The world’s saltiest short ribs

Oh what a disaster. First off, I have to tell you, I cried. The goal was to try out a ‘cure’ what I estimated would be equal to a dry brine, but it would let me get more spices in contact with the meat. More like more salt in contact with the meat. On the up side, the grilled asparagus and Vidalia onion risotto was highly successful. I ruined, I mean ‘cured’ the short ribs in kosher salt, celery salt, coriander, black pepper, and crushed juniper berries for 24h. Rinsed them, and threw them in the smoker for 2 hours over hickory chips with a water bath of cola and allspice berries. We keep experimenting with different water baths, but I have yet to taste a difference.
The ribs came out beautifully, to the eye. But they were tough and almost inedibly salty. I think we may have made beef bacon…
What is the lesson here? Kyle says that it is not to cure them so long. I don’t disagree, but maybe dry brines are something I leave for another day. I also think that maybe my salt was too fine. I should have used a coarser salt so that it wouldn’t have broken down so easily


Fresh from the cure, it looked so promising. Rinsed and air dried...



The asparagus and onions seasoned, oiled, and ready for the grill



Nothing but the finest generic cola for us.



We floated allspice berries in cola as our water bath... don't know if it did anything



There they go, into the smoker. Hi Kyle!



After the arborio rice gets sautéed in olive oil for a bit, I add the broth about half a cup at a time (home made turkey broth made from a turkey we did in the smoker *drool*)



Stirring until the liquid is absorbed and then add some more broth. Everything is steaming up!
Until all the little rice ladies have softened.
But not mush, Al Dente as they say.



It appears that the veggies are finished with their purgatory on the grill.
Into the risotto they go!


Look how lovely they looked coming out of the smoker. Looks can be so deceiving.



And the final plating, again, prettier than it tasted. Apologies go out to the cow that this came from and to Kyle for having to eat this.
We are not salt deficient this week.


Any thoughts? Suggestions?

The world’s fanciest Hamburger Helper

That’s what he called it, after I had spent hours braising bison ribs, pressing every last drop of braising liquid out of the strainer and hovering over what I thought would be my greatest creation this month: The world’s fanciest hamburger helper. I guess that’s ok, and not entirely inaccurate, just, I wish it had been “meaty ambrosia” or “egg noodles, topped with pure joy” ok maybe that’s a little over the top, but you see my point. Anyways, I had spotted a small package of bison ribs at my supermarket. I knew that there’s no way that was enough for 2 people. I also knew that there’s no way I could pull off those lean ribs as straight up ribs, so I decided to braise them and serve them over egg noodles with the strained braising liquid and parmesan. This is something you will come to learn: there’s never enough cheese in this world…

2 vidalia onions, 2 celery stalks, 3 garlic cloves chopped in the food processor


Seasoned bison ribs waiting for the heat

Into the pan you go my beasties!

FLIP!

Add mushrooms and carrots until browned and then add the vidalia mash

Add the herbs... oooh sweaty! (the herbs are a nice fat bunch of fresh thyme -- stalk on, they'll fall off in the braise; and 2-3 bay leaves)

Return the meat to the pan

Don't forget the white wine and / or vermouth (dry, don't be gross and add the sweet)

ummm... I MAY have forgotten to turn the oven on....

Ok, there we go.

Well, I also kind of forgot to remove 2 pans that were hibernating inside the oven so I needed this nifty device that my uncle Ed made me it allows you to pull out the oven grate, and push it back in without using oven mitts. It works really well for such a simple device.

So once the oven has heated up and you remove the pans that were not supposed to be there, cover the meat / veg and put in the oven for about 2 hours. Remove the meat and strain the vegetables into another vessel

Here is the liquid. I also picked out the mushrooms because I thought it would be nice tossed with the pasta.

Boil up a pot of salted water and cook egg noodles. Toss the noodles with the strained braising liquid, mushrooms and a little bit of cooking liquid from the pasta. Let it sit for a little bit for the pasta to soak up the liquid and...

the parmesan!!!!!!