Braised Oxtail

I'm not sure how it happened, but all of a sudden it's fall, going on freezing. Ok, maybe not quite freezing, but something about the weather says, "braise" to me. Few meats braise as well and taste as delicious as oxtail. Throw in some carrots, onion, wine and crushed tomatoes and it's a party. See the list of all the invitees below. I served the oxtail with brown rice, but some creamy polenta would have also been delicious.

HOW TO:

Finely dice onion, garlic, carrots, and celery. Thickly chop three carrots, and set all the cut vegetables aside. Season the oxtail heavily with salt and pepper. Coat lightly with seasoned flour, making sure to tap off all the excess.

Sear the oxtails in a large pot and remove them when browned on all sides.

Throw in the finely diced vegetables. Cook until slightly browned. Deglaze the pan with some wine. Toss in the crushed tomatoes. Add a few sprigs of thyme and some coarsely torn parsley and basil. Cook together for a few minutes. Add the oxtail back in with a cup or two of chicken stock. Cover and put the pot in a 285-300º oven for 4 hours or so. With an hour left, throw in the thickly chopped carrots and some cipollini onions.

Breakfast BLT

My secret to an amazing BLT: add an egg. Really. BLTs are great, but sometimes they lack an extra mmmmm flavor to bring the ingredients together. An egg with a runny yoke totally puts the sandwich over the top. Plus it's good for breakfast.

Tagliatelle with Pork Cheek Ragu (from homegrown tomatoes!)

Mmm where to begin. I love tomatoes, so back in April I planted seven plants that take up more than half of the garden plot that I have down in Battery Park. They're probably seven and half feet tall now, and I've been getting a bounty of tomatoes for the last couple of weeks. (Bounty in Manhattan terms. Probably totally pathetic to someone who has a real backyard garden.) Red sauce is the perfect solution for not so perfect tomatoes. The trick is to peel the tomatoes, that part is not that simple, but everything else is pretty basic. Afterwards, it's the most rewarding and delicious pasta sauce ever. Really. Ever. In the history of cooks everywhere.

HOW TO:

Peel many tomatoes, the more the merrier. Season and sear the pork cheeks. Remove them from the pot and throw in equal amounts of chopped garlic and onion. Sauté until soft and clear. Add the tomatoes and cook until slightly saucy. Throw in the pork cheeks and some basil leaves. This time I also had some Parmigiano-Reggiano rind, so that went in too. Cook for hours and hours until the pork cheeks have completely broken apart. Serve with fresh tagliatelle.

Lunchtime: Roast Beef Sandwich

A few weeks ago my CSA had a little pickling workshop that I participated in. It was pretty much show up and pickle whatever vegetables we got that week. I walked out with some regular pickles and a "giardiniera"mix since we had cauliflower. Coming from Chicago, the only reasonable thing I knew to do with giardiniera was to put it on Italian beef sandwiches. (Just typing this makes me think of Portillo's...extra gravy with mozzarella and hot peppers please.) I knew I couldn't recreate that particular  deliciousness, so I figured some roast beef sandwiches would have to do. I got some roast beef, sliced on the thicker side, from Whole Foods, some excellent ciabatta buns, provolone, and some tomatoes and got to work. There's mustard on the bottom bun, lots of mayo on the top one, and all sorts of awesome in between. This was a serious experiment win.

Stuffed Eggplant

The CSA has been doling out tons of eggplants the past couple weeks. I love eggplant, so I'm not really complaining, but it is a bit challenging coming up with some fresh ways of cooking them. This week's success story: stuffed eggplants. It's a pretty basic meat stuffing. I used grass-fed ground beef this time, but ground lamb would be excellent. The eggplants are stuffed and roasted for about 50 minutes or so, and the final result is so delicious. Even though it's made with very basic ingredients, it's surprisingly rich and flavorful.

Uncooked and not half eaten...

HOW TO:
Start by sautéing chopped onion, garlic, and half a cubanelle pepper until soft. Throw in the ground beef, season, and brown. Add several chopped tomatoes. (Since it's tomato season, I used local plum tomatoes. In the winter, canned or jarred would probably be better.) Toss in some chopped parsley and basil, and cook until tomatoes have broken down. Meanwhile, cut the eggplants in half. Slice out some of the flesh from the centers. Salt and pepper them right before stuffing. Top each eggplant with the meat mixture, and garnish with slices of the other half of the cubanelle. Cover with foil and roast for 30 minutes at 375º. Remove the foil and bake for another 20 minutes at 425º. Serve with rice, polenta, couscous, or something similar.

Octopus with Potatoes and Flat Bean Succotash

Octopus is the latest dish I've been ordering at seafood restaurants all over the city. I'm hooked, so I figured I'd give it a shot at home. Luckily, Eataly steams them for you in advance and sells them whole at the seafood counter because I'm not sure I'm ready to tackle steaming or boiling a whole octopus. My version is simply pan fried with multicolored potatoes. Oh yes, it was another successful experiment. Not as crispy as I would have liked, but I suspect a frier was involved in the restaurant versions.

I served this with a flat bean, spring onion, corn, and fava bean "succotash." It was a really delicious way to cook flat and fava beans, things I had gotten in my CSA that I normally don't eat.

HOW TO:

Cut pre-steamed octopus tentacles into large bite size pieces and sauté in a hot pan with olive oil until crispy. Remove from pan and add potatoes. Cook until brown. Add the octopus back in, season to taste, and finish with parsley and lemon.

For the succotash, prep the vegetables by peeling the fava beans, cutting the flat beans into inch long pieces, cutting the corn off the cob, and slicing the spring onions on a long diagonal. Add the flat beans in a large pot or high pan with butter, a little olive oil, salt and pepper. Cover and cook until almost tender. Add the corn, fava beans and spring onions to the mix. Sauté for about 3 minutes or until everything is tender.

Grilled Lobster

I was in Maine for the 4th weekend, and I had a fantastic time. I spent a good amount of time doing the stereotypical Maine activity: eating lobster. Mmmm so good. Especially when I started grilling them, which is I think the only way I can eat lobster now. It takes the crustacean to a whole new level of deliciousness. 

HOW TO:

Boil a large pot of water and salt heavily. Throw in the 1 1/2 pound hard shell lobsters. Cook for 5 minutes. Remove from the water and let cool. When manageable to touch, cut the lobsters in half as pictured above. Spoon melted butter into the cavity. (A couple times I added a smashed clove of garlic to the butter while it was melting. It gave the lobster a very subtle garlic flavor, which is pretty awesome if you like garlic.) Throw the lobsters on a medium temperature grill until they are about fully cooked. Flip them over and spoon more butter onto the tail and into the body. Sprinkle some parsley and remove from heat when the claws are bright red on both sides. Eat, enjoy, and try to go back to eating regular boiled lobster.