inch pieces
2 tablespoons (about 4 cloves) chopped garlic
3-4 sprigs fresh thyme (or 1 teaspoon dried)
1 cup dry white wine
1-2 cups chicken or veal stock
flour for dusting the meat before browning
salt and pepper

Gremolata:
2 tablespoons minced flat (Italian) parsley
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
2 cloves garlic, crushed and minced

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 325°F.
• Heat a dutch oven on the stove top over medium heat for about five minutes. Add pancetta to pan, cook, stirring occasionally. When the pancetta is crispy and most of the fat has rendered (about 5 minutes of cooking), remove the pancetta to a plate covered with some paper towel and set aside. If necessary, drain off all but two tablespoons of the fat from the pan.
• Season the veal shank well with salt and pepper. Dredge the veal shanks through some flour, shake off any excess, and add the meat to the hot fat in the pan. Increase the heat to medium high and cook the meat on each side until well browned (about 5 minutes per side). Remove the shanks to a plate, set aside.
• Add the onions, carrots, and celery to the dutch oven. Cook the onion mixture, stirring frequently, until the onions are translucent (about five minutes) and toss in the garlic and thyme. Continue cooking until the vegetables just begin to brown (about 10 minutes).
• Add the shanks and the pancetta back to the pan. Pour in the wine, and then add enough stock to come a little more than half way up the side of the shanks. Bring to a simmer. Cover the pan and put it in the oven to cook until the meat is tender, about 2-2.5 hours.
• Combine the gremolata ingredients, place in a separate small serving dish.

Beef Tongseng

I'm back!!! Finally I'm not as crazy busy with work and Arthur. Yes... Arthur still has his moments from time to time but at least I don't have to keep worrying about him all the time because Porgy and I decided to put him in a doggie day care. We love this particular doggie day care because they also do trainings and long walks with their "customers".

Earlier this week, I met up with close family friends who were visiting from Indonesia. They brought an Indonesian cookbook for me from my sister and I've been going through the recipes in the past couple of days. Yesterday, I decided to make this Indonesian Beef in Spicy & Sweet Soy Sauce called Beef Tongseng. In Indonesia, you would make this dish with goat or lamb meat but I find that fatty beef meat can be a good substitute for them. I followed a recipe from Gramedia International's "Menu Sehari-hari" cookbook.


Ingredients:
1 lb beef eye roast, cut into 1-inch cube
6 shallots, thinly sliced
2 bay leaves
1 lemon grass stalk, bruised
1 tablespoon tamarind water
5 tablespoons sweet soy sauce
4 1/4 cups water
1/2 head of small cabbage, de-bone and roughly cut into thin strips
10 red chilli pepper, seeded and cut into strips
salt and sugar to taste
4 garlic cloves
1 teaspoon black peppercorn
1 teaspoon coriander
1 teaspoon minced ginger
1/2 tablespoon minced galangal

Directions:

• Using mortar and pestle or food processor, grind the garlic, black peppercorns, coriander, ginger and galangal until they become a smooth paste.
• Stir fry the shallots with 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil over medium heat for 3 minutes or so until light yellow colored.
• Add seasoning paste, bay leaves and lemon grass and cook for another couple of minutes until fragrant.
• Add the meat, toss around and cook until the meat change color.
• Add in the water, soy sauce and tamarind water. When the water boils, lower the heat and continue cooking until the meat is soft.
• When the stock has reduced by half, add the chopped cabbage and chili pepper.
• Adjust seasoning with salt and sugar according to taste.
• Finish cooking when the stock/sauce boils again and serve over white rice.
  

Rawon

Geesh... I can't believe that it's almost end of May already, time definitely flies by quickly. Although I had been cooking plenty of interesting dishes, I didn't have the time to blog them because I had been pretty busy with other things. Since I kind of feel bad about neglecting this blog (don't ask why), I promise that I'll try to be more diligent.

I had been thinking about Rawon (an Indonesian black beef soup) since I had a small portion of it a my sister's place in Indonesia a few months ago. Here is my family's version of this dish courtesy of my Mom.


Ingredients:
2 lb beef stew meat
6 large garlic cloves
10 shallots
4 teaspoons coriander seeds
1 teaspoon turmeric powder
10 black nut (kluwek), rinsed and soaked in warm water
1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger
salt & pepper
1 teaspoon red chili flakes
1-inch galangal, peeled and bruised
4 kaffir lime leaves, bruised
1 stalk lemongrass
2 bay leaves, torn in half
2 tablespoons palm sugar
1 red chili, cut into strips
vegetable oil
3 green onions, chopped
hard boiled eggs
bean sprouts

Directions:

• Cook the beef stew meat cubes in a pressure cooker for 30 minutes to help the meat becomes tender quickly without having to simmer the soup for hours.
• Take out the meat cubes and save the strained beef broth.
• Using a mortar and pestle, grind the garlic, shallot and coriander seeds in batches with some salt and white pepper. Put the mashed-up mixture into a food processor, add in the turmeric powder, kluwek meat, grated ginger and red chili flakes and grind/puree until smooth.
• In a heavy bottom pan, heat 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil over a medium heat and stir fry the spice paste for a couple of minutes until fragrant.
• Add in the galangal, kaffir lime leaves, lemongrass and torn bay leaves and stir fry some more for a couple of minutes or so.
• Add in the cooked meat cubes, mix well so the cubes are coated with the spice paste and cook for a minute or two.
• Add in enough strained beef stock (or water) to completely cover the meat plus an extra inch and cook until boil.
• When the soup is boiling, lower the heat to a simmer, cover the pan and let simmer for 30 minutes or so until the spice flavor is absorbed by the meat.
  
