Beer & Jalapeno Braised Short Ribs and Two Mushroom White Wine Risotto

Finally, fall has approached the south.

When the temperature drops, we feel inclined to stay in and cook up some hearty, comforting meals. We spent a weekend afternoon prepping and cooking for one of the best home dinners I’ve ever had - A slow braised short ribs dish, cooked in beer and jalapeno, paired up with a two mushroom risotto.

The ribs were braised for three hours that fell off the bone, the meat could cut right through by just using a fork. The jalapeno completely melted in the sauce and it produced no spicy heat - it only gave the meat and sauce a slight fragrant scent of jalapeno.

Jalapeno and beer braised short ribs

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons olive oil

6 short ribs with bones

Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

1 large onion, finely chopped

2 carrots, sliced

2 celery ribs, sliced

3 garlic cloves, thickly sliced

1 jalapeno, finely diced

1 bottle of pale ale

3 cups beef stock

Preparations:

1. In a dutch oven, sprinkle some olive oil. Season the ribs with salt and pepper. Add the ribs to the skillet and cook over moderate heat, turning once, until browned and crusty, about 10 minutes. Transfer the ribs to another plate.

2. Add the jalapeno, onion, carrots, celery and garlic to the skillet and cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, until very soft and lightly browned, about 20 minutes. Add the beer and bring to a boil over high heat.

3. Bring the ribs back into the dutch oven, while turning the boil to a low heat. Cover the dutch oven with a lid, and briase for 3 hours.

Two Mushroom and White Wine Risotto

Ingredients:

1 cup dried porcini mushroom

9 cups of chicken stock

3 cups of Arborio rice

half stick of butter

1 pound of fresh mushroom ( we used brown oyster mushrooms)

one large onion, finely chopped

1 cup of dry white wine

1 cup of fresh Parmigiano Reggiano

Salt and Pepper

Preparation:

1. Soak the dried mushrooms in a bowl of hot water. Do not discard the water when the mushrooms become soft.

2. In a saucepan with low heat, slowly melt the butter. Add onion and sauté until translucent. Add both mushrooms, and cook until they are softened. Add Arborio rice and stir for 1 – 2 minutes. Next, Stir in wine and let the rice simmer. Stir often, until all the liquid is absorbed. Pour a ladle of the mushroom broth into the rice. Let it simmer, stirring constantly, until all the liquid is absorbed.

3. Continue adding chicken stock a ladle at a time, stirring and letting the rice absorb each batch, for 30 - 35 minutes or until the rice is tender but still has some bite. Slowly incorporate the Parmigiano. Taste for seasoning and add more salt, pepper and Parmigiano.

Total cook time: 45 – 60 minutes.

Butternut squash n chicken livers risotto, perfect for the fall

It's the flavors and the colors of butternut squash that make it so well-suited and comforting for the fall season.

I love squash and chicken livers, so naturally, when Michele suggested to make this risotto dish, I was ecstatic. Wolfgang Puck made a similiar recipe, Pumpkin Risotto, but without the chicken livers and king oyster mushrooms.

Ingredients
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 cup finely chopped onion
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
1 bunch of king oyster mushrooms
2 cups arborio rice
1 cup dry white wine
About 6 cups of hot chicken stock or vegetable stock
1 butternut squash, one half baked in the oven and then pureed; the other half, peeled, cut into small dice, and Sauteed in a little oil and butter until tender
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 cup of fresh chicken livers
2 eggs

bread crumbs

Directions

Take the diced half of butternut squash and saute them in butter, salt and pepper in a saucepan.

Set aside. In a dutch oven, or a medium sized saute pan, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the onion and garlic and saute, stirring continuously, just until softened, 3 to 4 minutes. Next, add the sliced king mushrooms, cook until softened. Add arborio rice and continue to stir, using a wooden spoon, to coat the rice with the oil.

Add white wine and continue cooking, stirring often, until it has been absorbed by the rice. Pour in enough chicken stock to cover the rice completely, about 3 cups, and continue to cook, stirring often, until all the liquid is absorbed.

