Oven Roasted Cauliflower

 

Truth be told, my very favorite vegetable is the russet potato. Be it baked, twice-baked, French fries, hash browns, tater tots...there is much to love about this versatile tubor. But man cannot live by spuds alone, so let's add a little variety.

While I have chosen to highlight cauliflower with this recipe, it can actually be used on just about any vegetable. It's so simple....just marinate the vegetables for about 20 minutes in your favorite vinaigrette. And any vinaigrette will do....be it homemade or store-bought. My fave for this recipe is Ken's Steak House Greek Vinaigrette.

The vinaigrette gives the vegetables a bright and delicious flavor...the perfect complement to any protein you roast or grill. The trick is to use it sparingly so that your veggies roast and char. If you use too much vinaigrette...or marinate too long...all they will do is steam.

INGREDIENTS

1 pound of cauliflower florets

1/4 cup vinaigrette

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 400º,
2. Place florets in a bowl and add vinaigrette. Toss to mix. Let florets marinate for 20 minutes.
3. Spread florets out on a sheet pan and roast for 15 to 20 minutes, until lightly charred.

Oven Roasted BBQ Beef Short Ribs

 

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As I am making travel arrangements for my 72nd trip around the sun next year, I have come to appreciate the wisdom that comes with age. In my youth, I was resolute that you needed a smoker to create great BBQ. Now, at what is surely the current peak of my wisdom, I have come to realize that the oven is every bit as capable of turning out the most incredible, low and slow BBQ.

Beef short ribs are one of the toughest cuts of meat. The only way to make them edible is to cook them low and slow, causing the fat to render and that delicious collagen to melt into the fibers of the meat. While a smoker can do that, your oven is just as accomplished. And it is so much simpler than a smoker.

Just 5 minutes of prep. Wrap them in foil and slap them in a 275º oven. Walk away and go about your day because you don't have to lift a finger for the next four hours. Cold and snowy outside? You give no shits because you are now the King of Indoor BBQ!

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Beef short ribs are sold two ways. The flanken cut is very thin, with a series of bones along one side. That cut is popular for Korean BBQ. The one that you want to use for this recipe is called the English cut. As you can see from the above photo, it's a big chunk of beef attached to a bone. Four hours in the oven is going to melt that chunk of beef into one of the greatest morsels to ever pass your lips.

Here are a few things to take note of. Make sure you use a cookie sheet that has a rack. The ribs are going to render a lot of fat, so you don't want the ribs cooking in a pool of fat. The mustard in this recipe is used only as a binder for the rub. It will cook off and you will never taste it. Finally, go right ahead and use your favorite BBQ rub. Mine happens to be "Famous Dave's", so that is what I called out in the recipe. Pretty much the same for the BBQ sauce. Use your fave...mine is Sweet Baby Ray's.

INGREDIENTS

6 English-cut beef short ribs

Yellow mustard

Famous Dave's Rib Rub

Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ Sauce

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 275º.
2. Place rack inside of cookie sheet and set ribs on top of rack, meat side up.
3. Squirt about a tablespoon of mustard on each rib. Then spread the mustard with your hand so that the entire top surface is covered in mustard. Then sprinkle each rib with the rib rub.
4. Cover the ribs/cookie sheet with foil and crimp so that it is air tight. Place cookie sheet in oven.
5. After 4 hours, remove cookie sheet from oven. Move rack to upper level and turn on your broiler.
6. Remove the foil covering the ribs. Brush each rib with a generous amount of BBQ sauce. Put rack under the broiler and cook the ribs for 2 to 4 minutes...just enough for the sauce to caramelize. Then serve.

Pairing: An ice cold Pilsner...or a Zin.

Anne Seranne's Oven Roasted Prime Rib Roast

  

Anne Seranne was born in Ontario in 1913. She moved to the United States in 1936.  She became famous for two things: dogs and food. She was a very serious breeder of Yorkshire terrier show dogs. And she was a serious lover of all things having to do with food. She earned her living as a food consultant and eventually became the editor of Gourmet Magazine.

But she is little remembered these days, for she was a one-hit wonder in the vein of Billy Ray Cyrus and his song "Achy Breaky Heart". But, oh, what a hit she had. She single-handedly created the greatest recipe for medium-rare prime rib. Published in the New York Times in 1966, it was revolutionary. It was beyond simple. And absolutely foolproof.

Her recipe called for blasting the bone-in roast at 500º for a brief period and then turning off the oven...leaving the beef undisturbed for 2 hours. Unbelievably perfect medium-rare, every single time. Plus you can carve the roast the minute you take it out of the oven because it has already been resting for 2 hours.

For the recipe to work, your prime rib roast must be bone-in. You can cook it with the bones intact or do what I do... I have the butcher cut the bones and then tie them back to the roast. That way, I can just make a couple of snips of the butcher's twine and carve the roast up....reserving the ribs for a later snack that only I will get to enjoy.

