Category: Beef

I rarely watch food and travel shows because I dislike how I feel after—like I haven’t been anywhere at all, or eaten anything good ever. With the exceptions of the earlier Anthony Bourdain shows and David Chang’s Asian experience peppered in Ugly Delicious, most shows have the same formula and get boring after a while.

I liked Samin Nosrat’s book Salt, Fat, Acid, and Heat and so I was at least curious as to how it would be translated by Netflix. The “Fat” episode was a good pilot for me because I immediately got her style. I love when she tastes something and her honest reaction is shown. I felt like I would react the same way if I was in her position. By the time I was done with the “Salt” episode, all I wanted was to travel back to Japan and cook this soy-braised ribs recipe.

I altered her recipe to suit my timing and didn’t add the leftover marinade as part of the braising juice that you see in her original version. I simply added more dashi halfway through so as not to burn the meat while helping them cook through with all the steam.

Every time I braised meats, it almost always involves tomatoes and red wine–it’s my go-to method when the weather is colder outside. I was intrigued by this dish because it used neither of them, and the result is a much cleaner and subtler flavor, yet packed with all that umami.

Ingredients:
3 lbs beef short ribs on the bone, 2-3 inches thick
salt
canola oil
¼ cup soy sauce
¼ cup dark brown sugar
¼ cup mirin
1 tsp toasted sesame oil
1 tbsp fresh ginger, finely grated
4 garlic cloves, finely grated
¼ tsp cayenne
About 2 cups dashi broth made from
kombu
a handful of cilantro, finely chopped
2 scallions, chopped

1. The morning you want to serve the ribs, salt them and let them sit in room temperature for 30 minutes, lightly covered. Keep in mind that the marinade consists mostly of soy sauce, which is salty, so use only about half as much salt as you otherwise would.
2. In the meantime, whisk together the soy sauce, brown sugar, mirin, sesame oil, ginger, garlic, and cayenne. Place the meat in a large bowl and pour in the marinade. I let them marinate until 4 hours before dinner time.
3. When ready to cook, preheat oven to 400°F.
4. Using a heated cast-iron skillet, add just enough oil to coat the bottom. Working in batches so as not to crowd pan, brown a few short ribs at a time on all three meaty sides, about 3-5 minutes per side.
5. Transfer the ribs, bone-side down, to a large Dutch oven, snug but in one layer. Add enough dashi to go about half an inch up the sides of the ribs, then cover with lid. Slide into the oven and cook until the liquid simmers, about 30 minutes, then reduce heat to 325°F and cook until meat is very tender and falling off the bone, 3 to 4 hours more. Check halfway to add more dashi if it’s drying up.
6. Serve warm with rice, garnished with cilantro and slivered scallions, and with blanched haricot verts and quick-pickled Persian cucumbers.

Post-yoga quick stir-fry dinner because I am so, so tired and sleepy.

Ingredients:
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
1 pound chuck or rib steak, thinly sliced against the grain
1 small knob of ginger, peeled and sliced
red pepper flakes
1 head broccoli, cut into small florets
a couple of handfuls of snap peas
1 carrot, shaved into ribbons
3 scallions, roughly chopped
sesame oil
salt, pepper

1. Heat some oil in a large wok until hot. Add the beef, ginger, some black pepper and red pepper flakes, and cook until crisp on the outside but still pink inside, about 2 minutes. Season with salt, and remove to a plate.
2. Add some more oil to the wok again until hot. Add the broccoli and snap peas, and cook, tossing until crisp-tender, 2 minutes. Add 1/4 cup water and steam the broccoli and snap peas until bright green and some of the liquid has evaporated, 2 minutes more.
3. Add back the beef, ginger, carrots and soy sauce mixture to the pan, and toss over medium heat until coated and thickened a little, about 1 to 2 minutes. Sprinkle with scallions, and drizzle with sesame oil, if using. Toss to coat and serve warm with rice or noodles.

I can’t seem to get rid of the carrots and celery in my fridge. As I get ready for my big trip to Paris and San Sebastian this year, I need to clear the fridge to avoid as much food waste as possible. What else can I do with carrots and celery besides mirepoix for stews and soups? It’s been raining all week anyway and the sleepy weather calls for a spring stew that’s hearty at the same time.

Chuck is the meat from around the shoulder of the cow; it’s a relatively cheap cut with good flavor and lots of connective tissue and fat, making it a very appealing choice for this stew. I had everything else in my pantry except the meat, but because I didn’t want to overbuy, I opted for loose beef chuck from my neighborhood butcher. Instead of buying them weighed and packaged from the supermarket, I asked for 5 2-inch pieces so that I just had enough for 3 servings.

Ingredients:
1/2-lb of beef chuck, about 5 pieces of 2-inch cuts
1 small shallot, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
3 ribs celery, chopped
a small knob of Parmesan and its rind
1 can of chickpeas, washed and drained
1 box of chicken broth
2 scallions, chopped
a handful of parsley, roughly chopped
1 can of water chestnuts, washed and drained
alfalfa sprouts, for garnish
oil, salt, pepper

1. In a deep skillet, heat some oil. Season beef pieces with salt and pepper, then add to pot to brown all sides.
2. Add shallots and cook until translucent. Add carrots and sauté for a few minutes. Add the celery and the cheese and keep sautéing until flavors meld.
3. Add the chickpeas and enough broth to cover the beef halfway. Cover and simmer for 1 hour, checking often to make sure that it’s not drying up. When the sauce thickens before the beef is cooked through, add just enough broth to keep cooking the meat.
4. When the beef is easy to pull apart with a knife and fork, fold in the scallions and parsley to combine. Add a little more broth if necessary. You don’t want it to be too soupy, but you also don’t want it to be too thick. The cheese should be holding up the dish’s saltiness and umami flavor.
5. Turn off the heat and add the water chestnuts. Mix to warm them with the rest of the stew. Ladle in a shallow bowl and top with alfalfa sprouts.

