Marco_Polo
-
Posts
457 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Store
Help Articles
Posts posted by Marco_Polo
-
-
1971 Huet, Vouvray Moelleux Le Mont:
Great notes, Jim, as always. And good to read about the Huet. I love the wines from this estate but it's been a long time since I've had the chance to sample any such well matured Vouvray (or Bonnezeaux or Quarts de Chaume or Savennieres for that matter). The longevity of these great Chenin Blanc wines is simply mind blowing and the complex honeyed textures and flavours that you describe so well can be truly astonishing, almost life changing! I have a couple of boxes of some good Coteaux du Layon but it's still infanticide to drink, though I taste from time to time and regret the waste. Have you been sitting on that Le Mont '71 for over 30 years? How have you managed to resist?! And how much do you have left? Patience is indeed a virtue and the rewards are such riches...But now you've made me want to sample again ... just to see how the wines are evolving. I'll manfully try and resist. Heck, what's another 20 years or so, the time'll soon pass.
MP
-
Marco-Polo - am so impressed you did Paris-Brest-Paris! Am thinking about doing it myself next time they run it. But it will require two years of psyching myself up for it.
Go for it, Druckenbrodt, PBP is one of the greatest cycling experience you can have. And it's very food related, too. Apart from the Paris-Brest gateau, much of my memories are about eating, what four, five, six immense meals at all times of day or night at the stops along the historic route and with people who offered hospitality to the riders as we passed through their towns and villages.
The next PBP, as you probably know, will not be until 2007; having experienced it once, I can't imagine not being there next time. But next time my goal will be TO EAT MORE GOOD FOOD along the way, stopping in Mortagne for its famous boudin noir, and along the way through Brittany for some galettes de sarrasin, and in Brest itself to celebrate with at least a dozen huîtres de Belon...
This last time, I'm afraid, it was mainly a case of food as fuel.
MP
-
Extremely interesting. Marco_Polo, I love the way you describe the wines. Now I'm dying to try Sagrantino in any incarnation.
Why thank you, Rebel Rose. I hope you can find some Sagrantino di Montefalco, Rosso di Montefalco or the rare Sagrantino passito. Please let us know what you think when you get your hands on some.
...Grapes are slightly dried, concentrating them in a way the shorter growing season won't. ... What would happen if someone did this in a longer growing season with fully ripe grapes...or do they?Just want to return to Michael M's original query about the appasimento process as I think there is a slight misunderstanding here about why this is done. Drying grapes is not undertaken because the season is short or because the grapes would otherwise be under-ripe, as this query seems to imply, no not at all. The word 'Recioto' comes from Venetian dialect 'recce' from Italian orecchio, indicating the ears or top shoulders of a bunch, which have received the greatest exposure and are thus richest in extract, concentration and sugar. Thus these 'ears' of the Corvina (mainly) are selected and snipped off from the main bunch early, while the skins are still wholly intact and when acid levels are slightly higher; these selected grapes are then carefully taken up to the well-ventilated hill lofts. Here they are laid out traditionally on large wicker trays known as tavoloni or else these days more commonly in smaller wooden pallets, then left to dry for a period of some months, usually until after Christmas. During this time, the windows of the lofts will be opened when a dry wind blows, but closed if there is humid or damp weather that would contribute to rot. But understand, these selected grapes are the best of the best, fully ripe already, and so the appassimento process is not to correct any deficiencies in sugar levels or to artificially complete the ripening process but rather to create a different, historic type of passito wine from semi-dried as opposed to fresh grapes, a type of wine, incidentally, that goes back to the days of the Romans or maybe even earlier.
Marc
-
I think Hawaii has a lot more second and third generation Koreans than we do here on the East Coast - Your method does sound very interesting though, I probably want to try it that way sometime.
EDIT: I just realized you live in England... You probably don't even HAVE Korean butchers there, lol.
