Braised beef ribs. Horseradish gremolata. Mashed potatoes.
It's as good as you think. Plus stone crab, scallops, breakfast oatmeal, eggplant lasagna, and roasted branzino.
If March is the month that starts off like a lion and ends up like a lamb, February is the month still figuring out who she wants to be, like a kid at a new school. In the last few days, we dipped down to 18 at night (brrr!) and will sneak into the low 70s by the end of this week. But, as I’ve said, if the choice is to just be in the 20s all the time or to enjoy these respites of warmer weather, I will take the latter every time.
Last Friday was Valentine’s Day and we, like any sane couple, never go out on Valentine’s. I wouldn’t say that it’s a Hallmark holiday that we observe as if we needed an excuse to have champagne, but there was champagne.
Stone crab season runs October through March, and we tend to order a couple times to enjoy it. The stone crab claws from Peter’s are so much better than you can find around town, even at restaurants.
So to go with our V-Day champagne, first there was shrimp cocktail with Sitka sidestriped shrimp. I prefer them over spot shrimp, which are a real pain to peel. I always make two sauces: a classic cocktail sauce for Josh, and a “healthy” version of my mom’s take on Aurora sauce.
And then there were stone crab claws! We get the large ones and split the claws over two days. I always crack the shells with my meat tenderizer. Last year, I bought an Oxo tenderizer but sadly it didn’t work as well as my old one. Old things are sometimes best.
We also ordered some sea scallops with our stone crab, and their quality was amazing. First there was this ceviche, which was really only a hint of ceviche and more of a tartare, since I only gave the scallops a swim in the citrus bath for five to ten minutes. It was mostly lime with one blood orange, as the fridge is overrun with winter citrus from our farm box. The disadvantage of prepping all the accoutrements first is that I diced the red onion and tomatoes too small to match the size of these beautiful scallops. It all still tasted great… after I remembered to add the olive oil, which creates a nice emulsion with the citrus.
And then we seared off some of the scallops too, which I ate alongside some of the week’s roasted veg. I like my scallops with a hard sear on each side and just barely cooked through. With quality scallops like this, even if it’s raw in the middle, you know you are still good.
Last week, I talked about ending my intermittent fasting regime and adding breakfast back in. I’ve been eating breakfast for about a week now.
The very first day, it was Greek yogurt with my meyer lemon marmalade. We are normally a Siggi’s household, having switched some years ago… although I don’t recall why. Before that, we were a Fage plain household for years. The store was out of Siggi’s so Josh picked up the 5% Fage, which is certainly thicker and has a very rich mouthfeel compared to Siggi’s. Now that I’m comparing the product descriptions of each, I think we moved to Siggi’s because it was thicker than the Fage 0% as we were very focused on fat consumption. I am still a fan of whole milk (versus skim) and aware of the stance that removing all the fat removes much of the nutrients as well. Regardless, we have a big tub of Fage right now. It’s thicker and all my recipes need a slight adjustment. And when I had it with my marmalade, it was superb.
Every year since it came out (and I bought it immediately), I have thought about making Megan Gordon’s best oatmeal from Whole Grain Mornings. Well, I finally did it. I don’t think I ever really looked at the recipe because I thought it was complicated recipe and would take a long time. But it’s easy. Toast your rolled oats in butter, bring milk and water to a light boil, stir in the oats and let it “cook” covered for seven minutes. Seven minutes!!
I know. I made several batches this week. One batch on Saturday to try. One batch is one cup of oats. Then two batches for the week on Sunday. And we ran out so I made another double batch on Friday. Two batches fits nicely in a one quart deli tub.
Megan mentions that she makes a batch and reheats it during the week so that’s what we are doing. A 30 second microwave with a bit of added milk (or water if you forget at the office :( ) is great.
The first day I had oatmeal, I added in my marmalade, and it was superb. But you probably are thinking what I started thinking. I did all this work to cut extra sugar out of my diet and now I’m adding it back in every day? Yeah, even if I made it. So that was a one day thing. I found that if I added in a tiny pinch of salt, the oatmeal was just fine on its own but otherwise was a bit bland. So every day, I brought my little breakfast to the office and microwaved it between 9 and 10 depending on when I had a break. It has worked out really well. In contrast, I did not plan lunch vegetables well this week, having only lentils, broccoli (stolen from Sunday’s dinner), and fava beans. So I have been hungry around 3-4pm which is unusual for me, but it’s hard to say if it’s because my metabolism has gotten started earlier or if it’s because my lunch was smaller.
