Ingredients come in and out of fashion just like, well, fashion. One of the ingredients that is enjoying a justifiable wave of popularity now, is the lamb shank.
When I was growing up, I had no idea what a lamb shank was. I remember someone on a television show, seeing them offered as lunch at the school cafeteria where she worked, and smiling broadly because she hadn't had them in so long... Then she got called away for a meeting and never had them. I remember her saying "bye lamb shanks" with this sad look on her face.
I asked my Nana if we could have them, and she looked at me like I was crazy. I think she didn't know what they were. It may have also been that , at that time, lamb shanks were considered "poor people food," and my grandmother just could not understand why any of us would want to eat like poor people. She would cry about the money she spent on food, but when we ate lamb, we ate chops, or we ate leg of lamb. We NEVER ate the cheaper cuts.
"Cheaper" cuts. HAH. I paid 8 bucks a pound for the lamb shanks in this recipe. I guess that's cheap for lamb, but if my Nana ever paid 8 bucks for meat, she got way more than a pound.
Lamb shanks are good for those of us who want little work, are willing to let the food cook away for a long time, and like good flavor. If you think about it, everyone , or just about everyone, loves osso bucco. Well, that's veal shank. Lamb shanks are as good, in a different way.
As it happened, last week I came across two recipes for lamb shanks, going in different directions. One used chick peas. Hmmmm. The other one used prunes. Hmmmm. I put it to plebicite. The prunes won.
This recipe appeared in the NY Times. I want to repeat it here, in case you dont' read the "paper of record," or don't read the food section. I DID make some changes (now there's a surprise), and there is an unusual ingredient that is worth hunting down.
The night before you are going to make the dish, take 2 cups of pitted prunes (more than half a pound), and soak them in two cups of dry red wine. If you are really "off the stuff," use pomegranate juice. It will surprise you how much liquid the prunes pick up, even if they are nice and soft. Also, the night before, sprinkle eight small lamb shanks with salt and pepper, and let them sit, uncovered, in your fridge.
The day of cooking, bring your oven to 300, and let the shanks come to room temperature. Chop up two cups of onions. You don't need surgical precision here. For me, this was three medium onions. You should also peel and mince, twelve - that's right, TWELVE cloves of garlic. You'll thank me. Get a jar of red peppers in oil, and slice three of the peppers into thin slices. Have ready, as well, two teaspoons of ground cumin, and a teaspoon of smoked paprika. That's the unusual ingredient I told you about. Buy some. You'll be glad you did. Then, pour some olive oil into a big heavy casserole (use a BIG one), and brown the shanks. Take your time. This is where you're gonna get your color for this.
Put the meat off to the side. Note that you'll have to do this in batches. There isn't a pan in the world that can handle 8 shanks at once (at least not on the retail level, where you and I can get them). You'll have a little fat left. Leave it, and sautee your onions and garlic in this, just until
they begin to soften. Then add the peppers and the spices. If you let this cook a few minutes, you will notice a wonderful smell coming up. That's the smoked paprika and you'll now know why I insisted on you getting this. Then add the lamb back, and the prunes, with the juice. You'll have to layer these on top of each other and that's fine.
The original recipe called for stove top cooking. I did most of it in the oven, however. I covered the pan, and put it into a 300 degree oven, for an hour and a half. At the end of that time, I moved the shanks around so that the ones underneath were on the top, and vice versa. After an additional hour, I checked them and decided to finish the dish on the stove. I put the whole pot on the stove, at medium low heat, and let it cook away for another thirty minutes. By that time, the meat was tender, falling off the bone, and the whole house smelled wonderful.
This stores beautifully, which is a good thing, because we have plenty. With Paula's potatoes, doesn't this sound like an extravagantly good dinner? It's up for dinner tomorrow. Maybe I'll save some for you....
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Cooking with Paula: Potato Casserole
I will say, up front, that Paula Deen is one of my favorite tv people in the world. She goes into that category of people who can show up at my door for dinner whenever she wants. I know we'll have a great time. If you've seen her shows, you know what I mean. This is a lady who truly TRULY LOVES being in the kitchen, and putting it forth for friends and loved ones (aren't they the same?). She also understands, that when we cut to the chase, what we all really WANT to eat is stuff that on one level is not good for us. Fact is, most things that are "not good," for us, are at least ok for us, if you don't insist on eating four pounds of them. So it is, with the dish that follows.
I will confess that these days, I really don't get to watch her tv show very much. I can't figure out programming on the food network anymore, and I frequently find myself doing something else. So when a friend told me about this recipe, I had to look it up. And when I did, it was clear that I had to make it. This is the ULTIMATE comfort food. Look at the ingredients: potatoes, including TWO KINDS. Cheese. Bacon. How could this be bad for you? I am coming more and more of a mind that if it makes you feel good, eat it. I could go for a big bowl of this stuff right now.
You will need 2 cups of mashed potatoes. Now, here's your first clue that this is comfort food. First of all, it gives you a chance to make extra mashed potatoes when you make them. Who doesn't love mashed potatoes? You also need sour cream. People say that Paula Deen is the queen of excess. Well, I'm going to out excess her. Her recipe calls for half a cup of the stuff. When I made it, I didn't measure. I just slathered it on. Maybe I used a cup. Maybe I used more. I don't care. You also need about a teaspoon of salt and a half teaspoon of fresh ground black pepper. Paula uses garlic powder, but I don't like the stuff, and I left it out. She calls for a red pepper, sliced thin. I can't bring myself to use the foreign grown peppers that we get this time of year, so instead I used three peppers from a jar of Italian peppers under oil, and a sliced red onion.
Now, things get good. You also need a stick of unsalted butter. Finally, boil yourself up four medium sized potatoes. I used yukon golds (my all purpose potato), and cooked them, in their skins, in salted water. When they were about 3/4 done, I let them cool, peeled them, and sliced them about a quarter inch thick. And... you need a nice amount of grated cheese. Paula calls for 1.5 cups of grated cheddar. I just took a block of colby cheese - about half a pound - and shredded it all.
Now, we start cooking. Preheat your oven to 350. Melt the butter in a pan, and cook the onion and pepper in it, at medium low heat, for about five minutes. Get a baking dish, and spread out the mashed potatoes. Spread the sour cream on them. Sprinkle the salt and pepper over that. Now, add the vegetables, but hold on the butter. Add the potato slices, on top of the vegetables. NOW pour on the butter. Finally, sprinkle the cheese over all of this, and put it in the oven for about thirty minutes.
While it's baking away, fry up a half pound of bacon. I repeat what I have said about cooking bacon: it will work much better if you add a little fat to the pan, and let it get started in that. The fat seems to draw out more of it, and gives you a nice, crispy final product.