Ingredients

One, 2 to 4 rib, beef prime rib roast, weighing 4 to 12 pounds

Kosher salt

Fresh Ground Pepper

Directions

1. The day before you are going to cook the roast, unwrap it and set it on a wire rack inside a cookie sheet. Salt the entire roast generously with Kosher salt. Place roast, uncovered, back in the refrigerator and let it rest overnight.
2. Remove the roast from the refrigerator 4 hours before cooking and let it come up to room temperature.
3. Preheat the oven to 500 degrees.
4. Place the roast in an open, shallow roasting pan, fat side up (bone-side down). You don't need a roasting rack as the bones will serve that purpose.  Season generously all over with salt and pepper.
5. Put the roast in the preheated oven (on the second lowest rack) and roast according to the roasting chart below, timing the minutes exactly  When cooking time is finished, turn off the oven. Do not open the door at any time. Allow the roast to remain in the oven for two hours. The roast will have a crunchy brown outside and an internal heat suitable for serving as long as 4 hours after removing from the oven. Makes about 2 servings per rib.

A.   2 rib roast (4 to 5 pounds)...32 minutes at 500º, then rest 2 hours, door shut

B.   3 rib roast (8 to 9 pounds)...47 minutes at 500º, then rest 2 hours, door shut

C.   4 rib roast (11 to 12 pounds)...62 minutes at 500º, then rest 2 hours, door shut

{Formula = 15 minutes per rib + 2 minutes to the total} 

Wine Pairing: Barolo

Bò Lúc Lắc

 

So for Thanksgiving, we had turkey. The night after Thanksgiving, we had more turkey. Then we distributed the remaining leftovers to family. Two nights of turkey are sufficient to cause my abstinence until Thanksgiving 2024.

So on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, my beloved beef was back on the table. Beef salad, if you will. Which is exactly what this recipe is. Known in the US of A as Vietnamese Shaking Beef, it's a simple salad comprised of wok-seared beef, snappy watercress and thinly sliced red onion.

You can use your favorite cut of beef for this salad. I've used rib eye, sirloin, New York strip and flank steak...simply based on what I had on hand. They all work. The trick is to slice the beef thin enough to give it a good sear while you are shaking and stirring it in the wok.

Now a few of you might be saying a beef salad recipe is perfect for a steamy day in July but not so much for a chilly day in December. If you like a little heartier meal to fend off the winter cold, might I suggest Bò Lúc Lắc Tortillas? Just grab some super soft flour tortillas and wrap up the salad in those. And perhaps a little sticky rice on the side?

INGREDIENTS

4 teaspoons fish sauce

4 teaspoons soy sauce

2 teaspoons sugar

1 pound of steak, cut into thin strips, about 1-1/2 inches wide (see above photo)

4 ounces (4 cups) watercress, torn into bite-size pieces

Juice of 2 limes (1/4 cup)

1 teaspoon pepper

1/4 cup water

2 garlic cloves, minced

3/4 teaspoon cornstarch

4 teaspoons vegetable oil, divided

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

1 small red onion, thinly sliced

DIRECTIONS

1. Whisk fish sauce, soy sauce and sugar together in medium bowl. Add beef and toss to coat. Let sit at room temperature for 15 minutes.
2.  Combine lime juice and pepper in small bowl and set aside. 
3. Spread watercress on a serving platter (see above photo)
4. Using tongs, transfer beef to second medium bowl, letting as much marinade as possible drain back into first bowl. Add water, garlic and cornstarch to marinade in first bowl and whisk to combine; set aside. Add 2 teaspoons oil to beef and toss to coat. 
5. Heat 1 teaspoon oil in a wok (or non-stick skillet) over medium-high heat until just smoking. Using tongs, wipe wok clean with paper towels. Add half of beef to wok, leaving space between pieces. Cook, shaking wok gently and occasionally to capture any fond that collects on bottom of wok, until beef is browned on first side, 1 to 2 minutes. Flip beef and continue to cook, stirring and shaking wok frequently, until beef is coated and browned, 1 to 2 minutes longer. Transfer beef to clean bowl. Wipe wok clean with wet paper towels and repeat with remaining 1 teaspoon oil and beef.
6. Melt butter in now-empty wok over medium heat. Add onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until just beginning to soften, about 1 minute. Add reserved marinade and bring to boil. Cook, stirring occasionally, until thickened and glossy, about 2 minutes. Add beef and any accumulated juices and toss to coat. Scatter beef mixture and sauce over watercress. Drizzle 2 teaspoons lime juice mixture over salad. Divide remaining lime juice mixture among small bowls for dipping and serve with salad.

Wine pairing: Zinfandel