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french fridays with dorie: navarin printanier
Navarin printanier is the stew that almost wasn’t. Not to start off with an icky story, but be warned. I’ve gotten reasonably good at planning ahead for these weekly recipes I make for the French Fridays with Dorie cooking group. This one needed a few hours to slowly braise, so I planned to make it on the weekend, for Sunday supper, and then some leftovers. Saturday, I picked up the vegetables at my favorite local farm stand. Sunday afternoon, in the pouring rain, I went out to do a variety of shopping: Michaels (does anyone know where to find bunny rabbit stickers? I’m on the hunt), Off-Broadway Shoes (for new black flats), and the really nice grocery store in the same shopping center (for lamb, of course). I got a little lost at the shoe store and got home later than expected, so maybe the stew wouldn’t be for Sunday dinner, but stews are always better the next day, so I set out to make it anyway, for Monday and the week beyond. (Here’s the bad part…)
I opened the packages of lamb and wouldn’t you know they were spoiled even though the sell-by date was a week away. The smell was awful. I have never actually encountered spoiled meat before, so I was confused. I rinsed it, and even started cutting it off the bone, but it was wrong, just plain wrong. Howard came home from walking the dog and said something smelled bad as soon as he walked in the door. So, I loaded the meat into ziplock bags and we went back to the store to return it. They did give me “double my money back” for the inconvenience, but still, it was off-putting.
After a quick dinner out, we stopped at the grocery store near my house (different chain) to get a new round of lamb. I can tell you there was quite a bit of sniffing the plastic before going to the register. At home, I still wanted to make this before bedtime as there’s no way I’d have enough time after work later in the week, so I set to it, with my helper Howard chopping vegetables while I boned the lamb shoulder chops for the stew.
Fun fact: navet is French for turnip, so without turnips, this is not a navarin, it’s just lamb stew, or ragoût, since we’re being French here. This navarin was filled with spring vegetables: turnips, of course, baby potatoes, carrots, garlic cloves, pearl onions, peas, and herbs. I used extra potatoes and onions because I had them.
Once the meat was cubed and browned, a little flour, beef broth, garlic cloves, and herbs were added to the pot which transformed into gravy while the lamb braised. In the meantime, the chopped root vegetables were browned, then added to the lamb for melding while my navarin baked in the oven. Frozen peas were sprinkled in at the very end, giving some much needed color to this otherwise, rather brown dish.
I served the navarin alone in shallow bowls. The lamb was meltingly tender, and the starchy and green vegetables rounded it out. The onions completely fell apart and must have added to the thick gravy in the pot, because I don’t remember seeing any on my spoon, and I know that I added extras.
This was the perfect meal for the weather week we just had. After some unseasonable summery weather, cooler weather is back. It’s been in the 50s all week, so a warm comforting dish like this hit the spot. This is too heavy for summer eating, but I will definitely make navarin again when fall comes back around using winter squash and maybe some mushrooms.
I know that April has been a challenging month for many of the participants in French Fridays with Dorie. The main ingredients in so many recipes were ones that people have strong feelings about, one way or the other: sardines, coconut, and lamb. The coconut was challenging for me, but I found a way to participate, and yet, not, for that one. Onward to May, which looks to be a smoother road for all.
You can read about the other Doristas’ navarins here. For the recipe, you’ll have to look at the Dorie Greenspan’s book Around My French Table. Maybe you’ll even want to cook along with us on Fridays.
French Fridays with Dorie: Short Ribs in Red Wine and Port
So it’s Friday again. Time for a recipe from Dorie Greenspan’s Around My French Table for French Fridays with Dorie. This week, Short Ribs in Red Wine and Port were on the menu. This was another hearty dish that suited the cold weather.
Short ribs are a relatively new addition to our eating repertoire. Howard has made them several times in the sous-vide contraption he rigged up from old lab parts ordered on eBay. His version is very scientific (that’s what you get when a molecular biologist plays in the kitchen). It involves cooking the browned short ribs, vacuum-sealed with sauce, in a 133-degree Fahrenheit water bath for 72 hours. More on that another time.
Dorie’s version is a low-tech, but equally delicious, version, braised in the oven for a few hours. Short ribs need a slow cook to become tender, but the oven does its magic and the meat become fork tender. It just falls off the bone.
The recipe called for 12 ribs / 9 POUNDS of short ribs to create 6 servings! I’m finding Dorie’s serving sizes to be quite generous. At the market, 8 ribs weighed 4½ pounds, which seemed like enough for our house. I didn’t change anything else in the recipe, just used fewer ribs.
Bella Smells Short Ribs
I left Howard in charge, and I went to the movies to get in a pre-Oscar viewing of The Fighter. The movie mostly takes place in the nearby city of Lowell, but the first date scene with Mark Wahlburg and Amy Adams was filmed in the town where I live, Lexington, including a scene in the theatre where I went to see the movie. It was an enjoyable movie. To me, Christian Bale, as the crack-addicted brother, stole the show.
I’m definitely glad I made this dish the day before serving because there was a lot of fat that solidified when it chilled overnight. Chilling made the step of removing the fat quite easy.
I made a celery root and potato puree from another French cookbook I like. In French, it’s called Purée de Pommes de Terre et Céleri-Rave Lyonnaise, which sounds much fancier. It was a perfect match. The earthiness of the vegetable mash complemented the winey sweetness of the ribs.
The only challenge was that I like my mashed vegetables pure and unadulterated by gravy. The sauce for the short ribs was delicious BUT… it pooled in the center of the plate, polluting the puree, at least, to me. I have the same issue at Thanksgiving when my strategy is to separate the turkey from the mashed potatoes by putting the stuffing in between. That way the gravy which I do like on the turkey and stuffing doesn’t touch the potatoes. I came up with an ingenious solution. I ended up putting the sauce in a cup for dipping, which worked out quite well.
There was lots of extra sauce. Never wanting to waste a good thing, we freezed it in ice cube trays for Howard’s next sous-vide short rib concoction or maybe to throw into a soup or stew.
Dorie recommended garnishing the short ribs with a gremolata with garlic, orange zest, and fresh cilantro. I found the gremolata to be sharp and bitter and, though I tried it the first night, I didn’t use it on the leftovers. Without this flourish, the dish had a very “brown” appearance that called out for something to make it prettier. I didn’t bother, but maybe just some chopped cilantro would have done the trick.
I think this just wasn’t the most attractive dish, which might be why the cookbook’s photo for this recipe was of the raw ingredients. I know that when selecting my own photos this week, they just weren’t very appealing. Anyway…
I’m looking forward to reading about what my fellow FFwD bloggers thought about this week’s recipe. Check out their links at French Fridays with Dorie. We don’t post the recipes, but consider getting your own copy of the book, Dorie Greenspan’s Around My French Table. Maybe you’ll even want to cook along with us on Fridays.
As a bonus, here’s the recipe for my accompanying vegetables, if you’d like to try it yourself.
Purée de Pommes de Terre et Céleri-Rave Lyonnaise
From Marlena Spieler’s The Vegetarian Bistro
Serves 6-8
2 pounds all purpose potatoes, peeled and cut into ½-inch pieces
2 pounds celery root, peeled and cut into ½-inch pieces
2 cloves garlic, minced
½ stick (4 Tbsp) butter
¼ cup sour cream
Salt & pepper to taste
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add the potatoes and celery root to the pot and cook until tender, about 20 minutes.
Drain the vegetables and mash with a potato ricer (or a hand-held masher). Add garlic, butter, and sour cream and stir until everything is combined well. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
A Plateful of Happiness 