Drain the excess fat off of the bacon, and when the casserole comes out, crumble it, or spread it, heck just get it on top of the cheese.
Now, is this good eating, or what? GO to it. It's supposed to serve six. Betcha you can't get that many servings out of it.
I will confess that these days, I really don't get to watch her tv show very much. I can't figure out programming on the food network anymore, and I frequently find myself doing something else. So when a friend told me about this recipe, I had to look it up. And when I did, it was clear that I had to make it. This is the ULTIMATE comfort food. Look at the ingredients: potatoes, including TWO KINDS. Cheese. Bacon. How could this be bad for you? I am coming more and more of a mind that if it makes you feel good, eat it. I could go for a big bowl of this stuff right now.
You will need 2 cups of mashed potatoes. Now, here's your first clue that this is comfort food. First of all, it gives you a chance to make extra mashed potatoes when you make them. Who doesn't love mashed potatoes? You also need sour cream. People say that Paula Deen is the queen of excess. Well, I'm going to out excess her. Her recipe calls for half a cup of the stuff. When I made it, I didn't measure. I just slathered it on. Maybe I used a cup. Maybe I used more. I don't care. You also need about a teaspoon of salt and a half teaspoon of fresh ground black pepper. Paula uses garlic powder, but I don't like the stuff, and I left it out. She calls for a red pepper, sliced thin. I can't bring myself to use the foreign grown peppers that we get this time of year, so instead I used three peppers from a jar of Italian peppers under oil, and a sliced red onion.
Now, things get good. You also need a stick of unsalted butter. Finally, boil yourself up four medium sized potatoes. I used yukon golds (my all purpose potato), and cooked them, in their skins, in salted water. When they were about 3/4 done, I let them cool, peeled them, and sliced them about a quarter inch thick. And... you need a nice amount of grated cheese. Paula calls for 1.5 cups of grated cheddar. I just took a block of colby cheese - about half a pound - and shredded it all.
Now, we start cooking. Preheat your oven to 350. Melt the butter in a pan, and cook the onion and pepper in it, at medium low heat, for about five minutes. Get a baking dish, and spread out the mashed potatoes. Spread the sour cream on them. Sprinkle the salt and pepper over that. Now, add the vegetables, but hold on the butter. Add the potato slices, on top of the vegetables. NOW pour on the butter. Finally, sprinkle the cheese over all of this, and put it in the oven for about thirty minutes.
While it's baking away, fry up a half pound of bacon. I repeat what I have said about cooking bacon: it will work much better if you add a little fat to the pan, and let it get started in that. The fat seems to draw out more of it, and gives you a nice, crispy final product.
Drain the excess fat off of the bacon, and when the casserole comes out, crumble it, or spread it, heck just get it on top of the cheese.
Now, is this good eating, or what? GO to it. It's supposed to serve six. Betcha you can't get that many servings out of it.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
You never know: jerusalem artichoke soup
One of the most interesting aspects of cooking for people, at least for me, is that you never know how your food is going to "go over." You go into the kitchen with a preconceived notion of how your dishes are going to turn out, and what their popularity is going to be. Sometimes, you're right. And sometimes, you are dead wrong.
Years ago, this happened to me when I made two versions of my "val d'aostana" dish. I made it how I learned to make it, with veal, and I made it with chicken. My motivation was very simple: I didn't want to spend the money to make the veal dish for twelve people. But I DID make enough for six.
The veal came back, nearly uneaten. Meanwhile, there were people scraping the corners of the serving dish on the chicken variation. I would NOT have predicted that. Now, while I might make the veal dish for us at home, when I serve it at parties, I always serve the chicken.
This past Sunday, we had our monthly dinner party. The menu included toasts with chickpea spread and homemade Tomato jam, as well as an Alsatian tart of onions and caviar. Then we had jerusalem artichoke soup with black truffle puree, followed by short ribs cooked in ancho chili and coffee puree (you'll find that recipe below), with polenta and escarole. We had a big salad, cheese, and then two desserts: a sorbet bombe of blood orange, passion fruit, and kiwi sorbets, and an apple cake with banana sorbet.
Ok, look at that menu and think for a minute: what is THE ONE dish that everyone is talking about. Think hard. Ready?
The soup. Yup. I am literally getting cards and letters talking to me about the soup. Now, I love soup. I don't think of soupmaking as an easy task, but I think of it more as the dish that people use to "sit into" the dinner. In other words, soup is "easy." It sets you up for the rest of the meal, when the "good stuff" is coming. For this party, however, it sure seems that the soup was "the good stuff. " I am very serious when I say that I could have put out bowls of that soup with bread and ended the meal right there, and people would have gone home smiling.
You never know.
Well, this being the case, I am giving you the soup recipe. It takes a bit of time. Perhaps the most time consuming aspect is finding the ingredients. Get thee to a farmers market. You'll find it easily.
You need 2.5-3 pounds of Jerusalem artichokes. These come in two shapes: one variety is long and thin. That's the one you will try to get. The other is real funny looking, sort of like a geometric puzzle. You can use these, but you're going to have to peel them, and unless you like getting your peeler into nooks and crannies, go for the longer ones.
Wash them and then use your parer to get the skin off. While you're doing this, have your oven preheating to 450. You need that heat for these babies. When they're peeled, dump them into a bowl with a few glugs of olive oil and some salt. Get your hands in there and turn everything until they're all covered with the oil and salt. Then lay them out on a baking sheet and get them into the oven. Plan on at least fifteen minutes, maybe longer.
While they roast, make your mirepoix (I am slowly beginning to love that word). Celery seems to work really well with jerusalem artichokes, so go heavy on that. I would say use two parts celery to each part of carrots and onions. I chop it all up nice and fine in the food processor, pulsing it. When it's pulsed to a fine point, put it into a big soup pot with a few more tablespoons of olive oil. Don't start cooking yet. Check your jerusalem artichokes by sticking a fork in them. You want them soft. Softer, perhaps, than a baked potato. Almost falling apart. They will brown and toast as this happens. Cover your hand with a mitt, and shake the pan a bit too, to make sure they don't stick. When they're soft , get them out of the oven (the longer ones will take less time than the crenulated ones. DOn't you like that word? Look it up).
Now, saute your mirepoix in the oil, with some more salt - just a little - until the liquid starts being released. Don't use too high a heat, you're not looking to brown the stuff, just soften it. When you hear the hard sizzle start softening, scrape the jerusalem artichokes into the pot, and then add broth. I started with a quart, and when I was done, I added a total of a quart of broth, and two cups of water. Just let this simmer away for maybe fifteen minutes. Taste for seasoning.
