'To understand meat cookery is to understand the science of heat transfer.'
That's quite deep isn't it? I mean, just reading that statement from the opening paragraph of the meat chapter in The Babbo Cookbook, and I feel like a Zen student, shaven head and all, sitting at the foot of Master Batali, on the path to culinary enlightenment.
But what Mario is trying to say is that when the home-cook becomes familiar with the different cuts, grades, and the anatomy of meat, the different ways of injecting flavor into those cuts, and how to properly handle them, meat cookery then becomes a cinch. With a little bit of practice and perhaps even a Google search or two, the novice cook can then take a fearless gander into any grocery store and find a myriad of possibilities for dinner, without the need to buy the most expensive cuts of steak because of the fear of what to do with what cut of meat.
So far the recipes in every chapter have kept with Mario's food philosophy as to why Babbo does what they do, and this chapter is no different. For example, Mario points out and rightfully so that the tougher or fattier cuts of meat tend to have more flavor because they come from well used muscles. It is because of this reason that cuts of meat like osso bucco or short ribs have so much more flavor then a filet mignon, which Mario states will never show up on a menu in one of his restaurants.
He seems to celebrate the alternative cuts of meat mostly because this is the tradition found in Italy. In America we tend to eat the boneless skinless chicken breast or the beef tenderloin and throw the rest of the animal out because we don't quite know what to do with it. In Italian culture nothing goes to waste.
It is after all understandable how we became to eat the way that we do. We are blessed in this country with just tons of open space and farmland. Through the use of farming ingenuity, we are able to produce of lot of cheap agriculture and meat. So because of that, it's affordable to put the 16 ounce ribeye or fillet mignon on our plates almost every single night for dinner and throw away the rest of the animal. It is important to remember though that other countries don't have the ability to grow as much livestock as we do, and all of this cheap meat comes at a price for our health. (Can you tell that I have been reading a lot of Michael Pollan lately?)
So considering that the weather has been getting a little colder here and we're celebrating alternative cuts of meat, I chose this next post which made a wonderful dinner the other night when I needed a hearty meal to fill my tub.
Braising is a moist heat cooking method that takes a tough cut of meat, and over the course of several hours, tenderizes it in a way that will bring a tear to your eye. The smell from the combination of the ingredients in this recipe that we will soon go over will turn your house into a magnet for anyone who is hungry.
I start by preheating the oven to 375° I take out my heavy bottomed Dutch oven and heat some extra-virgin olive oil until smoking. Then, I heavily season these sweet short ribs that I found at the market, and brown them over high heat on all sides. The browning here is a key point because as Mario notes the final braise will not be as intensely flavored or colored if you give the ribs a light sear. This step should take about a total of 15 minutes.
Once properly browned, I remove the ribs on to a dinner plate and set them aside and start sweating my mirepoix (onions, carrots, celery) and garlic in the pan until softened.
The veggies get seasoned, then I deglaze with Barolo wine, scraping up the brown bits called fond. Here is also where I add whole peeled tomatoes crushed by hand, and brown stock that we made in a previous post.
Ohh forgot to mention that I also throw in a bunch of whole thyme, rosemary, and oregano. These herbs are just to flavor the pan juices so they don't need to be chopped. The short ribs go back to the pan and the mixture is brought to a boil.
At this point Mario said to cover the Dutch oven with aluminum foil and put it in the oven, but I covered the pan with a vented parchment paper lid. I learned this technique from The French Laundry Cookbook and the gradual slow cooking allows for a little loss of liquid, creating more of a sauce as opposed to a broth. The ribs get cooked for at least two hours or until they are fork tender.
This is really all there is to do to make the ribs, but upon inspecting the ingredient list, I see that Mario pairs the ribs with a pumpkin orzo. The recipe is in the contorno or side dish chapter. I could have highlighted that in another blog post, but I'll just include it in this one and give you two recipes for the price of one. It only takes about 20 minutes to make so we can time it for when the ribs are about ready to pull from the oven.
For the orzo, some pumpkin gets cubed, tossed with olive oil, seasoned, and roasted until tender. When finished and taken out of the oven, it needs to cool then go into the bowl of a food processor, along with honey, balsamic vinegar, and salt pepper. This mixture gets blitzed to form a relatively smooth purée.
Next some salted water is brought to a boil and orzo is dropped in to blanch. With an ice bath nearby, the orzo gets drained after three minutes and plunged into the ice bath to stop the cooking. This is not enough time to fully cook the orzo, but it's okay because the orzo will cook more later on. I should note here that orzo is a rice shaped pasta. It can be a little confusing to people but it is pasta.
Some more of the homemade brown chicken stock is brought up to a boil along with the pumpkin purée, and the orzo is added in. The orzo is done when the stock is fully absorbed. This then gets seasoned.
Okay so there is one more component to the short rib dish after all. It's quick and it's something that I didn't want to do too far ahead of time for quality purposes. I have to make the gremolata garnish. It's super simple. You take a handful of fresh parsley and grate in some fresh horseradish and lemon zest and toss to combine. That's it.
The suspense is killing me because it smells so damn good in my house right now, so I'm ready to start plating. I spoon some of the pumpkin orzo onto the plate, place a couple of the short ribs on the orzo, spoon some of the pan juices over the short ribs, and top with the fresh gremolata.
Was it tasty? I'll let you be the judge of that...
Without a doubt this has to be my favorite recipe in this book so far. While I wasn't a big fan of the pumpkin orzo, I would continue to make short ribs in this manner for many years to come. This after all is real cooking. Anyone can take a tenderloin and cook it for a little while and produce a somewhat tender cut of meat. It takes skill to take a tough piece of meat and turn it into something as soft as butter with a rich flavor. For the people who are following along with me at home, this technique of braising is something that you really must master.
I'm not really sure which chapter my next blog post will come from. After completing this short rib dish, I feel like I just completed my magnum opus, like I have made it to the top of the mountain. But there's more to do and more to learn. Until next time...
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