CityMama™

Ox tail party in photos (and a recipe, too)

 

Ox tails on the table.

Last weekend, J. and I kicked off the holidays with a small dinner party. We invited a few friends and I cooked up a big batch of Roman style ox tails and polenta to go with it. We love to throw dinner parties, and with the girls ensconced at their grandma's for the night, it almost felt like the kind of parties we used to throw. (Know what I mean?)

I had so much fun tinkering with the table setting, setting out candles, and selecting the different wines. Five bottles and some Jameson's later, we were playing a furious game of "girls against boys"  Guess The Celebrity (girls rule, boys drool), which devolved into a penis-y game of charades.

A great time was had by all, especially us.  Here are some photos from the party if you want to take a peek.

As far as the ox tails, go, here is my basic recipe (which I tripled for the party).  If you've never had them before, they are so worth cooking. They are fall-off-the-bone tender and taste just like beef shortribs.  One tip I have for you, though, is to get the ox tails from a Korean market if you have one near you. (I go to Han Kook in Sunnyvale or Kukje in Daly City.)  They are much cheaper at a Korean market where I paid about $13 per 2.5 lb package.

Also make them one day ahead, not only because they'll taste better, but also because after you refrigerate them you can degrease them almost completely.

I changed my original recipe slightly by doing the following:

• sauteeing some chopped pancetta with 3-4 bay leaves, shallots, celery and garlic before adding the oven-browned ox tails, tomatoes, and wine.
• adding about 6 cloves to the simmering sauce (I put them in those DIY tea bags, the kind for loose teas, so I can remove it later)

Other than that, the recipe is about the same. It's very forgiving--just think of it as making a rich, meaty spaghetti sauce (we served the ox tails over pasta the next night), and the meat you are adding is ox tails.

My mom's legendary pasta with roast pork and kimchi

It's garnished with toasted seaweed, carrot flowers, green onions, and red chili threads.

It is so damn good and no one knows how to make it except for her.

I'm finally home from Hawaii and am going grocery shopping in a few minutes. I can't wait to get back into the swing of cooking for my family! This week's meal plan soon to come!

Meal Planning Monday for 10/13/08

It's staying cooler for just a little bit longer every day so I think we may finally be leaving this Indian summer behind. That, plus the fact that we are completely out of propane, is a sign that summer is waning and fall is finally here. As a result, autumn is reflected in my cooking this week.

The [*] indicates locally sourced, grown or made items.

• Monday—Butternut Squash Soup and classic Spinach* Salad (topped with hard-boiled egg*, frizzled pancetta*, sliced onions* and warm vinaigrette)
• Tuesday—Spaghetti and meatballs, green salad*
• Wednesday—Fresh corn* chowder, baguette* and cheese and olives* (something noshy)
• Thursday—Girls' Night Out (which means my family will probably have sandwiches)
• Friday Family Movie Night—not quite sure yet, maybe chicken* curry and rice
• Saturday—maybe a celebratory evening out...
• Sunday—Meatloaf, baked potatoes, broccoli* or Brussels sprouts*

The budget: I spent around $150 on food shopping for the week. My biggest expenditures were for extra virgin olive oil which I always buy by the gallon. We use a ton of it and it just makes sense to buy it in bulk. That was $20 on sale. I also had to buy peanut oil another $8, and I bought two pounds of organic grass-fed ground beef. I also couldn't resist two half-gallons of fresh pressed apple cider. Pears were 49 cents/pound though, so I bought a ton of those for lunches and snacks.

Funny about the spaghetti and meatballs. This is a dish that I never ate as a kid. Ever. Even being half-Italian. Meatballs just never went with spaghetti.  When I got older, thanks to a San Francisco restaurant which elevated the meatball to a whole new delicious-but-not-fancy-thank-god level, I gained a new appreciation for the dish. Emmy's was a place where we could take Bunny and still enjoy a semi-adult meal. We'd go early and the waitresses would fawn all over her bringing her toys that other kids left behind. We'd sip our wine and watch the DJ setting up and giggle at the line of hipsters waiting at the door for a table. Their evenings we starting as we raced Bunny home to bed.

I credit Emmy's for sowing the seeds of spaghetti and meatball love in Bunny especially. It's one of her most often requested dinners lately. (And I thank the frozen turkey meatball gods for making it so easy to plop a few meatballs into a pan of homemade tomato sauce.) It's also the place where Bunny tasted her first Caesar salad, little toddler fingers grabbing for leaf after garlicky leaf, finishing off half my plate. To this day food servers marvel at my girls (part rabbit) who usually start their meals splitting a Caesar salad whenever and wherever they can, and licking the plate clean, croutons and anchovies and all.

Pasta alla Carbonara: A tutorial

Pasta alla Carbonara (which comes from carbone or coal/charcoal) is one of those dishes that is in my 10 ten list of favorite comfort foods. Because what's not to love about breakfast for dinner, which essentially this "bacon and egg" pasta is?  It is high on my family's list of favorite dishes as well, and makes a perfect last-night snack—especially after (shhh!) drinking too much.