When you've done this, you should either let the whole pot cool down, or proceed to pureeing, using VERY small quantities. Pureeing hot soup is dangerous. Use a blender, and pulse it, pouring the pureed liquid off as you do it. You will have something that is sort of creamy brown in color (again, I thought the color would dissuade people from finding it tasty. My friends surprise me all the time. They do NOT eat with their eyes).
You are pretty much done with your soup at this time. I added a tablespoon of black truffle paste to each portion of a cup of soup, but the standard garnish, is a chopped artichoke heart. Use that if you like , or add a small bit of heavy cream or sour cream or something like that.
This was such a success that people may start calling me "signore Girasole, " which isn't a bad thing, except one of my buds is my sunflower. So, just make the soup, share it, enjoy it.
And remember "C'est la vie, say the old folks, it goes to show you never can tell."
And that's the extra credit question for today: what song does that come from and who recorded it?
Years ago, this happened to me when I made two versions of my "val d'aostana" dish. I made it how I learned to make it, with veal, and I made it with chicken. My motivation was very simple: I didn't want to spend the money to make the veal dish for twelve people. But I DID make enough for six.
The veal came back, nearly uneaten. Meanwhile, there were people scraping the corners of the serving dish on the chicken variation. I would NOT have predicted that. Now, while I might make the veal dish for us at home, when I serve it at parties, I always serve the chicken.
This past Sunday, we had our monthly dinner party. The menu included toasts with chickpea spread and homemade Tomato jam, as well as an Alsatian tart of onions and caviar. Then we had jerusalem artichoke soup with black truffle puree, followed by short ribs cooked in ancho chili and coffee puree (you'll find that recipe below), with polenta and escarole. We had a big salad, cheese, and then two desserts: a sorbet bombe of blood orange, passion fruit, and kiwi sorbets, and an apple cake with banana sorbet.
Ok, look at that menu and think for a minute: what is THE ONE dish that everyone is talking about. Think hard. Ready?
The soup. Yup. I am literally getting cards and letters talking to me about the soup. Now, I love soup. I don't think of soupmaking as an easy task, but I think of it more as the dish that people use to "sit into" the dinner. In other words, soup is "easy." It sets you up for the rest of the meal, when the "good stuff" is coming. For this party, however, it sure seems that the soup was "the good stuff. " I am very serious when I say that I could have put out bowls of that soup with bread and ended the meal right there, and people would have gone home smiling.
You never know.
Well, this being the case, I am giving you the soup recipe. It takes a bit of time. Perhaps the most time consuming aspect is finding the ingredients. Get thee to a farmers market. You'll find it easily.
You need 2.5-3 pounds of Jerusalem artichokes. These come in two shapes: one variety is long and thin. That's the one you will try to get. The other is real funny looking, sort of like a geometric puzzle. You can use these, but you're going to have to peel them, and unless you like getting your peeler into nooks and crannies, go for the longer ones.
Wash them and then use your parer to get the skin off. While you're doing this, have your oven preheating to 450. You need that heat for these babies. When they're peeled, dump them into a bowl with a few glugs of olive oil and some salt. Get your hands in there and turn everything until they're all covered with the oil and salt. Then lay them out on a baking sheet and get them into the oven. Plan on at least fifteen minutes, maybe longer.
While they roast, make your mirepoix (I am slowly beginning to love that word). Celery seems to work really well with jerusalem artichokes, so go heavy on that. I would say use two parts celery to each part of carrots and onions. I chop it all up nice and fine in the food processor, pulsing it. When it's pulsed to a fine point, put it into a big soup pot with a few more tablespoons of olive oil. Don't start cooking yet. Check your jerusalem artichokes by sticking a fork in them. You want them soft. Softer, perhaps, than a baked potato. Almost falling apart. They will brown and toast as this happens. Cover your hand with a mitt, and shake the pan a bit too, to make sure they don't stick. When they're soft , get them out of the oven (the longer ones will take less time than the crenulated ones. DOn't you like that word? Look it up).
Now, saute your mirepoix in the oil, with some more salt - just a little - until the liquid starts being released. Don't use too high a heat, you're not looking to brown the stuff, just soften it. When you hear the hard sizzle start softening, scrape the jerusalem artichokes into the pot, and then add broth. I started with a quart, and when I was done, I added a total of a quart of broth, and two cups of water. Just let this simmer away for maybe fifteen minutes. Taste for seasoning.
When you've done this, you should either let the whole pot cool down, or proceed to pureeing, using VERY small quantities. Pureeing hot soup is dangerous. Use a blender, and pulse it, pouring the pureed liquid off as you do it. You will have something that is sort of creamy brown in color (again, I thought the color would dissuade people from finding it tasty. My friends surprise me all the time. They do NOT eat with their eyes).
You are pretty much done with your soup at this time. I added a tablespoon of black truffle paste to each portion of a cup of soup, but the standard garnish, is a chopped artichoke heart. Use that if you like , or add a small bit of heavy cream or sour cream or something like that.
This was such a success that people may start calling me "signore Girasole, " which isn't a bad thing, except one of my buds is my sunflower. So, just make the soup, share it, enjoy it.
And remember "C'est la vie, say the old folks, it goes to show you never can tell."
And that's the extra credit question for today: what song does that come from and who recorded it?
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Hey shortie: Annalena makes ribs
Short ribs, to be exact. I cannot remember when short ribs started to appear on my "culinary horizon," but one day, it seemed that if you were a restaurant, you HAD to serve a short rib recipe. It made sense. Relatively speaking, short ribs are inexpensive, and they are very, VERY tasty. On the downside, they are extremely fatty, and the meat is tough. It needs long, slow cooking. If short ribs aren't done right, they can be a horror to eat. And believe me, I have had some HORRIBLE ones. There are restaurants, however, where they "get it." I know of one, for example, where they put the short ribs up for cooking when the restaurant closes, and leave them to cook at a ridiculously slow temperature, all night. The meat is extremely succulent and tender, falling off the bones. Falling off the bones so much, as a matter of fact, that they don't serve the meat on the bone.
Sometimes, you can have too much tenderness. Let's face it, and not be prim about it: there is something wildly satisfying about picking up a chop, or a leg , or something with a bone in it, and gnawing the meat off of it. Even if the meat is very tender, and there's no work involved, the licking of fingers, etc, somehow appeals to all of us. And why not? I have heard many theories about this appeal, but the one that I like the best, is that it allows you to show that you feel comfortable around people and, to twist what my friend David means when he says it wildly, "you're not afraid to get messy." When I serve food to my friends, I WANT them to get messy. I want them to dig in, slurp, make noises, crack bones if they have to, and just get every single molecule of flavor out of the food. So when I serve t his recipe, I put the bones into the meat, even if the meat has fallen off, as it usually does.