Actually a topic I'm very interested in is how foods evolve through first- second- and third-generation permutations. My Korean grandmother, for example, left Korea when she was only 16 but lived in the Korean community all her life (first in Honolulu, later in LA, but long before Koreatown). She never even really learned to speak more than pidgin English. Yet her cooking, though pure Korean in every sense, would have been quite different from modern cooking in Korea today. Tastes there evolved from her time; and of course she had access to different ingredients. But she was always fiercely proud of doing things the right way. She and her friends campaigned for Korean independence and she liked to recall that she once cooked tubu tchigae for Syngman Rhee. The strong armed autoritarian and first President of the Republic of Korea, so she always claimed, sighed in ectsasy and said that hardly anyone could still cook the old traditional foods like she did.
Here's another more radical bulgogi varation.
Marc
PS You're quite right, Jason, no Korean butchers down here in Devon!
-
Mmmnn, the hallmark of the best Valpolicella from the classic hill zones is a pronounced flavour and slightly bitter aftertaste of black cherries. Count Serego Alighieri accentuates this further by ageing in small barriques made from cherry wood. Why not try a straight Valpolicella (not ripasso, which has dried fruit flavours and aromas) from one of the best producers: Allegrini, Quintarelli, Masi, Serego Alighieri, Tedeschi. If you're lucky, you might, just might find something under fifteen bucks that will be sensational with your cherry glazed rack of lamb (which sounds absolutely delicious).
MP
-
Interesting... I try to marinate bulgogi and galbi for a very long time
For kalbi, yes, I agree you can't marinade too long (same for takgogi - similar marinade on skinned chicken pieces slashed to the bone - marinade for as long as possible). But for bulgogi, I'm with Joan and marinade for as short a period as minutes, massaging the marinade into the prepared meat thoroughly with the hands to really work it in, leave for a short period, then cook at once.
As for cut of meat, again, this is where cooking method comes into it. In restaurants certainly you will be served those paper thin strips cooked over the Korean domed bulgogi shield or tabletop grill. But for home cooking (admittedly third-generation Korean American homestyle, but hey, this is how Halmoni, who came over to Hawaii as a 16 year old picture bride in the 1920s, always did it), I never ever use thinly sliced meat. Cut is (British) rump or sirloin or ribeye with plenty of fat and marbling (my mother used to get damn good results with chuck, believe it or not). What we do is slash the steak deeply in a diamond pattern, not all the way through, but nearly. Then pound with a meat hammer to open the piece up so that's its almost lacey but so you can still pick up the piece of meat with tongs. Then massage in that marinade lovingly (the smell of pungent garlic and ginger and soy and scallions and toasted sesame seeds is irresistable - so why resist? I always nibble on some raw marinaded beef while I'm doing this, for this is but a variation of yukhoe after all). Then cook over hot charcoal or in the pan, as is your wont, and serve with the aforementioned mountain of hot steamed white rice.
Marc
-
Now this is an interesting question, perhaps even The Eternal Question.
Firstly, let's forget about cooking over a domed shield at the tabletop, as you sometimes get in Korean restaurants - it looks great, it's fantastically appetising to cook on the tabletop. But too often the meat is just sort of steamed not cooked at high enough temperature to char, and as Jason says, it's a m****r to clean.
So I'm with Eunny: what is needed is fire and grate. The simplest, a hibachi right by your kitchen or dining room door (if you're not eating outside at this time of year - we certainly aren't). Charred bits of bulgogi, cooked over charcoal, especially those delicious burnt and crunchy bits of fat, are the ambrosia of the gods.
But - and it's a big but, on the other hand, Jason's method of cooking in a cast iron frying pan or ribbed grill pan has one considerable and noteworthy advantage: pan juices mixed with the marinade are the most delicious food on earth, spooned over the meat and over a heaping pile of steamed, sticky white Korean rice. Nothing, I repeat, nothing you can eat is better.
