Lots of you, huh? Keep your hand up if you then say "but I don't have the equipment, the person power, the time", etc, etc, etc.
Hmmm. Not many of you put your hands down. Annalena's stayed up too. She has a lot of favorite restaurants like that. One of them is "Hearth," the wonderful restaurant that Marco Canora owns and where he chefs. Annalena and the Guyman eat there a LOT, and Annalena has the thoughts above, frequently. So when Marco posts a recipe that is designed for folks to make at home, Annalena pays heed.
There was such a recipe in one of her cooking magazines this month: a short rib farrotto.
A farrotto, ragazzi, is a risotto, but made with farro, a grain that had its time in the sun some years ago, when it was supposed to be the cure to all ills. Groceries rationed the stuff, the price went up and those of us who had some of it, hoarded it.
Well, as happens with these things, the fad faded, we can all get it again, and enjoy its chewy nutty flavor. It's a member of the wheat family, but it is not wheat. It comes in different forms, like all grains. You all know about brown rice, and how it differs from white rice. Well, grains like farro, barley, etc, also come in those forms, but now one speaks of "pearled" and "unpearled" grains. Marco in fact calls for unpearled farro, which Annalena did not have on hand, so she used what she had. She also made other changes to the recipe, which she will explain as she goes on. She thinks Marco would approve, and hopes she gets to let him taste it.
It's a hearty, winter dish:
First, here are your ingredients:
What you see here are the farro, cippolini onions, garlic, a leek (Annalena's introduction), a parsnip, a carrot, dried porcini mushrooms (also Annalena's), thyme, and short rib meat. What you do not see is the chicken stock (Annalena changed from beef stock to chicken stock, since she didn't have beef stock on hand), and red wine. Nor do you see the olive oil.
She used a leek, because the leeks at the farmers market were BEAUTIFUL. She used the dried mushrooms because, since she was not using the beef stock, she wanted a darker flavor and color.
The first thing you have to do, is prep your ingredients. You will almost always find short ribs ON the bone. You'll be taking it off the bone here. Not hard to do, but you just have to be ready to do it. And also, know that if you buy the meat on the bone, you will need to figure 3 pounds of on the bone short ribs, to get two pounds off. As Annalena was taking the meat off the bone, she noticed that some of the bones retained a lot of good, solid meat. Well, again, she thinks Marco would approve: if the bones held a fair amount of meat, she kept those for the dish. All of the excess fat - very easy to do, just takes time.
Do the meat ahead of time, and salt and pepper it overnight if you can. For the veggies: peel and cut the parsnip and carrots into half inch pieces, and slice the light part of the leek into slices. On the cippolini: these are Italian onions, and they are sweeter than the usual yellow ones you can buy. (In fact, cippole is the Italian word for onion). If you can't find them, Annlena suggests you substitute whole , small shallots rather than plain onions. You need to peel and quarter them. Now, if your cippolini (little onions), are more like cippoloni (big onions), remember to size the pieces so that they are about the same size. In fact, one of Annalena's was very large, so she cut it into six pieces. You need eight of them. If you do Annalena's version, you also want 1/3 of a cup of dried porcini mushrooms. After you prepare the veggies, and measure out a cup and a half of farro, this is what you have:
Annalena forgot to mention the thyme. Chop up a tablespoon of it, and leave a couple of branches plain as well. You need to take a quart of stock, and mix it with half a cup of water and, if you're using the dried mushrooms, those too. Bring that to a boil, and then let it sit, covered, keeping warm.
While this is happening, and afterward, pour out two tablespoons of olive oil, and brown the short rib meat to get a good color. Don't crowd your pan, and don't skimp on the cooking. You'll probably need 5-7 minutes per batch:
If you are using PEARLED risotto, your grain will be completely cooked by now, and what you'll be working on, is breaking things down to get a creamier taste to it. If you were lucky enough to have a whole grain farro, then the last step is one you'll need, for getting it cooked completely. So, depending on your farro, either repeat what you did three times, one more time, but take the cover off and stir like a demon for the final five minutes, or, if like Annalena, you had the pearled stuff, add the liquid, and keep stirring, until most of it is gone. As the dish sits, you'll see the liquid get taken up by the grain. Taste things, and add salt and/or pepper if you need it. You get:
Annalena thinks this is a perfect dish for the winter, and she intends to make it again. Give it a try ragazzi. This REALLY is very, VERY good. Thank you Marco. The Guyman and Annalena will see you soon
Move these to a bowl, and add another tablespoon of oil to your pan, and then add all of the vegetables. Add some salt, and cook them , stirring them a lot, until you get some brown color:
Chef Marco wants you to put the short ribs back in the pan with the vegetables. Annalena used a big skillet to do the components, and there would not be enough room for everything. Hence, what she did was to move the vegetables out of the skillet, and add the cup of red wine called for, to dissolve all the goodies (the so-called "fond" ) that was on the bottom of the pan.
Ok, now you've got your veggies, your wine, and your meat. Unite all of that in one big pot. Raise the heat to high, and drive off the wine. It will take about 5-10 minutes to do. After you have done that, add the farro, and stir things together. Now, we start doing the old risotto technique. Add a cup of your broth to the pot, and stir it all together. You will not be stirring constantly, as with a risotto, however. You have short rib meat, which needs time to cook, and a lot of "stuff" in the pot. So, put a cover on it, but don't cover it completely, and let it cook for fifteen minutes. Come back and stir it every now and then, but don't go crazy. After fifteen minutes or so, do the same thing, with another cup of stock, and then again, fifteen minutes later. After these three iterations, you'll have a little more than a cup of stock left, and a pot that should look like this:
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