• In the mean time, you can make several hard boiled eggs and blanch the beansprouts (optional).
• Add the chopped green onions and red chili strips and adjust seasoning by adding salt, pepper or palm sugar accordingly.
• Serve over rice with halved hard boiled eggs, blanched beansprouts and shrimp crackers (if you have any).
  

Noodle with Red-braised Short Ribs and Asparagus

What to do when the other person wants to have a non-Asian dish but you want to have one? My solution is to make an Asian-inspired pasta dish without actually telling the person. I figured that as long as it tastes good, Porgy would not mind having spaghetti with Asian-inspired home style red-braised sauce. I used one of the recipes in Periplus' Homestyle Chinese Cooking cookbook as an inspiration for the sauce. You can make this a vegetarian dish by skipping the short ribs meat and substituting it with sliced mushroom or tofu.


Ingredients:
1 package of spaghetti pasta
2 bunches of asparagus, cut into 2-inch sections
1 cup of short ribs meats, cut into 0.5-inch cubes
3 tablespoon of ghee (unclarified butter) or olive oil
1/2 onion, sliced
8 cloves garlic, smashed with skins removed
8 slices ginger
5 green onions, cut into 2-inch sections
6 tablespoons soy sauce
4 tablespoons Shaoxing cooking wine
2 tablespoons sesame oil
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon crushed red chili pepper
2 teaspoons cornstarch dissolved in 1/2 cup water

Directions:

• Cook the pasta al-dente according to the package direction. Three minutes before the pasta is done, add in the cut asparagus. Drain and set aside.
• Mix all of the sauce ingredients together (soy sauce, Shaoxing wine, sesame oil, sugar, salt, black pepper, chili pepper and dissolved cornstarch) in a bowl.
• Heat up the ghee in a heavy bottom pan over high heat and stir fry the short ribs meat for about 4 minutes or so until they are somewhat browned.
• Add in the onion, garlic, ginger and half of the green onion and cook for another 3 minutes.
• Add in the sauce, stir to blend, cover the pan, lower heat and braise for 5 to 6 minutes.
• Add in the cooked spaghetti, asparagus and the rest of the green onion into the pan and stir gently so they are well mixed.

Christmas Eve Dinner

We had a wonderful Christmas Eve dinner with Mo-Fo Duo, Auntie Sandy and Drew. It was a lovely and mellow dinner with great food, great wine and great people. Can't beat that combination!


Auntie Sandy made her famous Prime Ribs blanketed with rock salts


Mo-Fo made the Leek and Potato Gratin (which was so much better than my attempt last month) and stir-fry Sweet Peas


I made Brussels Sprouts with Bacon and Figs


After the dinner, we all played Pictionary and, for the first time ever, we won a game against Mo-Fo Duo while snacking on Mo-Fo's Red Velvet Mini Cupcakes.


Yes, what a wonderful Christmas eve dinner it was...

Red Wine Braised Shortribs ala Hubert Keller

Earlier this, I tried Hubert Keller's Red Wine Braised Shortribs after watching his Secrets of a Chef show on PBS - serving it with corned polenta, stir fry bok choy and a bottle of J Winery's 2007 Pinotage.


Here's his recipe with a couple changes:

Ingredients:
4 pounds bone-in short ribs
salt and pepper
chayenne (my addition)
chili pepper (my addition)
4 tablespoons olive oil
2 small onions, peeled and sliced
2 carrots, peeled and coarsely chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
1 2-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and sliced thinly
2 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
1 stalk lemongrass
1 1/2 cups red wine, pinot noir preferably
1 cup strong coffee (my addition)
1 14-oz can diced tomatoes with juice
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons parsley, chopped
3 tablespoons tomato paste
3 cups beef stock
1 sprig fresh sage

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 350F.
• Heat olive oil in a 5-quart saute or casserole pan over high heat.
• Lay the short ribs out on a clean work surface and season all sides with salt, pepper, chayenne and chili pepper.
• When oil is almost smoking, add ribs and let sear on high heat, 5 minutes per side or until well browned. Use tongs to rotate the ribs.
• Once browned on all sides, remove ribs with tongs and place on a baking tray.
• Add onions, carrots, celery, ginger, and garlic to the same pan.
• Smash the lemongrass stalk with the back of the knife, slice, and add to pan. Saute vegetables for 2 minutes, or until softened.
• Over high heat, add red wine and scrape bottom of pan with wooden spoon as wine comes to a boil.
• Add tomato paste, diced tomatoes, brown sugar, parsley, beef stock, coffee and sage leaves to pan and bring to a simmer. Add ribs back into pan and cover with a tight-fitting lid.
• Place casserole in pre-heated oven for 1.5 hours. Remove cover and continue cooking for an additional 1 hour.
• When rib meat is very tender, remove ribs from oven, using tongs to place on baking tray. Cover with aluminum foil to keep warm.
• Pour the sauce through a fine-mesh strainer into a saucepan, removing all of the vegetables. Over medium low heat, simmer the sauce for 5 minutes until darker in color and thicker. Add the ribs to reheat.
• Serve ribs with sauce over polenta and bok choy.