This recipe has a special appeal to me. Guy and I do a dinner party every single month, usually on the third Sunday. This was the first thing I ever cooked. I've modified it somewhat (there's a surprise, isn't it?), as I've learned more about cooking. I will include variations within this recipe. DO know that you have to make it at least a day, and preferably further ahead, of the day you want to serve it. I will explain why as we go along. It's worth the wait.
First, you need a braising sauce. This involves ancho chiles, which may take some work finding. Go to a Latino grocery. When you find them, bend them. They should be soft, instead of brittle. Anchos are dried poblano chiles (I LOVE the fact that, in Mexico, when a chili is in dried form, it has a name different from the fresh one. For example, a dried jalapeno is a chipotle. There are o ther examples. I wish we did more of that. We do it for plums and prunes, but what about other stuff? And I'm sorry, but "craisins" just does NOT cut it for dried cranberries). Get four big ones. What you will need to do is cut the stem away, and split them open and shake out as many of the seeds as you can. You will see veins inside the dried chili. Whether you cut them away or not is a question of how spicy you like your food. Anchos are pretty low on the heat scale in terms of chilis, but they DO have heat. If you do not like spicy, cut them away. If you are ok with it, as I am, leave them in. And if you just can't handle heat at all, ask around for some milder dried chilis, and use those instead. Just take a look at the size of the anchos first, and use that as a guide for what you will need. Boil two cups of water and pour it over the anchos. You need to do this to rehydrate them for what is to come. Leave it alone for twenty minutes, and then drain away the water, and save it. Now take those chilis, and put them in a blender, with a quartered onion, three chopped cloves of garlic, and if you like spice, 2 tablespoons of those canned,chipotle chilis I've written about before. . Also add two tablespoons of maple syrup, the juice of a lime, and a teaspoon of salt.
That's a lot of stuff in a blender. If you're concerned, then do this in two parts. Puree it until you have a fairly smooth puree, but don't worry about getting really smooth stuff. Put this to the side.
Now, to the meat. You will need anywhere between 6 and 10 pounds of short ribs, depending on what kind of ribs you use. I use a mixture of buffalo and beef, and so I need the larger amount. I need this because the bone/meat ratio on buffalo ribs, is much higher than on beef. It's interesting, because they are related animals, of course, but you can see that they are NOT the same by lookning at this cut. And you are going to need about a pound of meat on the bone per person, maybe more with the buffalo ribs, because this is going to cook down substantially, and of course, bones weigh a lot.
If you've learned anything from here, you will have salted those ribs and left them exposed overnight in the fridge. If you forgot, the day you're cooking them, pat them dry, sprinkle them with salt (don't be shy here: you could use up to two teaspoons). You will also need to have a few tablespoons of vegetable oil ready in a big pan. Get it nice and hot, and then carefully add as many ribs at a time as you can, and brown them. This is going to take a few minutes. Get as good and dark a color as you can, because from here on in, there is no chance for the meat to get brown and caramelized. As you brown them, move the meat to a roasting pan. OR, roasting PanS if you have a lot. You want to keep one layer throughout. Maybe separate buffalo and beef?
Ok, now you're going to do something that is very typical of Mexican cooking (to the extent I know anything about it). You're going to fry your spice mixture. Remember all that stuff in the blender? Well, move your head back (this is gonna spatter), and pour it all into the pan. Lower the heat, and stir for about five minutes. Now add the water, and also add - ready for this? - half a cup of good strong coffee (if you don't have coffee around when you're cooking, you can get by with a half cup of boiling water with a good tablespoon of espresso powder added. Truth to be told, that's about what I always use, and I double it). Stir this and bring it to a boil. Then, pour the stuff over your ribs. If you're using two pans, divide it of course, and do it equally.
Cover the pan or pans with foil, and put them in a preheated, 350 degree oven. You will need at least 3.5 hours for beef ribs. You may need less time for buffalo. check by seeing if the meat is coming away from the bones, after 2 or 2.5 hours. If it's close, take them out and continue with the beef.
Now, here is a step that I think is essential, and was not in the original recipe. The original recipe said "skim the fat and serve." Go ahead, try to do that. I guarantee you, you will be SWIMMING in fat from this recipe. I estimate that at least one third of the meat mass comes away in fat. If you try to skim that, you will lose your sauce, you will lose your patience, and you may very well lose your mind. So, what do you do?
Remember up above I said do it ahead of time? Hmmmmm? Well, let the stuff come to room temperature, then cover it and refrigerate it. The next day, you may be grossed out, but you will have tons of solid fat on the top of the dish, just begging you to scoop it away with a knife or spoon or something. You don't have to be a zealot here. If you spend all your time hunting down the little "globlets" of fat that escape the skimming process, you'll never get dinner on the table. You'll also notice that the fat has a decided orange color. Yup. Chili flavoring comes from oil. Oil is a fat. Fat dissolves oil. So you're taking some of that flavor with you. That's why you have to overflavor the dish at the start.
When you've cleared the fat, you will notice how soft and succulent (I love that word) the meat is. It WILL be coming away from the bones. Of course, you can't serve this cold like that - that would be gross - so put it back in the oven, with the foil cover, and reheat it for about twenty minutes.
If you are serving only beef, one large short rib is fine for a person. You would probably need about four buffalo ribs. If you combine the two meats, overfeed everyone, or offer smaller portions and seconds.
This is a very robust tasting dish. It is recommended with polenta, which is great. You could also serve it with hominy, or with that wonderful Sardinian pasta, fregola. Leftovers make a good pasta sauce, and they also make a wonderful "sloppy joe."
This is definitely winter, cold weather food. I love short ribs, but I can't imagine eating them in the summer.
They are now a tradition with us. Try them, and maybe they will become a tradition for you.
Sometimes, you can have too much tenderness. Let's face it, and not be prim about it: there is something wildly satisfying about picking up a chop, or a leg , or something with a bone in it, and gnawing the meat off of it. Even if the meat is very tender, and there's no work involved, the licking of fingers, etc, somehow appeals to all of us. And why not? I have heard many theories about this appeal, but the one that I like the best, is that it allows you to show that you feel comfortable around people and, to twist what my friend David means when he says it wildly, "you're not afraid to get messy." When I serve food to my friends, I WANT them to get messy. I want them to dig in, slurp, make noises, crack bones if they have to, and just get every single molecule of flavor out of the food. So when I serve t his recipe, I put the bones into the meat, even if the meat has fallen off, as it usually does.