Related post/s:
This Cuisinart 5-1/2-Quart Saute Pan is deep enough for stews like this

Contrary to what you think, I have not only been cooking using the Instant Pot. I haven’t lost all my passion for actual cooking, you know. Of course, I tried this in the Instant Pot first, but the cornstarch burned and it refused to pressurize after that. (Very nifty actually; the display said “burn”.) I had to scoop everything out and almost re-do it on my skillet. You see? This is why I test recipes for you, so you don’t have to soak your Instant Pot liner for hours and scrub its bottom clean. I go through the bad shit so you don’t have to.

Ingredients:
vegetable oil
3 tbsps soy sauce
3 garlic cloves, grated
a small knob of ginger, grated
2 tsps cornstarch
1 lb beef round, patted dry, sliced into strips
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
1 sweet potato, cut into small cubes
5 bok choy, separated
salt, pepper

1. In a bowl, whisk together the oil, the soy sauce, garlic, ginger, cornstarch and some black pepper. Add the beef and mix and toss with your hands to coat well. Let stand for about 15 minutes to marinate.
2. In a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat, add some oil and saute the onions until translucent. Add the sweet potatoes and cook until tender. Season with salt. Add a splash of water or two and cover to steam a little bit and help cook faster. Remove to a small bowl.
3. In the same skillet, add some more oil until almost smoking. Add the beef in a single layer and cook, turning after 2 minutes, for medium-rare. Repeat for the rest of the beef if necessary. Add back the potatoes and toss in the bok choy. Add a splash of water again to help cook the greens.

Aaahhh, it’s nice to be back updating this site again. It’s been a very long year, 2015, and real life kinda took over and it made me neglect this site. Something had to give, you know? Not that I wasn’t eating and cooking; I was, but I was updating Instagram more with the hashtag #ciaEatsNYC. (Plus a certain Rottweiler managed to steal my heart, so.) There’s still traffic to this site and invitations from PR firms still have not ebbed, so thank you for sticking with me.

It’s a new year and part of my list of resolutions is to do more stuff I like and I have to admit that I still like the Internet. Instagram is still my main social media channel because it’s instant, but I’ll make more effort to publish the recipes I test here. There may be less restaurant reviews, however, because lord knows how many of those are already out there. What I’ll be more vigilant about are my recommendations using Amazon Associates, a tool I’ve never really taken advantage of. Amazon even decided to close my old account because there hasn’t been any activity on it so a new one had to be created so I can start from scratch. I know you trust my recommendations so I promise that they will be legit. If they are only related products, I will make sure that I note the difference.

For my first recipe back, I wanted a soup that’s more like a stew because it finally started to feel like winter outside. I opted for this borscht recipe I found on several sites and made my adjustments and opted for, oops, canned beets to save time. In the end, I didn’t end up grating them so it’s more chunky which made me just call this “borscht-style stew”. Feel free to chop them more finely than I did here.

With this recipe, you’ll see why you need to learn how to properly braise meat. Browning the beef short ribs may seem a lot of work, but you’ll be so happy when all that meat starts to fall apart with just a gentle prod of your fork. There’s a lot of fat that would form, but nothing a hearty bread or a bowl of rice can’t solve.

Ingredients:
canola oil
6 bone-in beef short ribs, cut into 3-inch pieces
1 medium yellow onion, sliced
2 cans of red beets, drained, chopped in smaller pieces, juice reserved
1 quart low-sodium beef stock
2 large russet potatoes, peeled and diced into small cubes (soak in cold water until ready to use to avoid discoloration)
a large handful of baby carrots, roughly chopped
salt, pepper

1. In a large Dutch oven, heat the canola oil over medium-high heat. Season the short ribs with salt and add to the pot, cooking until browned on all sides, about 15 minutes. Remove ribs from the heat and transfer to a large plate; set aside.
2. Discard all but a scant amount of the rendered fat from the pot, enough to sauté the onions in. Cook, stirring often, until tender. Add the reserved beet juice and the beef broth and let boil.
3. Add the browned short ribs back to the broth and cook at a high simmer, covered, until the short ribs are very tender, about 2 hours. Check a couple of times and make sure the broth has not dried up. The meat will fall off the bones.
5. When the short ribs are ready, remove them from the pot, but leave the loose bones for extra flavor, and return to the large plate. Add the beets, potatoes, and carrots to the pot and simmer until soft, about 20 minutes.
6. While the vegetables are cooking, pick the meat from the bones, discarding the connective tissue. The meat should shred easily. Add back to the pot and adjust the seasoning to taste with salt and pepper. Feel free to add a little hot water to get the perfect chunky stew consistency.

Recommendations:
One of my kitchen essentials is a large Dutch oven. I have this large one in a nice teal color. You can choose a less expensive brand, but the Le Creusets last a lifetime. This pair of tongs is so useful when you’re braising beef short ribs and they lock in place so you can control the grip.