Shredded Beef with TriColor Beans and Tofu Puffs

I love using tofu puffs in Chinese dishes because they absorb the sauce's flavor very well. This Shredded Beef with TriColor Beans and Tofu Puffs is a nice comfort stir fry dish to be eaten on Sunday night. The crunchiness of the beans compliments well with the tofu puffs.

BTW, do you know that purple beans would change its color to green when fully cooked? I didn't know that, I wonder why...


Ingredients:
1 lb stir-fry beef meat, shredded (cut into strips)
1 lb of green beans
1 lb of yellow beans
1 lb of purple beans
1 pack of tofu puffs
1/4 cup of chopped parsley
1 onion, sliced
5 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon mirin
1 teaspoon of chinese shaoxing rice wine
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of white pepper
1/2 teaspoon of red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon of corn starch
1/8 cup of water
2 tablespoons of oyster sauce
2 teaspoon of corn starch, diluted in cold water in a small bowl

Directions:

• Marinate the shredded beef meats with garlic, soy sauce, mirin, shaoxing wine, salt, white pepper, red pepper flakes and corn starch for at least 1 hour.
• Before stir-frying the beef, add a tablespoon of oil to the meat so it won't stick to the pan.
• Stir fry the beef with a couple tablespoon of oil in a large pan or wok over medium high heat until just cooked. Set aside.
• In the same pan, stir fry the onion for a couple of minutes with a small amount of oil.
• Add in the beans and water and cook covered for 5 minutes until the beans are just al dente.
• Add back in the beef, tofu puffs, oyster sauce and dissolved corn starch. Mix well.
• Add the chopped parsley and stir together.
  

Peter Luger Steakhouse, Brooklyn

After going to New York several times in the past couple of years, I finally got the chance to go to Peter Luger Steakhouse in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. I was totally in love with the steak — it was DELICIOUS. It was charred on the outside and medium rare inside. It also had the best thick cut smoked bacon that I've ever had. I didn't use their steak sauce because I did not want to ruin the steak and their burger was not memorable. Another good thing was that the service was not as bad as what the people said on Yelp. The only thing I am perplexed about is that we were seated in the Asian corner of the restaurant. Wonder why...

Beef Rendang

Last week, I went to Lime Tree, a South East Asian restaurant in San Francisco, with Mo-Fo and ShunBun. One of the dishes that we all enjoyed very much was Beef Rendang - which is a dish of beef cubes stewed in Indonesian spices and coconut milk. I remembered seeing a Beef Rendang recipe at Closet Cooking so I decided to make it yesterday. Since I couldn't find beef with good marbling, I used beef stew meats instead. The result was not as buttery as I wanted it to be although I had cooked it for three plus hours ... Fortunately, the taste was really good so I was still happy with it. I served it with fried shallots to add some crunch to it.

R&G Lounge

Last night, I went to R&G Lounge with Danny, Mo-Fo and ShunBun after having a drink at Tunnel Top. I was supposed to go to the gym, have a good workout and eat salad at home but they twisted my arms so I had to oblige. =)

House Combination Chow Mein - Pan Fried Hong Kong Style


Ma Bo Tofu


R&G Special Beef


Water Spinach in Fermented Tofu Sauce

Brunch at Serpentine

I had a nice brunch with Craig, Mo-Fo duo and ShunBun. We were planning to go to Just For You Cafe but the wait time was over 1.5 hour so we decided to cross the street and checked out Serpentine.


Strawberry Buckwheat Pancake with toasted walnuts, whipped cream and maple syrup (to share...)


Savory bread pudding with Zoe's smoked ham, swiss cheese, sage, roasted onion and green salad


Fritata with fontina cheese, asparagus, roasted red pepper & caper relish, arugula and crispy potatoes


Fried oyster and egg benedict with bernaise sauce, corn bread and crispy potatoes


Baked eggs with black eyed peas, spring onion, green garlic, baby spinach, herb & grana padano cream and corn bread


Flannel hash of prather ranch beef brisket with chiogga beets, crispy potatoes, horseradish crème fraiche, poached eggs and grilled ny rye

Dinner at Chow

After having beer at Pilsner Inn with ShunBun and Danny for happy hour, the three of us went next door to Chow Restaurant on Church for a mellow Friday evening dinner. It was still pretty early in the evening so we didn't have to wait for a table.

Fennel-Sausage Pizza with mozzarella, escarole, tomato, red onion, oregano and ricotta.


Sustainable seafood of the day - Halibut with asparagus, peas, pea-shoots and mashed potatoes


Slow pot-roasted Beef Short Ribs with mushroom-herb gravy and mashed potatoes