I like raspberries and rarely buy them but enjoy them as my post-lunch dessert. I tried them on my oatmeal and did. not. like. Raspberries are great on their own. On the oatmeal, they are not sweet enough. Nope.
So we are still trying this out. Anson Mills sells stone cut oats, which are not rolled oats, and they are clear to say that their oats do not cook like into normal but they also provide their own overnight oat recipes so we may give that a try if we keep on the oatmeal train. For me, I look forward to my bowl of oatmeal every day - it’s that good! - and am not yet really hungry, although I always could eat. I do find myself really full after dinner so I might be able to cut back a little. We will see.
I finally made a recipe from Naomi Pomeroy’s Taste & Technique. I wanted beef and we had a few packages of short ribs in the freezer that we bought when they were on sale back when I wanted Korean barbecue. I think of this as a is riff on boeuf bourgignon, braised in a combination of red wine and stock (I used chicken.). The recipe calls for browning the carrots, celery, and onions then adding tomato paste and browning that - and calling to do it in two batches, no less - so the braising liquid gets a nice deep flavor. There is also a whole head of garlic, the zest of a lemon, and a handful of prunes. Everything goes into the oven for a couple hours til the meat is tender, but not falling apart. There is a lot of braising liquid which is great as a jus and over mashed potatoes. We still have a about a pint of it left. Not sure what to do with it. Maybe French onion soup base. Maybe gravy for mashed potatoes.
Here is that short rib all plated up. On some mashed potatoes with a lot of that short rib jus and gremolata! This horseradish gremolata is easy, calling for parsley, lemon zest, garlic, and fresh horseradish grated right before serving She also has some preserved lemon rind in there but I was tired at this point and didn’t feel like pulling it out. Really a nice balance to the richness of the beef. This is a keeper recipe.
Life was not all beef last week. We did behave ourselves somewhat on the other nights. I made two smaller pans of eggplant “lasagna” so I didn’t have to reheat the same poor pan over and over all week. Three nights of dinners! This was three decent-sized Italian eggplants, one 28 oz can of San Marzanos, a nice big tub of ricotta, and a ball of fresh mozzarella.
Fantastic. We served it with a big salad every night.
We had roasted branzino one night, stuffed with lemon and thyme. I like to slather it with a ridiculous amount of salsa verde. We just restocked on our favorite finishing olive oil, and it turned out perfectly.
The salad all week has a bit of a pizza joint feel. There were sliced olives and a lot of mozzarella, because I opened more than I needed for the eggplant. It was a nice change though and when I made my dressing, I actually emulsified it which really does make a difference.
What I’m reading, watching, and listening to:
After listening to Deb and Kenji talk about brownies, now I need brownies. I love brownies. Yum. (The Recipe Podcast)
More about the Edna Lewis documentary. (The Sporkful)
Part 2 of the interview with Francis Ford Coppola, just as good as the first part. (iHeart Radio)
Lol, carpooling with coworkers stories. (Ask a Manager)
I do not need more chocolate in my life, but oh how good these desserts sound. (Serious Eats)
Dogs discover new kinds of truffles! (Food and Wine)
Lots of folks going to Mexico, specifically Mexico City. This reminder of what Bourdain wrote about Mexico still rings true. (La Briffe)
Wow, the sobering reality of the costs of keeping up a weekly YouTube channel. Way to go Carla for sharing all the real numbers and experience. (Food Processing)
Great commentary about how zero proof cocktails have evolved and how the cocktail scene is the better for it. (Longer Tables)
A festival for onions. I know Josh would be all over this. (Longer Tables)
It makes sense to eat dairy cows for beef. (Bittman Project)
Ah, the 24 hour diner. I too have fond memories. But I think we were more in like the 9-11pm range. That’s a good time for corned beef hash, right? (NYT)