If you google or flip through Italian cookbooks you will find that there are many variations on this theme, but the recipe I am sharing is how I grew up eating and then helping to make this pasta. And it is of my Italian-side-of-the-family's opinion that Pasta alla Carbonara should never contain cream. It's the cheese along with the eggs that gives this pasta sauce its creamy texture. My Italian aunt also doesn't put garlic in hers, but I like it with mine.

In Italy you would use guanciale (cured, unsmoked bacon made from the pig's jowls) to make this, but as that is difficult to find in the states unless you have a good Italian deli near you (or you make it yourself). You can use pancetta or Italian cured but unsmoked bacon (which is available at most large grocery stores or Trader Joe's already pre-diced) or, heck, even regular ole bacon as long as it is not hickory smoked and not maple-flavored.

I now present, some of your ingredients:

3-4 good handfuls or at least 2 cups of grated pecorino romano (my pref) or parmiggiano reggiano cheese, fresh ground pepper (the black "charcoal") and really excellent imported spaghetti. (Not pictured: the pancetta.)

First things first, put a large pot of salted water on to boil.  Be generous with the salt—you are seasoning the pasta.

Making fresh pasta: A tutorial

Welcome to the next post in my tutorial series: making fresh pasta.

If you can boil water, then you can make fresh pasta.  If you have a few essential tools—a food processor and a hand-crank or electric pasta machine—then it's super-duper easy. Those tools are helpful but aren't necessary. I've made pasta by rolling out the dough and cutting it with a knife.  It never comes out as thin as when I make it with my pasta machine, but that's okay.  It's still yummy.

The first thing you need to do when making fresh pasta is to make the dough. You can use AP flour or semolina, but I like to use this stuff:

Don't worry, this isn't the only picture. There are 24 more to go!

It's called "00" (double zero) flour and is sold in well-stocked Italian markets, gourmet shops, or online. I think it makes the pasta especially silky and light, but regular flour works fine, too. Once you have your flour of choice, get ready to make the dough. You'll need:

• 4 cups of "00" or unbleached AP flour (whatever you prefer)
• 6 eggs (+ up to 2 egg yolks if you want a richer, eggier pasta)
• a pinch or two of sea salt
• about a 1/2 tsp of olive oil
• room temp water (just in case you need it)

This recipe serves 6 hungry eaters, but make it all anyway, you can freeze the pasta once it's cut.

Spaghetti Bolognese (Meat Sauce)

During our Tahoe vacation, every family took turns cooking dinner for the other families.  I made penne with bolognese sauce because it can be easily done ahead and because it's a hearty, satisfying dish. (And penne works better for a crowd than spaghetti, I think.) This recipe can be easily adjusted so it's perfect for two people or twelve.

Bolognese sauce the way I make it is not tomatoey and red. The emphasis is on the meat and the tomato comes in only as an accent. Some recipes call for long simmering, which you can do, but I think it tastes great even after 30 minutes. If you want to simmer the sauce for longer, make sure you wait until the end to add the milk or cream.

BOLOGNESE SAUCE

You can also use this sauce to make a classic lasagne. Serves 4-6

• 2-3 glugs olive oil (or an oil/butter combo)
  
• 1/3 pound each: ground veal, ground pork, ground beef
• 1 mild Italian sausage (uncooked), remove meat from casing
• 4 oz. pancetta, chopped (or bacon works, too)
• 1 carrot, diced
• 1 stalk of celery, diced
• 1 small onion, diced
• 3-4 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 bay leaf
• 1-2 glugs of dry white wine (or stock)
• 1-2 tomatoes, seeded and chopped (or 1-2 whole canned tomatoes, chopped)
• 1 cup of whole milk, half-and-half, or heavy cream (my pref)
• salt and pepper to taste

Heat olive oil in large pot over medium-high heat. Add meats, sausage, pancetta, carrots, celery, onion, and garlic and saute together until meat is well-browned. Add in wine and tomatoes and bay leaf. Reduce heat and simmer over med-low heat at least 30 minutes and up to 2 hours. Salt and pepper to taste. Add in milk or cream and warm through, do not let it boil. Remove bay leaf. Serve sauce over hot cooked spaghetti (or tagliatelle or penne or whatever you like). Pass freshly grated cheese.

Braise the roof

beautiful ox tails

Nothing ruins dinner plans faster than forgetting to take whatever you were going to cook out of the freezer. Or maybe that's just me. My back up in this situation is usually eggs or PB&J's, but I am always disappointed with this option because—while my kids don't care—I'm never satisfied when dinner isn't what I planned it to be. Then I spend the whole evening grouchy and/or digging in the cupboards for something, anything to snack on.

