I know I am late with an update but I have been cooking all the things! We are going to start with the short ribs. They came out so perfect that I made them again for family dinner. It was one of those dinners where people don’t talk because they are too busy shoving food in! I even made a point to measure things.
The ribs I got for the micro kitchen were bone in. Family dinner was the boneless variety. This was definitely a splurge, bone in or not short ribs are pricey. In my market they are 17 dollars per pound for the bone in and 14 for the boneless. I got a bit lucky with them being on sale. The bone in were on a markdown so for 12 dollars I fed myself twice and 3 other people once. The boneless were on a regular sale, I got a little over 4 pounds for 25 bucks. It was like a sign from the meat gods that this food needed to happen.
I read several recipes then made up my own. I didn’t have all of the ingredients that any single recipe called for so I worked with what I had on hand. I had flour, stock, wine, a shallot, black garlic and assorted vinegars. Here we go!
I used my 8 cup sauce pan. I seasoned some flour and got a light coating on all sides of the meat. I used a nice olive oil and seared them on all of the sides. Just enough to get a light crust. If the sear is too hard it will make everything taste burnt. When the meat was perfectly sexy I took it out and wiped the extra oil out of the pot. I kept all the good crusty bits. I put the meat back in with 2 cups of good homemade chicken stock, 1 cup of red wine, 3 cups of beef broth from bullion. All the recipes said the meat should be covered by the liquid. I know it should have been more good stock but it was all I had. For the extra flavor I sliced the shallot and black garlic fairly thick so they would hold up to the long cook. I added garlic paste and tomato paste, maybe a teaspoon of each. I also added a couple teaspoons each balsamic vinegar and Worcestershire sauce. Popped on the lid and set her to simmer. A FOREVER simmer.
After about an hour the whole place smelled like a restaurant. I had a delivery and on my way back I could smell it in the hallway. I decided it was time to taste. Y’all. It was already so good. I added a healthy pinch of salt-this was the only salt I added as the juice was salty. A teaspoon of ancho chili powder, 3 dashes of liquid smoke and about a tablespoon of fresh thyme rounded out the edges. Those were added in at the half-way point. It was also at this point that I decided to have a glass of wine in the tub. I left the door open so I could be bathed in the smells of dinner.
At the 4 hour mark I went in with a fork. If I couldn’t shred it with one fork it wouldn’t be ready. The bones slid right out. That is also a test of the meat. If the bone doesn’t fall out, it isn’t ready. The meat shredded with no effort. I did another taste and it still needed salt. I should have salted the meat for some time before I started cooking. I was only thinking that the liquids were salty and would be enough. I added MSG, something more than a teaspoon but less than a tablespoon. I turned the burner down to low so the MSG would cook in but not really keep the meat cooking.
Since it was just me I used the smaller sauce pot to make noodles. I always forget that noodles and rice double in the cooking. I ended up with 2 cups of cooked noodles. That is 4 servings. I also ended up with so much meat. When it’s shredded and has gravy it also doubles.
I ended up with my dinner, I saved my seconds for the old man, and 3 other servings. I knew I couldn’t eat all of that so I took 2 servings to work. I have a couple of folks there that have earned my cooking.
There are 2 differences between the Micro Kitchen ribs and Family Dinner ribs. Family dinner was cook at the main house and they were boneless. I used all the same things increased by half as I had more meat to cook. I cooked them in a pot on the stove. It’s not often that I cook an exact match at the main house, this time the test batch was perfect so I had to.
Family Dinner was served with bow tie pasta. I wanted that extra bite since the meat was so tender. I also ended up with more gravy than I expected. I stashed it in the freezer for next time the meats are on sale.
This was my first full embrace of the micro kitchen. I have been giving her side hugs for 2 months now. I have been thinking about meal planning and reading recipes and eating out in my neighborhood in search of ideas. It is time to just start cooking!
Coming up we have stove top crispy skin chicken, Okinawa street food and risotto. Yes we have made these things before the new challenge is doing them in the micro kitchen. I am still trying with the convection oven but not seriously. I feel like I can cook anything on the stove top that I could do in an oven. I don’t bake so I’m not really worried about that. I do crave roasted broccoli so that might be a thing that gets tried.
If anyone has a microwave and convection oven in one I would love any tips!
Enjoy your kitchen and embrace the adventures!
Ali's Kitchen 