This recipe has a special appeal to me. Guy and I do a dinner party every single month, usually on the third Sunday. This was the first thing I ever cooked. I've modified it somewhat (there's a surprise, isn't it?), as I've learned more about cooking. I will include variations within this recipe. DO know that you have to make it at least a day, and preferably further ahead, of the day you want to serve it. I will explain why as we go along. It's worth the wait.
First, you need a braising sauce. This involves ancho chiles, which may take some work finding. Go to a Latino grocery. When you find them, bend them. They should be soft, instead of brittle. Anchos are dried poblano chiles (I LOVE the fact that, in Mexico, when a chili is in dried form, it has a name different from the fresh one. For example, a dried jalapeno is a chipotle. There are o ther examples. I wish we did more of that. We do it for plums and prunes, but what about other stuff? And I'm sorry, but "craisins" just does NOT cut it for dried cranberries). Get four big ones. What you will need to do is cut the stem away, and split them open and shake out as many of the seeds as you can. You will see veins inside the dried chili. Whether you cut them away or not is a question of how spicy you like your food. Anchos are pretty low on the heat scale in terms of chilis, but they DO have heat. If you do not like spicy, cut them away. If you are ok with it, as I am, leave them in. And if you just can't handle heat at all, ask around for some milder dried chilis, and use those instead. Just take a look at the size of the anchos first, and use that as a guide for what you will need. Boil two cups of water and pour it over the anchos. You need to do this to rehydrate them for what is to come. Leave it alone for twenty minutes, and then drain away the water, and save it. Now take those chilis, and put them in a blender, with a quartered onion, three chopped cloves of garlic, and if you like spice, 2 tablespoons of those canned,chipotle chilis I've written about before. . Also add two tablespoons of maple syrup, the juice of a lime, and a teaspoon of salt.
That's a lot of stuff in a blender. If you're concerned, then do this in two parts. Puree it until you have a fairly smooth puree, but don't worry about getting really smooth stuff. Put this to the side.
Now, to the meat. You will need anywhere between 6 and 10 pounds of short ribs, depending on what kind of ribs you use. I use a mixture of buffalo and beef, and so I need the larger amount. I need this because the bone/meat ratio on buffalo ribs, is much higher than on beef. It's interesting, because they are related animals, of course, but you can see that they are NOT the same by lookning at this cut. And you are going to need about a pound of meat on the bone per person, maybe more with the buffalo ribs, because this is going to cook down substantially, and of course, bones weigh a lot.
If you've learned anything from here, you will have salted those ribs and left them exposed overnight in the fridge. If you forgot, the day you're cooking them, pat them dry, sprinkle them with salt (don't be shy here: you could use up to two teaspoons). You will also need to have a few tablespoons of vegetable oil ready in a big pan. Get it nice and hot, and then carefully add as many ribs at a time as you can, and brown them. This is going to take a few minutes. Get as good and dark a color as you can, because from here on in, there is no chance for the meat to get brown and caramelized. As you brown them, move the meat to a roasting pan. OR, roasting PanS if you have a lot. You want to keep one layer throughout. Maybe separate buffalo and beef?
Ok, now you're going to do something that is very typical of Mexican cooking (to the extent I know anything about it). You're going to fry your spice mixture. Remember all that stuff in the blender? Well, move your head back (this is gonna spatter), and pour it all into the pan. Lower the heat, and stir for about five minutes. Now add the water, and also add - ready for this? - half a cup of good strong coffee (if you don't have coffee around when you're cooking, you can get by with a half cup of boiling water with a good tablespoon of espresso powder added. Truth to be told, that's about what I always use, and I double it). Stir this and bring it to a boil. Then, pour the stuff over your ribs. If you're using two pans, divide it of course, and do it equally.
Cover the pan or pans with foil, and put them in a preheated, 350 degree oven. You will need at least 3.5 hours for beef ribs. You may need less time for buffalo. check by seeing if the meat is coming away from the bones, after 2 or 2.5 hours. If it's close, take them out and continue with the beef.
Now, here is a step that I think is essential, and was not in the original recipe. The original recipe said "skim the fat and serve." Go ahead, try to do that. I guarantee you, you will be SWIMMING in fat from this recipe. I estimate that at least one third of the meat mass comes away in fat. If you try to skim that, you will lose your sauce, you will lose your patience, and you may very well lose your mind. So, what do you do?
Remember up above I said do it ahead of time? Hmmmmm? Well, let the stuff come to room temperature, then cover it and refrigerate it. The next day, you may be grossed out, but you will have tons of solid fat on the top of the dish, just begging you to scoop it away with a knife or spoon or something. You don't have to be a zealot here. If you spend all your time hunting down the little "globlets" of fat that escape the skimming process, you'll never get dinner on the table. You'll also notice that the fat has a decided orange color. Yup. Chili flavoring comes from oil. Oil is a fat. Fat dissolves oil. So you're taking some of that flavor with you. That's why you have to overflavor the dish at the start.
When you've cleared the fat, you will notice how soft and succulent (I love that word) the meat is. It WILL be coming away from the bones. Of course, you can't serve this cold like that - that would be gross - so put it back in the oven, with the foil cover, and reheat it for about twenty minutes.
If you are serving only beef, one large short rib is fine for a person. You would probably need about four buffalo ribs. If you combine the two meats, overfeed everyone, or offer smaller portions and seconds.
This is a very robust tasting dish. It is recommended with polenta, which is great. You could also serve it with hominy, or with that wonderful Sardinian pasta, fregola. Leftovers make a good pasta sauce, and they also make a wonderful "sloppy joe."
This is definitely winter, cold weather food. I love short ribs, but I can't imagine eating them in the summer.
They are now a tradition with us. Try them, and maybe they will become a tradition for you.
Monday, January 12, 2009
Stroganoffs
I don't remember "chafing dish culture" from when I was a child,but I'm told that there was a time where it was all the rage to make dinner in front of your guests, and that involved "the chafing dish." This big, shiny metallic object would be brought out, and you would have some kind of sterno burner underneath it. The "hostess with the mostess" would then make some kind of chafing dish supper in front of her guests. Welsh rarebit was one of those dishes. If you went to dessert, cherries jubilee was the defining one. And there was beef stroganoff.
Somehow, that dish has fallen out of favor. I'm not quite sure why. It's a good dish, it's an easy dish. Yes, it is rich, but no richer than a lot of the things that we eat, on a regular basis. And I wrote "stroganoffs" above, because we all grew up with BEEF stroganoff, but the principles are fairly simple, and you can do it with anything. I did it with veal, and I think you could do it with pork or chicken too.
