Braised Beef Ribs with Wine à la awesome

I think I just outdid myself.  Tonight’s meal was a reward for a difficult week.  The butcher twisted my rubber arm into buying some gorgeous beef ribs.  They were cut Flaken-style and were the size of my head so it was pretty hard to resist.

After browning the ribs I sweated off some traditional aromatics (celery, carrots, onion and garlic).  The braising liquid was composed of some beef stock, red wine and a can of diced tomatoes.  I added some paprika, thyme, oregano and bay leaves as well.

After a couple of hours the meat was falling apart so out it came.  I strained out the solids and thickened up the liquid with a splash of balsamic vinegar.  Absolutely incredible.  Unfortunately, in my food lust I neglected to take a picture.  I’m not going to lie, I’ll be thinking about this meal for a long time.

To top it all off, I decided to open up arguably the best bottle of wine I’ve had in years – Dry Creek Vineyards 2000 cabernet sauvignon.  Apparently holding on to a wine for 10 years leads to awesomeness.

Anyhow, another great meal in the bag.  I really do love seasonal cooking.

Wild-Caught Perch in Parmesan Breadcrumbs

Wild Caught Perch in Parmesan Breadcrumbs
Originally uploaded by The Cooking Coder

This was a super easy appetizer that I put together to get our engines going on a nice Friday evening meal. I got the Lake Erie perch from the Healthy Butcher and put it in a breadcrumb mix with grated parmesan and fresh oregano from the garden.

It's then fried up in a little bit of butter and olive oil to keep it simple. It's garnished with a stripe of sriracha Thai hot sauce and fresh chives. Simply fantastic! :)

Possibly the Best Pea Soup

I haven't actually had the chance to try this recipe as yet but it certainly sounds good. I'll update when I do (hopefully this weekend!).

Spicy Arrabbiata Sausage

So here's a very simple, "cheater" meal for weekday nights when you don't have a lot of time to cook. My presentation above isn't too good because I couldn't get the pasta to work for me. Ah well, it still tasted pretty good... :)

Ingredients

6 hot Italian sausages
1 bottle of pre-made pasta sauce (yes, there's the cheater part)
1 medium sized onion, diced
6 cloves of garlic, diced
6 tbsps fresh basil, chopped roughly
4 tbsps fresh oregano, chopped roughly
3 fresh chilies, seeded (more if you're feeling brave)
2 cups of penne (or whatever pasta you like)
3 tbsps olive oil
Grated parmesan cheese for garnish

Directions

1. Grill the sausages on the BBQ until done then reserve to the side.
2. Heat the olive oil in a skillet to medium.
3. Add the onions and garlic and sweat them for a couple of minutes. Add the chilies to the onion and garlic mixture and allow to soften.
   
4. Add the pasta sauce, basil and oregano and heat through.
5. Slice the sausage and add it to the sauce. Allow to cook for about 10 minutes to get the flavours to combine.
6. Cook the penne al dente and serve.
7. Add parmesan to taste.

Tomato Steak Salad

Here's a nice simple steak salad that I made tonight. Tasty and light, here's the recipe:

Dressing

2 cups of Clamato (I'm sure tomato juice would work but it's got a bit more bite)
Olive oil - I'm not sure how much, keep pouring until it looks right
10 peppercorns, ground and happy
5 tbsps of fresh basil, finely diced
2 tbsps of fresh oregano, finely diced
1/4 onion, very, very, very finely diced
Tobasco sauce to taste
Kosher salt to taste

Salad

2 80z sirloin steaks
10 peppercorns, ground
3 cloves, ground
3 coffee beans, ground
1 cup of goat cheese, cubed roughly
20 cherry tomatoes (I'm sure plum tomatoes would work too - as long as it's not those horrible "made for transport, not taste" tomatoes)
1/4 cup of olive oil
Add dressing to taste


Directions

1. Add all the ingredients for the dressing and whip the hell out of it until it blends well. Put it in the fridge and let it get happy for at least an hour. (The longer the better).
2. Grind the peppercorns, cloves, and coffee beans. Cover the steaks with the rub. Put them in the fridge for an hour.
3. Take the steaks out of the fridge about 20 minutes before cooking to allow them to come up to room temperature.
4. Fire up the grill. Get the grill to about 400F. Brush some olive oil on the steaks before putting them on the grill.
5. Grill for 2 minutes, quarter turn, 2 more minutes. Flip. Repeat. (This will get you a meduim-rare steak).
   
6. Once the steaks are off, cover them with some foil for about 10 minutes to let them rest.
7. Plate the salad, slice the steak thinly and place it on the salad. Enjoy!