Tag: food

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Braised venison shanks

Braised venison shank

Foraging in the freezer, I found some venison shanks among the Alaskan delicacies my parents dropped off on their way to Florida in December. I LOVE beef shanks braised in red wine and Mandi happened to have left me some barely-drinkable red wine from some Southern Hemisphere country or other, so I figured I had a plan and ingredients.

I set the oven at 350 F and got some bacon drippings hot in a smallish casserole. I tossed in the shanks, seasoning them as they browned. I threw in some whole allspice and cloves, cumin, cardamon, salt, and pepper. I thought about throwing in some onion but didn’t. Once the shanks were brown I poured in about a cup of the wine, waited for it to come to a simmer, then covered the casserole and put in the oven. After about 20 minutes I turned the oven down to around 300 F, then down to 250 F after an hour. After about another hour the shanks were falling-apart tender. I removed the shanks and reduced the liquid in the casserole into a sauce, filtering out the chunky bits. To serve, I poured over some sauce and added a spoonful of mustard. Some sauerkraut or braised cabbage would have gone with it perfectly.

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Brownies

Brownies

Every time I make ice cream I wonder what to do with the egg whites. I sometimes make macaroons, but usually I put them in a bowl in the fridge and them dump them down the sink a few days later, feeling guilty. Usually I use whole eggs to make brownies, but this time I decided to try it with egg whites. I took notes on the ingredients…which you can assume are very approximate.

Ingredients

  • 9 egg whites
  • 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
  • 1/2 stick butter (salted because that’s what was in the fridge)
  • 2 ounces of unsweetened chocolate
  • 3/4 cup honey
  • 1 teaspoon or so vanilla

Butter some pans and set the oven at 350 F. I microwaved the butter and chopped chocolate for about 30 seconds to melt, then mixed them until smooth. I don’t know if that’s the best way to melt chocolate, but it works for me. Meanwhile, I whisked the egg whites, cocoa, honey, and vanilla. This was dumb because the cocoa powder ended up getting all over the place. Maybe mix the cocoa and honey together first? Anyway, get it all well beaten together, add the chocolate and beat some more, and pour it into the pans. My batter came about 2/3 the way up the pans and that’s about as high as I’d go to avoid overflowing. I baked them for 25 minutes total, then let them cool very slowly in the still-warm oven. The centers were still a little jiggly after 25 minutes. The only downside of the egg whites was cosmetic – there was a thin layer of unmixed cooked egg white at the bottom of each pan. I think the lack of yolk keeps the egg from staying completely mixed with the fatty chocolate and butter. Great with ice cream though, and way better than dumping those egg whites down the drain!

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Slow-roasted pork ribs

Slow-roasted pork ribs

It’s winter, so while firing up the grill may sound fun, I’d rather fire up the oven. There are a lot of ways to cook pork ribs in the oven. I like the method in James Beard’s Theory and Practice of Good Cooking of roasting until they’re just cooked or still a little pink, but sometimes I want a more crispy on the outside and falling apart on the inside rib. Spare ribs are probably the best choice for this because they’re usually cheaper than baby back ribs – since I’m cooking them a long time tenderness doesn’t matter and the extra connective tissue will dissolve and get tasty. Country-style ribs, which usually appear to be strips of pork shoulder, also work great, as do…strips of pork shoulder.

To get started, set the oven to around 400 F. Leave your ribs together as much as possible to maintain juiciness, cutting them up just enough to fit into your roasting pan. Rub them down with a mixture of any or all of the following:

  • salt
  • pepper
  • cumin
  • coriander
  • grains of paradise
  • chili powder or flakes
  • allspice
  • thyme
  • oregano

Obviously, what you choose to use in your rub depends on how you want your ribs to taste. Just salt and pepper are a good place to start. Rub on your spices to fully coat both all sides of the ribs. Throw them in the roasting pan and into the preheated oven. After about 30 minutes at 400 F turn the heat down to about 250 F and roast for another hour. Towards the end you can baste them with balsamic vinegar, mustard, or hot sauce for a tasty glaze.

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Egg Nog

Egg Nog

After you make egg nog yourself you’ll wonder why you ever bothered with that gooey yellow stuff in the carton. It only takes a couple of minutes and there are only a couple of ingredients. To make two servings you’ll need:

  • about a cup of heavy cream
  • 2 eggs
  • about a tablespoon of honey
  • nutmeg
  • booze, such as whiskey, bourbon…or Armagnac

Whisk the eggs until they’re very fluffy, then whisk in the honey and booze (which you can pretend will kill any salmonella in the eggs). Folding in the cream may maintain the fluffiness, but I usually just whisk that in too, along with a little freshly grated nutmeg. Pour it into some glasses, grate on a little more nutmeg, and enjoy!

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Cran-ban-nut muffins

Cran-ban-nut muffins

Something to do with leftover cranberry sauce…

Ingredients:

  • 3 very ripe bananas
  • 3 eggs
  • 3 tablespoons soft or melted butter
  • about 3 cups of fluffy nut flour (grate in a rotary cheese grater or buy at Trader Joe’s)
  • flavoring like vanilla, nutmeg, etc.
  • about 1 tablespoon honey
  • about 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • about 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • about 3/4 cup cranberry sauce, hopefully homemade

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Smash up the bananas in a bowl first, leaving chunks if you like. Mix in everything but the cranberry sauce, adjusting the amount of nut flour to get a batter that’s a little thicker than usual – the cranberry sauce will thin the batter. Fold in the cranberry sauce carefully if you don’t want pink muffins. Spoon into muffin pans and bake about 35 minutes for smallish muffins, watching carefully for brownness – the nut flour burns easily.