You will need three pounds of stew meat. Now, for chicken, this is probably chunks of chicken breast, but for any other meat, check with your butcher, and get something good. My veal comes from a farm where the animals are free ranging, and fed on grass, so it's red, rather than white, and very lean. You should salt it, and then let it sit on paper towel to dry out for about an hour before you cook. You will also need a pound of mushrooms. Button mushrooms are traditional, but I used creminis, because I like them. Slice them fairly thickly. You also need a few shallots, chopped fine, or half an onion, also chopped fine. You also need at least a cup and a half of a "thick dairy product." Traditionally, that's sour cream, but you could use creme fraiche or fromage blanc, as I did. Final things: some olive oil, and a cup and a half of stock. Here we go.
Get a big skillet and heat up two generous tablespoons of vegetable oil. When it's hot, saute the meat until it's browned. Do it in batches, and put it aside. Now, add the onions or shallots, and saute for about a minute. Add the mushrooms. Here's where the fun begins. Mushrooms give off a LOT of water when they cook, but you have to wait. You won't believe me, but after about five minutes, the juice starts coming out and picks up all of the meat brownings. Then, the water will go off. When that happens, i.e, when the mushrooms are dry again, add the stock, and, if you like, a few tablespoons of sherry . Stir this a bit, and let it reduce away over medium heat. It will take about ten minutes. (The resulting mushrooms are a treat by themselves, by the way). Now add the dairy and stir, and then add the meat. Heat it all up, and you are DONE.
You can do this, in less than half an hour. I know because I did. And you can make it ahead, and then reheat it . You need something like sour cream or the heavier dairy products, because the other ones will "break" at high heat and give you disgusting little clods of dairy that are hardly appetizing.
The only change I would make to this, is if you were doing it with chicken, I would use chicken stock instead of beef. Beyond that, all you might want to do is add some fresh herbs at the end to brighten the flavors, because this is a very hearty dish.
The recipe I worked with called for three pounds of meat to serve four. I don't know who they're serving, but I intend to get at least six servings out of this.
Again, turning to tradition, you eat this over egg noodles. Fine and dandy. I keep on thinking mashed potatoes. How about you? What are your ideas? Any thoughts?
Somehow, that dish has fallen out of favor. I'm not quite sure why. It's a good dish, it's an easy dish. Yes, it is rich, but no richer than a lot of the things that we eat, on a regular basis. And I wrote "stroganoffs" above, because we all grew up with BEEF stroganoff, but the principles are fairly simple, and you can do it with anything. I did it with veal, and I think you could do it with pork or chicken too.
You will need three pounds of stew meat. Now, for chicken, this is probably chunks of chicken breast, but for any other meat, check with your butcher, and get something good. My veal comes from a farm where the animals are free ranging, and fed on grass, so it's red, rather than white, and very lean. You should salt it, and then let it sit on paper towel to dry out for about an hour before you cook. You will also need a pound of mushrooms. Button mushrooms are traditional, but I used creminis, because I like them. Slice them fairly thickly. You also need a few shallots, chopped fine, or half an onion, also chopped fine. You also need at least a cup and a half of a "thick dairy product." Traditionally, that's sour cream, but you could use creme fraiche or fromage blanc, as I did. Final things: some olive oil, and a cup and a half of stock. Here we go.
Get a big skillet and heat up two generous tablespoons of vegetable oil. When it's hot, saute the meat until it's browned. Do it in batches, and put it aside. Now, add the onions or shallots, and saute for about a minute. Add the mushrooms. Here's where the fun begins. Mushrooms give off a LOT of water when they cook, but you have to wait. You won't believe me, but after about five minutes, the juice starts coming out and picks up all of the meat brownings. Then, the water will go off. When that happens, i.e, when the mushrooms are dry again, add the stock, and, if you like, a few tablespoons of sherry . Stir this a bit, and let it reduce away over medium heat. It will take about ten minutes. (The resulting mushrooms are a treat by themselves, by the way). Now add the dairy and stir, and then add the meat. Heat it all up, and you are DONE.
You can do this, in less than half an hour. I know because I did. And you can make it ahead, and then reheat it . You need something like sour cream or the heavier dairy products, because the other ones will "break" at high heat and give you disgusting little clods of dairy that are hardly appetizing.
The only change I would make to this, is if you were doing it with chicken, I would use chicken stock instead of beef. Beyond that, all you might want to do is add some fresh herbs at the end to brighten the flavors, because this is a very hearty dish.
The recipe I worked with called for three pounds of meat to serve four. I don't know who they're serving, but I intend to get at least six servings out of this.
Again, turning to tradition, you eat this over egg noodles. Fine and dandy. I keep on thinking mashed potatoes. How about you? What are your ideas? Any thoughts?
Friday, January 9, 2009
The basic black dress of Italian desserts:
which is really white. I am speaking of that wonderful dessert, panna cotta. Have you had it? Did you like it? If you didn't, I bet I know why. And you can fix that. And if you do, I can teach you how to make it. Several different ways. But we're going to start with a "semi-classic" way.
"Panna cotta" means, very simply "cooked cream." In a way, it is just that. Cream, good old heavy cream, is combined with sugar, flavoring and gelatin, and then allowed to set. And that's it. It's easy.
Or is it? There is a tendency in this dessert to add too much gelatin, and to turn it into a rubbery mess. Proper panna cotta should just "shiver" on the verge between a solid, and collapsing into a plate of cream. How many times have you had it, and thought it would serve as a really good handball? More often than you care to remember huh?
Well, let's solve this problem together, using our old adage: if you want to do it right: make it yourself. This is such an easy dish to make, that frankly, there is no excuse for not having it in the refrigerator AT LEAST once a week.
Ok, maybe the calories are an excuse, but we're talking about small portions here. Unless of course you eat them all. Which I can do.
Now, we start with a basic principle of gelatin chemistry. Gelatin is, essentially, dissolved animal proteins. Yup, it comes from boiling bones. It's a collagen family member. The same stuff that is at the tip of your nose and makes it feel rubbery, or the stuff in your earlobes that makes them soft (it's not what makes them sensitive when they get nibbled. That's nerve endings, and I'll leave an explanation of that to my friend Will in his blog. ASK).
When gelatin is in powder form, it is essentially long, single strands of protein. When heated, and then cooled, it forms a network sort of like a spider web. It traps the liquid it holds in between those places where there would be "holes" in the spider web. The tighter your web, the tigher, and bouncier, the gelatinized product. The looser, the softer. Too tight? You've got a ping pong ball. Too loose, and you've got a vanilla drink.