Meanwhile, prepare the chicken livers. Rinse the chicken livers ( about 5 - 6) in water. put in a small bowl and pour some white wine over it, let the livers soak for about 10 minutes. Pat the livers dry. In another small bowl, beat 2 eggs, and sprinkle in salt and pepper. Dip chicken liver in the egg, coat bread crumbs. In a pan with vegetable oil, gently fry the chicken livers. Drain on paper towl, set aside.

Going back to the risotto, pour in 1 cup more of the remaining stock and stir and cook until it has been absorbed. Repeat with 1 more cup. Add the remaining cup and cook, stirring, until the rice is al dente, tender but still very chewy, and most of the liquid has been absorbed.
Stir in the pumpkin puree and the diced pumpkin and reduce the heat to very low so that the risotto doesn't simmer anymore. Stir in the Parmesan and butter to give the risotto a nice, creamy finish. Spoon, serve immediately into shallow serving bowls.

Buon Appetito!

Reminiscing Portugal...making Cataplana

Two summers ago, Michele and I took a trip that became our most favorite - a two week adventure in Portugal. Portugal is such a gem - great wines, delicious seafood and pastries, a variety of beautiful beaches ( rocky cliffs and sandy ones), tile-covered houses, and gentle people. We spent most of our time in Lisbon and exploring Algarve and its beaches....and surprisingly, we found our love for Portuguese food, especially Cataplana, which is a savory stew. Of all the different Cataplanas we had, we enjoyed seafood and pork the most.

Me ( extremely tanned) with our very first Cataplana at a restaurant at Portimao

Tapas, Portuguese style, lots of seafood!

One of the posadas we stayed at...

This week, we decided to make amêijoas na cataplana, which is a clam, pork, sausage and bacon stew. Seafood and pork three ways! Making this dish would take us back to our wonderful trip we had in Portugal...the summer where we just went beach hunting, posada hopping, and ate lots of amazing food.

The recipe Michele worked on is inspired by Andrew McMeel's Cataplana, but of course, we made our own slight tweaks and added arborio rice....making a combination of Portuguese seafood and pork stew/ Risotto.....

Ingredients:

1 can (28-ounce) Italian diced tomatoes

tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 (1/4-inch-thick) slices bacon, cut into ¼-inch dice

1 cup chopped yellow onion

1 chopped red bell pepper

1 chopped yellow bell pepper

3 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped

2 jalapenos, diced

4 ounces andouille sausage cut into ¼-inch

dice 8 ounces pork tenderloin cut into ¼-inch cut

2 teaspoons sweet paprika

1 cup dry white wine

2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh Italian parsley

3/4 cup of Arborio rice

2 pounds little neck clams, cleaned

ciabatta bread

Preparations:

There's a specific cataplana pot, but since we did not have one, we used a dutch oven instead.

In a dutch oven, heat the olive oil over medium heat until hot enough to sizzle a piece of bacon. Add the bacon and cook, stirring, for 5 minutes, or until lightly browned. Add the onion and red and yellow peppers and sauté, stirring, for 8 minutes, or until the vegetables are wilted and beginning to turn golden. Add the garlic and jalapeno, sauté for 2 - 3 minutes. Stir in the andouille and pork tenderloin and cook, stirring, for 3 minutes, or until lightly browned. Sprinkle with the paprika and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add the wine, tomatoes, and parsley and bring to a boil. Add 3/4 cup of arborio rice. Decrease the heat to low and cook, for 30 - 40 minutes, or until liquid is slightly reduced, the sauce becomes thick and the rice is cooked. Spoon half of the sauce into the cataplana; spoon the clams on top. Spoon the remaining sauce on top. Secure the cover in place.


In the meantime, slice ciabatta bread and toast it in the oven at 350 degrees for 5 minutes.
Place the cataplana over medium heat and cook for 10 minutes, or until the clams have opened. Bring the cataplana to the table and, using oven mitts, carefully remove the cover. Discard any clams that failed to open. Spoon the clams, risotto and rich sauce into warmed shallow bowls and serve at once with toasted ciabatta bread.

With the jalapenos cooked in the stew, this dish is really spicy... its delicious because you can taste all the layers of sausage, bacon, bell peppers, and clams.... all so yummy with a depths of savory!