Bulgogi cooked on the hibachi; bulgogi in the frying pan: in this house, it's about 50/50 (as it was in both my mother's and my Korean grandmother's houses). But hang on: that's sitting on the proverbial fence, isn't it. So dammit, forget the frying pan. Fire cooking over hot coals is what bulgogi is really all about so get out the charcoal and just do it (and use the leftover marinade to spoon over the rice - I usually thin with a little bit of water and heat up in a saucepan).
MP
-
Another great passito red is Sagrantino di Montefalco passito from Umbria. The vineyards surround Montefalco, a lovely hill town along the Roman Via Flaminia about 12 km south of Foligno. The Sagrantino is an indigenous grape that has a massive personality - lots of colour, extract and tannin, huge structure, and pronounced blackberry fruit and sometimes unusual wild and funky flavours. Sagrantino di Montefalco (or Montefalco Sagrantino) vinified in purezza can be an immense wine, huge in every way, sometimes well, just too damn huge and raspingly aggressive; blending with Sangiovese and Montepulciano tames the grape somewhat and so Rosso di Montefalco is often more rounded and harmonious, though by no means a lightweight alternative.
The passito version is a little known, true vinous rarity that should be sought out. The selected Sagrantino grapes are dried on straw racks for a period of two or three months in a process similar to the appassimento for Amarone and Recioto della Valpolicella. Only minute quantities of this sweet wine are produced, notably by the Antica Azienda Paolo Bea (handcrafted wines of the highest quality), Arnaldo Caprai (the zone's leading and most innovative producer), Rocca di Fabbri, Colpetrone, amongst others. At best the Sagrantino passito can display a deep luscious nose of wild fruits and berries, and the sweetness is offset by that underlying austere and rasping finish of the Sagrantino. In short, nothing like Recioto: nothing like anything else in the world for that matter. A unique rarity, a true vino da meditazione. Try it if you can get your hands on some.
MP
-
I've long maintained that my local pub, The Bridge Inn, is the best pub in
the world and my friends have allowed me this seemingly indulgent statement.
It's quite simply a totally unspoiled, unmodernized 14th century
inn by the banks of the tiny Clyst River.
The inn has been run by the Cheffers
family for more than a hundred years, and the present landlady, Caroline
Cheffers-Heard, keeps the place as it always has been, as her
mother Phyllis, father Norman, and her grandparents before them always did.
You won't find fruit machines or a juke box or cajun chicken here: what you
will find is quite simply the most outstanding range of cask-conditioned
ales served properly and with good cheer in a rather ramshackle and
old-fashioned Devon building. What more can you ask for in a pub?
But don't just take my word for it. The Bridge Inn has just
been acclaimed 'Beer Pub of the Year' in
the The Good Pub Guide 2005. This is a wonderful national award and I am
delighted. The beers here are so outstanding quite simply because they are
sourced and kept with immaculate care. Drawn direct from the cask (so no
taint of pipes), the beers are always at their freshest and Caroline keeps
an impressive and ever-changing range, mainly from local West Country
breweries, include Branscombe Vale, Exe Valley, Otter, O'Hanlons, Palmer's,
Moor, Teignworthy, Blackawton, and Topsham & Exminster. There are guests
beers, too, from further afield (Adnams Broadside makes a regular
appearance), and now as winter approaches, there will soon be some
dangerously potent high-gravity 'winter warmers'. No lager is available.
Says Caroline, "Our ale has always been kept in the traditional manner and
we are proud to have this recognition for the cellarkeeping skills that have
been handed down through the generations of my family in the inn."
There is always the fear that such national recognition could spoil a place,
and attract the hoardes, the hooray henrys and henriettas descending
on this quiet backwater pub to spoil our local. Well,
the Bridge was momentarily famous as the first - and only - pub ever visited by
HM the Queen and it was busier for a while. But things soon settled
back down to normal and nothing has changed since.
So here's raising a glass (mine's a Branoc) to Caroline, Rhiannon, Nigel and all at the Bridge.
It's a great place and I urge all beer lovers to make your way down this way
(but not all at once, please).