Today, in a rare moment of clarity, I had my act together and defrosted not one, but two items: 3 lbs of ox tails and a package of chicken legs. Since today is cold and drizzly, I'm cooking up both, making two dinners at the same time. Boy does the house smell delish. (Photos to come as soon as everything is cooked.)

"Spag Balls" or another stoopidly easy pasta sauce

I'm half-way through making the carnitas enchiladas when the kids go, "Noooooo, we want spaghetti and meatballs." I guess they're being extra cute today because I wasn't immediately inclined to say, "Are you kidding me? No way."

So I finished up the enchiladas and started the spaghetti sauce and my girls showered me with hugs and kisses, the little stinkers. By the time the enchiladas were covered and tucked into the fridge for tomorrow night's dinner (I'm still making the soup cuz I've been thinking about it for a week), I was done with the sauce. The girls like it because, well, it's full of "balls." Seriously, it doesn't get any easier than this.

SPAG BALLS

A play on "spag bol." Which reminds me, I need to post my recipe for that, soon. This sauce is chunky.

Note: I didn't think any additional salt was necessary since the tomatoes + olives + meatballs + the pasta cooked in lightly salted water + the cheese made it salty enough. I did apply a liberal amount of dried chilis (broken up) over my serving, however.

• 3-4 glugs of olive oil
• 1/2 a large yellow onion, diced
• 3-4 cloves of garlic, minced
• a splash of white wine
• 1 large 28 oz. can of diced tomatoes + their juice
• 1 can of medium black olives, drained (olive-haters can just pick em out, it's not that hard)
• 1 package of Aidell's sun-dried tomato meat balls (turkey or veggie meatballs are fine, too.)

In a saute or braise pan, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add garlic and onion and let it do its thing. When it starts to go goldeny-brown, splash in some white wine and scrape up any brownish bits, then let it cook off. Dump in the tomatoes and let the whole thing simmer on medium-low uncovered for about 20 minutes until it reduces some. Dump in olives and meatballs, warm those through according to package directions, about 10 minutes. Do not over cook the meatballs or they get mushy. Serve over al dente spaghetti with plenty of grated parmigiano or pecorino romano cheese.

Ravioli with Butternut Squash and Pancetta

It's only taken five years, but Bunny will now eat ravioli. You'd think all kids would like tortellini, ravioli, or other stuffed pastas, from the get-go but not so. It took a long time for Bunny to warm up to ravioli, but now she loves it. 

Our favorites are stuffed with some kind of meat, usually prosciutto. Lately we've been loving the grilled chicken-stuffed, triangle-shaped ravioli from Costco.  It comes in a two-pack and, in our Costco, is located near the hummus. Because it's so flavorful it marries well with simple sauces.

To make the sauce above, I baked off a buttnernut squash then cubed it.  I added it to a pan in which I sauteed garlic, shallots, and about 4 ounces of diced pancetta. I tossed the squash gently and just warmed it through. I added a spoonful of pasta cooking water to the sauce to loosen it, then tossed it with the cooked ravioli.  A little parmesan cheese and fresh ground pepper were the finishing touches.

Penne with Spicy Salami Sauce

I know this sounds totally strange, but trust me, it's good.

One of the cookbooks that every parent should have in their arsenal is Joie Warner's No-Cook Pasta Sauces. Shoot, I bought it long before I ever became a parent because I love uncooked sauces. Using her cookbook you can make wonderful pastas even in the warm summer months. Yes, you still have to boil water for the pasta, but you can escape from the kitchen since the sauces cook themselves. Then you can sit outside and enjoy your dinner as we did when I made the uncooked salami pasta.  My recipe is adapted from hers, but the technique of putting everything into a heat-proof bowl is hers.

PENNE WITH UNCOOKED SPICY SALAMI SAUCE

Put salted pasta water on to boil.

Meanwhile, in a heatproof bowl combine:

• 2-3 glugs of fruity olive oil (use your best olive oil for uncooked sauces, you want the flavor to shine)
• 2 pats of unsalted butter
• 1 clove of garlic, pressed or very finely minced
• 8 ounces of "gourmet/best quality" dry salami, Molinari if you can find it (don't use cooked or cotto, nor Oscar Mayer. Ask your deli for a good salami), sliced into matchsticks
• a good handful of cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1-3 small dried red chilis, crushed (or omit)

Set this bowl on-top-of or next to the pasta pot while water comes to a boil and pasta cooks so that butter melts and flavors meld.

Cook one package of penne (or other short pasta) until al dente (usu. 1-2 minutes less than what the package recommends). Before draining reserve a cup of pasta water. Drain pasta and return to pot. Add the "sauce" from the bowl along with any pasta water needed to loosen the sauce.

Just before serving toss pasta with:

• a handful of torn fresh herbs (I used marjoram, oregano, and Italian parsley)
• grated cheese

I found that because the salami and cheese are so salty, no salt was needed. No pepper either.