Food 2

 

 

 

 I am now a contributor to the site Food2.com. My first post, about a New Orleans tradition, the king cake (above), has just been posted. Check it!

*A HUGE thank you to Emily Parfait for all the help on this post including the photographs above.

 

Red Wine Braised Short Rib and Caramelized Onion Quesadilla with Goat Cheese and Arugula

This recipe came together from a few different places. The initial inspiration came from a recent Bon Appetit cover that featured a short rib grilled cheese. The rest came together from a quesadilla served at Mesa Grill, Tom Valenti's red wine braised short ribs (Tom is partially responsible for the popularity of short ribs) and my friend's dietary restrictions recommended by her doctor.

Serves 8

• 5 lbs bone in short ribs
  


• 2 cups dry red wine
  


• 1 quart beef or chicken stock
  


• 3 celery stalks
  


• 2 carrots
  


• 1 large white onion
  


• 2 bay leaves
  


• 5 thyme sprigs
  


• 1/3 cup white vinegar
  


• 2 red onions
  


• 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
  


• 1 bag baby arugula

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
   


2. Place wide oven proof pot (dutch oven is ideal) on stove and turn to medium-high heat. Add oil to pot. Liberally season short ribs with salt and pepper. Once the oil is hot enough, brown the short ribs in batches nicely on all sides. Remove and place on plate. 
   


3. Add onion, carrots and celery and cook until soft but without much color, about 7 minutes. 
   


4. Add the garlic cloves, bay leaves and thyme. Stir.
   


5. Add stock, vinegar and wine. Stir and bring to a boil. Once boiling, return the short ribs to the pot so they are covered with liquid. Cover pot and place in oven to braise until meat is tender and falling off the bone. About 3 hours.
   


6. When the short ribs are done, remove from the braising liquid and place on work surface. Remove bones and shred meat. Note: This can be made 2 days in advance. Cover tightly and refrigerate. 

For Caramelized Onions
Thinly slice the onions. Add oil to a pan over medium- high heat and add onions to pan once hot. Season with salt. Stir frequently until beginning to brown about 10 minutes. Add sugar and continue to cook until completely caramelized another 5-10 minutes. Remove from pan and reserve.

To Assemble

Brush a little olive oil on tortilla and place it on a grill pan on medium heat. Add a layer of short ribs to the tortilla. Then add caramelized onions, the arugula and sprinkle goat cheese generously. Add the other tortilla on top and brush with a little olive oil. Flip the quesadilla carefully and apply pressure using using the top of the grill pan. If you do not have a grill pan, this can be done in a regular large saute pan and pressing down with a smaller pan. Once browned and heated through, remove from heat, cut into quarters and serve.

R.I.P. El Bulli

 

While the majority of us have only watched from a distance, a vast distance, at Ferran Adria's masterful creations at the world's best restaurant, El Bulli located in Roses, Spain. Sadly, that is as close as we will get. Mr. Adria announced this week that he will close the restaurant permanently in December 2011.

El Bulli receives over 2 million reservation requests per year for the only 8,000 places. This is in part, because the restaurant closes for half of the year so Adria and his staff can work on the techniques and recipes for the next season. It turns out that the restaurant was losing a ton of money and instead of closing for 2 years, as orginally planned, the team wants to focus on an academy for culinary study where talented chefs can advance molecular gastronomy wizardry and creativity to new levels.

Certainly, this is disappointing news, but I wouldn't be surprised if whatever Mr. Adria comes up with next, will be bigger and better than El Bulli.

 

 

FCI Final and Graduation

The final went as smoothly for me as I would have liked. The paper that I chose assigned me to cook two courses, the Salmon and the Gingerbread Pudding which was a combination I was hoping for. The salmon was the last dish I prepared at L'Ecole so that allowed me to be a little ahead of the game. The written portion of the exam, which took only 10 minutes, began at 5pm. After choosing our dishes we had approximately 3 hours to prepare our first dish. The salmon was due at 9:09, the gingerbread at 9:57pm.

Cooking like this is not common practice. Generally, a lot would have been prepared at least the day before. However, 3 hours is certainly a long time to prepare a dish and get started on another. Nonetheless, most of us were nervous. Although, once we got into the kitchen and began working, I noticed a sense of calm that I'm not sure I had ever seen during our time at FCI. The madness that ensues on a nightly basis in the L'Ecole kitchen was nowhere to be found. After spending almost an entire year leading up to this point, there was a level of confidence that overcame the nerves and it was amazing to see how far we had come.

The most important factor when cooking like this is time management. Knowing that the spaghetti squash takes the longest and needs to go into the oven first is really the way to get this done with the best results. I had already created a list for each possible recipe combination, so all I had to do was follow it and try not to mess up horribly.

For the most part, I was happy with the food I put out. But it wasn't up to me, it was up to the judges. After all of our plates were presented, it was time for us to meet and stand before the 4 judges that tasted our food. For my group the judges were Pichet Ong (formerly of Jean Georges), Irene Hamburger (Vice President of Blue Hill at Stone Barns), Natalia Machado (executive chef at Industria Argentina, Azul and Libertador—also a recent contestant on Chopped and one of Eater's Nine Hottest Chefs in NYC) and Jason Hicks (executive chef at Orsay Resturant who previously worked at La Goulue and Aureole). My plates weren't conpletely perfect, but the feedback was mostly positive. According to the judges, my "salmon was cooked perfectly," "the spaghetti squash cakes were done well" and "the spices in the gingerbread cake were impressive." But really it was more about celebrating with a glass of champagne that we had made it through the final, the program and, for me, the past year.

Here is a photo of me in the kitchen at L'Ecole on one of the last days, where I was actually cooking the salmon.

The following day, unless we received an unwelcome phone call, we had our graduation ceremony which took place in the school's amphitheater. 

And some pics from graduation.

Its hard to believe that the program is over. It seemed to fly by and at the same time felt like it took forever. It was a challenging year to say the least. But the fact that I went from being nothing more than an occasional home cook to a French trained cook is pretty crazy, I must say. There is a tremendous sense of accomplishment to have not only made it through but also to have done well. It was an incredible ride, with some great food and great people.

Where this road will take me, we will have to see. But there is one thing I am more than sure of. The Tapeworm is alive and kicking!