This is in the pot-roast family of foods that are good for times when, shall we say, one’s energy levels might be uneven. When you’re having an up afternoon, you can do the cooking, then those other times of the week when you’re not feeling so swell, you can simply reheat. I adapted this from Nina Simonds book Asian Noodles — her recipe is for Cinnamon Beef Noodles, and what I wanted was something more pot-roasty.
So, here’s what I did:
I chopped up a handful of scallions, a thumb-sized hunk of ginger, a handful of garlic cloves and sauteed them in a heavy pot with two dried asian peppers. Avoid letting the garlic brown. I then added about 3 pounds of short ribs (which happened to be local and organic — kind of expensive, but on the other hand, I like to try to support my local ranchers), two star anise “stars”, two cinnamon sticks, a little bit of ground clove, a can of tomatoes, a can of chicken broth, and a big wooden spoonful of Siracha chile-garlic paste. I put the lid on and put the whole thing in the oven at 350 for about three hours, occasionally turning the short ribs over.
When the short ribs were falling apart, I added a package of swiss chard I’d put up last summer, and cooked some basmati rice. Served with a little more chopped scallion and cilantro on top, and a drizzle of sesame oil, this was delicious. And it’s been delicious all week. (I may have to freeze some though, because I’m getting a little tired of this, no matter how delicious it’s been.)
How did you put up the swiss chard for storing? Sounds good, especially since next year I’ll be able to do my winter crops since we won’t be only at the community garden.
I just blanched it in boiling water — quickly, about three minutes. Then dumped it in an ice bath, and packed it in vacuum seal bags. The trick is draining it really well (or you clog up the vacuum sealer) — I used the salad spinner, and then rolled them up in clean dishtowels. It was a lot of work and I was kind of bummed about it, but now I’m glad I did it.