Spring Green Risotto

From Ina Garten's Barefoot Contessa show on the Food Network , but we slightly changed the recipe a bit...Love cooking with some mascaporne!

Ingredients
1 1/2 tablespoons good olive oil
1 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 cups chopped leeks, white and light green parts (2 leeks)
1 cup chopped fennel
1 1/2 cups Arborio rice
2/3 cup dry white wine
4 to 5 cups simmering chicken stock,
1 pound thin asparagus
1 tablespoon freshly grated lemon zest (2 lemons)
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/3 cup mascarpone cheese
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan, plus extra for serving
3 tablespoons minced fresh chives, plus extra for serving

Preperations:

Heat the olive oil and butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the leeks and fennel and saute for 5 to 7 minutes, until tender. Add the rice and stir for a minute to coat with oil, and butter. Add the white wine and simmer over low heat, stirring constantly, until most of the wine has been absorbed. Add the chicken stock, 2 ladles at a time, stirring almost constantly and waiting for the stock to be absorbed before adding more. This process should take 25 to 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, cut the asparagus diagonally in 1 1/2-inch lengths and discard the tough ends. Blanch in boiling salted water for 4 to 5 minutes, until al dente. Drain and cool immediately in ice water. (If using fresh peas, blanch them in boiling water for a few minutes until the starchiness is gone.)
When the risotto has been cooking for 15 minutes, drain the asparagus and add it to the risotto with the peas, lemon zest, 2 teaspoons salt, and 1 teaspoon pepper. Continue cooking and adding stock, stirring almost constantly, until the rice is tender but still firm.

Whisk the lemon juice and mascarpone together in a small bowl. When the risotto is done, turn off the heat and stir in the mascarpone mixture plus the Parmesan cheese and chives. Set aside, off the heat, for a few minutes, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and serve hot with a sprinkling of chives and more Parmesan cheese.

We garnished with parsley =)

Risotto San Martino, perfecto!

Amazing, amazing risotto...

We had this Risotto San Martino as a first course, prior to the Rioja Osso Bucco.

Our dear Chef Panico was inspired by Mario Batali's Risotto San Martino. I have always preferred vegetable risottos or seafood risottos over pork/sausage based ones. I originally was worried that a sausage in a risotto would make risotto stock too greasy, and the actual sausage would become dry, but boy, was I mistaken! The combination of mushrooms and sausage is perfect, and when the mushrooms were cooking, the whole kitchen smelled so fragrant and earthy. The risotto was amazingly creamy and rich. The sausage was in smaller bite-sized pieces so they fit perfectly within every bite with the juicy, tender mushrooms. We barely added any salt, and because we took the sausage out of the casings, the herbs dissolved into the stock and made it so savory, bold and rich.

Servings: for 4 people

Ingredients:

Olive oil

2 tablespoons of butter

half of a chopped onion

1 chopped garlic

chicken stock

white wine ( in this case we had leftover red wine so we used red, and the risotto color was much darker)

sliced portabella mushrooms

2 italian sausages

4 cups of Arborio rice

2 cups freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

Saffron, a sprinkle

Open the casing of the sausage, and smash the sausage into small nibblly pieces.

In a large pot slowly simmer together onion and garlic in the butter, when the onion starts to turn a gold color, add portabella mushrooms and mix well. Cook until the mushrooms shrink, and add the pieces of sausage. Stir the sausage until cooked, and then start to "toast" the rice, as Batali says. ( It is called toasting the rice because the broth has not been added).

After a minute or so, pour in a ladle of wine, at one a time, in order to allow the rice to absorb it. To make risotto creamy you have to mix it a lot adding the broth, as needed. After we added two ladles of wine, we transferred to adding chicken broth, after the rice absorbed the juices. The total cooking time took us more than one hour, cooking the rice alone was about 45 minutes, by repeating the steps of stirring the rice, and when the juices are almost dry continue to adding wine/ juice...and repeating again.

When risotto is almost done, stir in Parmigiano, and add the saffron and stir until well mixed. Risotto should be soft. Sprinkle some more Parmigiano on top, and serve immediately.

It's really, really delicious. I could live on this my whole life.