Category Archives: Meat CSA
Happy New Year 2010
Happy New Year 2010! I hope your year has started off well.
Howard and I shared a quiet dinner at home on New Year’s Eve. We had a few lamb shoulder chops from Chestnut Farms. I had never cooked this cut before, only rib chops and loin chops.
Browsing through a few cookbooks indicated shoulder chops needed a slower cook than the chops I was used to. I found a yummy-looking recipe that baked the shoulder chops on a bed of potatoes and onions.
Unfortunately, I hadn’t read the recipe all the way through. Around 6:00, Howard popped open a bottle of champagne, and I opened the cookbook. Uh-oh, the lamb needed to bake for almost 2 hours. I guess I was starting (or ending) the year with rather poor planning.
Howard looked in one of his ever-trusty Cooks Illustrated cookbooks and found that the shoulder chops could be simply broiled. I traded in the bed of potatoes for a pot of lentils and some roasted carrots and celery root. Dinner was ready in the half the time. Redemption!
While dinner cooked, we sipped champagne and nibbled on salmon caviar and crackers and some local oysters (Wianno, Wellfleet and Island Creek, all from the Cape, courtesy of Whole Foods).
After dinner, we watched a movie (Away We Go) and managed to stay up until 11:45 before dropping off to sleep. Seeing midnight no longer seems as important as it did when I was younger.
Our New Year’s Eve dinner was quiet and romantic. On New Year’s Day, we invited our friends Laury, John, and Isabel for dinner. We had a pork roast from Codman Farm. I made a spice rub from garlic, lime juice, cumin, and cilantro to go on the pork plus Cuban Sweet Potatoes and Braised Cabbage to go with the meat. The big hit was the sweet potatoes. It had similar flavors to the pork, and the whole bowl disappeared fast.
The year is off to a great start with two things that are really important to me: spending time and sharing meals with some of my favorite people, and eating food that has been sustainably and humanely produced, from local farms. I’m looking forward to more of the same in the year ahead.
Cuban Sweet Potatoes
Serves 4
2 lbs sweet potatoes
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 large cloves garlic, minced
½ cup chopped cilantro
Juice of 1 lime
Preheat the oven to 450F.
Peel the sweet potatoes. Cut them into ½-inch slices. If the rounds are large, cut in half again (into half moons). Toss the potato slices in a bowl with olive oil. Spread them out on a baking sheet (or two) in one layer. Bake for 20 to 30 minutes, until they are nice and tender.
Combine the garlic, cilantro, and lime juice in a big bowl. Add the hot sweet potatoes and toss. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Sunday Short Ribs
We had another snow storm this weekend, 8 inches this time. That was nothing compared with what hit my sisters got further to the south: 20 inches in Maryland, and a foot or more in Philadelphia.
On Saturday, we snuck up to Maine for the day. We had planned to stay the night, but the weather wasn’t consistent with our plans. We wanted to check on things at the house, particularly the flying squirrel infestation. The house was in better shape than I expected. We only stayed a few hours. Time enough for look unsuccessfully for entrance points for the squirrels, replace the generator battery, and take Bella for a walk in the snow.
We got home in time to meet Laury for her birthday dinner. She picked a Nepalese restaurant in Allston – Mt. Everest Kitchen. None of us had ever tried Nepalese food before. It was excellent, especially the oven roasted lamb and vegetables that Howard picked.
Howard made a great dinner on Sunday. We had some short ribs in the freezer, one big package that we got at a farmers’ market in Maine plus one from Chestnut Farms. Coincidentally, the cover photo on a recent (October 2009) issue of Bon Appetit was of short ribs, providing the necessary inspiration. Officially, the recipe was called Braised Beef Short Ribs with Red Wine Gravy and Swiss Chard. We had all the ingredients in the fridge. Howard also made mashed potatoes. I made substituted kale and collards for the Swiss chard accompanying the ribs. Almost of the vegetables were from our CSA share. It was a very local meal.
The rich vegetable sauce provided the perfect comfort food for a snowy evening. I liked the earthiness of the vegetables. I also liked that the vegetables were pureed in the food mill. I’m not wild about turnips, so it masked their presence in the dish.
Howard has made short ribs several times using his sous vide apparatus. The prevailing opinion (well, two votes, mine and Howard’s) was that the short ribs have much better texture with Howard’s sous vide technique. Of course, that takes much longer than the afternoon, days in fact. But the slow cook in simmering water tenderizes all the fat and the meat just melts in your mouth. Next time, he’ll try to adapt the recipe for the very slow cook. More on that another time.
Bonus photo: Here is our “Devil Dog” Bella, perched on her favorite vantage point, watching Howard shovel snow. Bad dog. She knows she isn’t supposed to be on the couch.
A Plateful of Happiness 