Generally, the "rule of thumb" for making a good gelatinized custard is a teaspoon per cup of liquid. Gelatin is sold in packages that contain just about a tablespoon (more on this in a minute). So, it is very convenient to make three cups worth of panna cotta at a time. That's about 8 normal servings. You may choose to eat more than one, and I encourage you to do that.
Now, on this tablespoon thing, some years ago, Cooks magazine published a very interesting article on packaged gelatin. They found that standards of measurement were less than "precise." Sometimes, a package had less than a tablespoon, sometimes, way more. Last night, for example, the package I opened was just short of what I needed. I took a chance, and it worked. If you're doing this for the first time,though, equalize the spoonful by opening a second package and making a level tablespoon.
Pour that tablespoon of gelatin into a small pot and add two tablespoons of water (a REALLY small pot). Let it sit for a minute, whilst you pour either three cups of heavy cream, or two cups of heavy cream and a cup of half and half into a larger pot. Add 1/2 cup to 2/3 cup of sugar. This has to be to your taste. I go with the lower amount. Also add a teaspoon and a half of vanilla. Heat up the cream or cream mixture until it just begins to bubble on the edges. Take it off the heat. Then, heat up that gelatin, just until it dissolves. Pour it into the cream mixture. Then, have eight small ramekins ready, and pour equal amounts into them. Let them come to room temperature before you refrigerate them.
These need to sit overnight. If you check after two hours, you'll think you failed. Check after four hours and you'll begin to be hopeful. Check after eight hours and you'll wonder why you ever worried. Run a knife around them, put a plate over them and shake. PLOP. You got dessert.
I love a plain panna cotta as it is. YOu can have a lot of fund doing things with the panna cotta though. It is traditional to serve it with fruit purees of some kind, both underneath it and over it. Raspberry and strawberry are beautiful against its stark whiteness, as is the lovely yellow orange of mango. Of course, with mango, you begin to get away from the Italianate sense of the dessert. Kiwis DO grow in Sicily, and you will see this served with kiwis as well. So, too, with figs, or with chocolate sauce or any of a multitude of things.
My favorite way to have it, however, is how I learned it from my friend, and the chef at Bellae Vitae, Raphael. Raphael serves it with a lashing of true old balsamic vinegar. The oaky, vanilla acid notes with the sweet vanilla cream is a wonderful combination. Perhaps that's all it needs. You can add cookies, or fruit, but the vinegar works the best. You wouldn't think so, but try it.
"Panna cotta" means, very simply "cooked cream." In a way, it is just that. Cream, good old heavy cream, is combined with sugar, flavoring and gelatin, and then allowed to set. And that's it. It's easy.
Or is it? There is a tendency in this dessert to add too much gelatin, and to turn it into a rubbery mess. Proper panna cotta should just "shiver" on the verge between a solid, and collapsing into a plate of cream. How many times have you had it, and thought it would serve as a really good handball? More often than you care to remember huh?
Well, let's solve this problem together, using our old adage: if you want to do it right: make it yourself. This is such an easy dish to make, that frankly, there is no excuse for not having it in the refrigerator AT LEAST once a week.
Ok, maybe the calories are an excuse, but we're talking about small portions here. Unless of course you eat them all. Which I can do.
Now, we start with a basic principle of gelatin chemistry. Gelatin is, essentially, dissolved animal proteins. Yup, it comes from boiling bones. It's a collagen family member. The same stuff that is at the tip of your nose and makes it feel rubbery, or the stuff in your earlobes that makes them soft (it's not what makes them sensitive when they get nibbled. That's nerve endings, and I'll leave an explanation of that to my friend Will in his blog. ASK).
When gelatin is in powder form, it is essentially long, single strands of protein. When heated, and then cooled, it forms a network sort of like a spider web. It traps the liquid it holds in between those places where there would be "holes" in the spider web. The tighter your web, the tigher, and bouncier, the gelatinized product. The looser, the softer. Too tight? You've got a ping pong ball. Too loose, and you've got a vanilla drink.
Generally, the "rule of thumb" for making a good gelatinized custard is a teaspoon per cup of liquid. Gelatin is sold in packages that contain just about a tablespoon (more on this in a minute). So, it is very convenient to make three cups worth of panna cotta at a time. That's about 8 normal servings. You may choose to eat more than one, and I encourage you to do that.
Now, on this tablespoon thing, some years ago, Cooks magazine published a very interesting article on packaged gelatin. They found that standards of measurement were less than "precise." Sometimes, a package had less than a tablespoon, sometimes, way more. Last night, for example, the package I opened was just short of what I needed. I took a chance, and it worked. If you're doing this for the first time,though, equalize the spoonful by opening a second package and making a level tablespoon.
Pour that tablespoon of gelatin into a small pot and add two tablespoons of water (a REALLY small pot). Let it sit for a minute, whilst you pour either three cups of heavy cream, or two cups of heavy cream and a cup of half and half into a larger pot. Add 1/2 cup to 2/3 cup of sugar. This has to be to your taste. I go with the lower amount. Also add a teaspoon and a half of vanilla. Heat up the cream or cream mixture until it just begins to bubble on the edges. Take it off the heat. Then, heat up that gelatin, just until it dissolves. Pour it into the cream mixture. Then, have eight small ramekins ready, and pour equal amounts into them. Let them come to room temperature before you refrigerate them.
These need to sit overnight. If you check after two hours, you'll think you failed. Check after four hours and you'll begin to be hopeful. Check after eight hours and you'll wonder why you ever worried. Run a knife around them, put a plate over them and shake. PLOP. You got dessert.
I love a plain panna cotta as it is. YOu can have a lot of fund doing things with the panna cotta though. It is traditional to serve it with fruit purees of some kind, both underneath it and over it. Raspberry and strawberry are beautiful against its stark whiteness, as is the lovely yellow orange of mango. Of course, with mango, you begin to get away from the Italianate sense of the dessert. Kiwis DO grow in Sicily, and you will see this served with kiwis as well. So, too, with figs, or with chocolate sauce or any of a multitude of things.
My favorite way to have it, however, is how I learned it from my friend, and the chef at Bellae Vitae, Raphael. Raphael serves it with a lashing of true old balsamic vinegar. The oaky, vanilla acid notes with the sweet vanilla cream is a wonderful combination. Perhaps that's all it needs. You can add cookies, or fruit, but the vinegar works the best. You wouldn't think so, but try it.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Starting from scratch: banana pudding
One of the things that "burns Annalena's buttons" more than just about anything else in the food world, is packaged pudding mix. Have you ever read the ingredients on those things? OH GOD. It's a chem lab in a package. Yes, I know they're convenient. Yes, I know they're cheap. But, folks, for heaven's sake, do you REALLY need yellow food dye in your vanilla pudding, when good eggs will give it that lovely color too? And don't you DARE tell me for a minute "well, I can get low fat and low calorie ones." Give me a break. How many dishes of low calorie pudding do you put away when you eat it? And DON'T tell me "well, just one..." if the one dish is the size of a small boat.
Pudding is easy to make. It is fast to make, and it's so much better when you do it yourself. And people DO notice the difference.
At New Year's I tried a dessert that I had heard about for years,but had never eaten: banana pudding. I STILL haven't eaten it, because I couldn't get to the buffet fast enough. And people have been emailing me asking for it for next year. And people who weren't at the party are asking can I make it again.
And I smile and want to ask "what is it worth to you?" But of course, Annalena, being the saint she is, would NEVER call in chips like that, would she? Well, it all depends.
Seriously, puddings are such a snap to make that everyone should be making them. Perhaps not everyday, but often enough, especially if you have children. This is a really good way to get some milk into them.
Here's a recipe that makes a LOT of banana pudding. Now, I call for nilla vanilla wafers. I am really of two minds on this. People tell me that it's not banana pudding without them. I cringe at adding them, but I will say that, given what people expect, well... My instincts are to just crumble up homemade cookies and use the crumbs instead, but here, I will bow to vox populi. Don't expect it to happen again.
You start with 5 cups of milk. I use whole milk. I could see using 2% milk, and people tell me it will work with 1%. All I know is that Annalena's magic worked with the full good stuff. You will also need a cup of sugar, 4 large eggs, and 2 large egg youlks. Also, a half cup of cornstarch, 2 tablespoons of butter, a really generous tablespoon of good quality vanilla extract, and those cookies. Also, have lots of bananas ready. And avail yourself of the different varieites of bananas available. I like the little red ones best.
You start by making a slurry. In a bowl, add a cup of milk, the sugar, all of the eggs and the cornstarch, and whisk this around. Put it aside for a minute.
Now, get a BIG pot and pour in the quart of milk you have remaining. Bring that to a boil at a medium heat. When that happens, get the slurry and start whisking it into the hot milk, whisking and stirring constantly. When you've stopped pouring and have a free hand, lower the heat, and keep stirring. Watch for the pudding to thicken. You'll know when it happens. There is a clear change as it picks up a sheen, and bubbles like a volcano. When that happens, get it off the heat PRONTO. Get this custard into a bowl, and add the vanilla and the butter. Stir it all together.
Now, get a big bowl, or a 9x13 tray, and pour out and spread about 1/3 of the pudding. Get your bananas, and start slicing them into the pudding. You can cut them any way you like: coins, long slices, however you like it. This is up to you. If I use different types of bananas, I use different cutting techniques for each one. Then put a layer of cookies over that. Repeat this. I like to end with a layer of cookies, but you don't have to.
This now needs to be chilled. I would suggest you let it come to room temperature, and then when that happens, cover it, and put it in the fridge . You need a minimum of 2-3 h ours, but overnight is better. The next day, the cookies will have picked up some of the liquid and the flavor and will have spread some. The whole mess is something like a trifle, but much looser.
I guess this is supposed to serve 8,but there were people at our party who would have eaten this whole recipe themselves. Keep this in mind.
Puddings always seem to be a big hit when I make them. I wonder if there is some connection to when we were kids, when pudding always seemed to make things better. Who knows? Want to feel like a kid again? Go for it
Pudding is easy to make. It is fast to make, and it's so much better when you do it yourself. And people DO notice the difference.
At New Year's I tried a dessert that I had heard about for years,but had never eaten: banana pudding. I STILL haven't eaten it, because I couldn't get to the buffet fast enough. And people have been emailing me asking for it for next year. And people who weren't at the party are asking can I make it again.
And I smile and want to ask "what is it worth to you?" But of course, Annalena, being the saint she is, would NEVER call in chips like that, would she? Well, it all depends.
Seriously, puddings are such a snap to make that everyone should be making them. Perhaps not everyday, but often enough, especially if you have children. This is a really good way to get some milk into them.
Here's a recipe that makes a LOT of banana pudding. Now, I call for nilla vanilla wafers. I am really of two minds on this. People tell me that it's not banana pudding without them. I cringe at adding them, but I will say that, given what people expect, well... My instincts are to just crumble up homemade cookies and use the crumbs instead, but here, I will bow to vox populi. Don't expect it to happen again.
You start with 5 cups of milk. I use whole milk. I could see using 2% milk, and people tell me it will work with 1%. All I know is that Annalena's magic worked with the full good stuff. You will also need a cup of sugar, 4 large eggs, and 2 large egg youlks. Also, a half cup of cornstarch, 2 tablespoons of butter, a really generous tablespoon of good quality vanilla extract, and those cookies. Also, have lots of bananas ready. And avail yourself of the different varieites of bananas available. I like the little red ones best.
You start by making a slurry. In a bowl, add a cup of milk, the sugar, all of the eggs and the cornstarch, and whisk this around. Put it aside for a minute.
Now, get a BIG pot and pour in the quart of milk you have remaining. Bring that to a boil at a medium heat. When that happens, get the slurry and start whisking it into the hot milk, whisking and stirring constantly. When you've stopped pouring and have a free hand, lower the heat, and keep stirring. Watch for the pudding to thicken. You'll know when it happens. There is a clear change as it picks up a sheen, and bubbles like a volcano. When that happens, get it off the heat PRONTO. Get this custard into a bowl, and add the vanilla and the butter. Stir it all together.
Now, get a big bowl, or a 9x13 tray, and pour out and spread about 1/3 of the pudding. Get your bananas, and start slicing them into the pudding. You can cut them any way you like: coins, long slices, however you like it. This is up to you. If I use different types of bananas, I use different cutting techniques for each one. Then put a layer of cookies over that. Repeat this. I like to end with a layer of cookies, but you don't have to.
This now needs to be chilled. I would suggest you let it come to room temperature, and then when that happens, cover it, and put it in the fridge . You need a minimum of 2-3 h ours, but overnight is better. The next day, the cookies will have picked up some of the liquid and the flavor and will have spread some. The whole mess is something like a trifle, but much looser.
I guess this is supposed to serve 8,but there were people at our party who would have eaten this whole recipe themselves. Keep this in mind.
Puddings always seem to be a big hit when I make them. I wonder if there is some connection to when we were kids, when pudding always seemed to make things better. Who knows? Want to feel like a kid again? Go for it
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