Marc
-
How about some socca, piping hot out of the oven, broken into pieces and passed around on platters for your guests to enjoy with their fingers while milling around, the chickpea flour 'pancake' washed down with nice chilled tumblers of gutsy Tavel rosé. Or, if your guests are already seated around a table, how about great informal feast of crudités, beautiful fresh and varied produce, whatever's available - raw fennel, celery, beautifully ripe tomatoes, organic carrots, yellow, red and green peppers, plus country bread toasted over a wood fire - to dip into bowls of pungent, garlicky anchoïade. This garlicy feast would go well with any number of southern Grenache based Côtes du Rhônes, young and fruity but still with enough body to stand up to the robust flavours of the sun-drenched South of France. Perhaps a Gigondas or a Vacqueyras?
MP
-
I'd like to do this, but sorry WG, all those dates are bad for me. I can't generally do Wed or Fri evenings and evenings are better than lunches.
I'm fairly easy since it's just around the corner from me so I am happy to try and work in whenever you're able to head down this way (Mon evenings difficult for me).
Just an idea: I'm organising a wine dinner at Michael Caines at the Royal Clarence on Monday November 15 that you or WG (or anyone else down this way) might be interested in attending. The evening will centre around the wines of Cascina Fontana (Gavi, Dolcetto d'Alba, Nebbiolo, Barolo) with my good friends winemakers Mario and Luisa Fontana coming out for the event from their home in Castiglione Falleto. Head chef Simon Dow in consultation with Michael is putting together a stunning autumn menu (risotto, venison) to complement the wines. We'll be taking over the whole restaurant as it's a fund raising event for Ride for Life/FORCE in aid of the Force Cancer Support Centre Appeal. Tickets will cost £60 per head and it should be a great night of food, wine and friends. I'd be delighted if you (or anyone else) would care to join us. But places are going fast, so PM if you're interested.
Marc
-
Russ's advice is spot on. I was there a couple of years ago and will be going again this year. The Salone is vast (it takes place in the immense Lingotto Fiere) and there will be some truly astonishing and wonderful things to sample, not just from Italy but from around the world. You need to be selective with the taste workshops but they can be great opportunities to taste and learn. At such events, I inevitably flag after a day or two, so we'll be heading south to Alba to stay with a winemaker friend for a day or so for some r & r in the form of Barolo and white truffles.
-
Bravo! What a magnificent menu in homage to Le Tour and le velo!
As for your gateau Paris-Brest, this brings back warm recent memories. I rode Paris-Brest-Paris last year and at the pre-ride meal before the 10pm start we were served these delicious individual little cakes, shaped like a bicycle wheel. An unforgettable start to an unforgettable ride.
Marc
-
That sounds fine. And when? God knows. Just pick a date when you can. I'm coming a little way, so don't fit in especially for me.
I'm easy (though Mon and Wed are generally not good for lunch). Slacker, are you coming to Exeter or up this way for any other reason sometime in the coming weeks? Wgallois, what are good days for you? If not for lunch, then early evening is always a possibility, retiring aftwards to The Bridge. Here's a good, friendly b & b if you don't fancy the trek back to Padstow.
-
Isn't the thing about this cut (Korean-style) that it should be cut thinly crosswise -- so you have a lot of thin slices each of which has several bits of bone in it? Does it work with the bigger pieces of bone or do you have to bone them? Seems like it might be too chewy.
Balex, this may be what you've been served in Korean restaurants (for the record, kalbi is often too sweet for my taste in many Korean restaurants, and I want big pieces of meat with charred fat, not fussy little strips). Believe me, provided you can get your mitts on short ribs, kalbi home-prepared and -cooked over charcoal is infinitely better than you'll ever get most anywhere. Pieces with big bones are just fine: the key is to trim and carefully prepare the meat by butterflying it out (as in the pic above) and then score the meat carefully in a diamond pattern. Short ribs are a slow braise cut, but when prepared like this from good marbled meat, and marinaded overnight to tenderize, there is no better meat cooked on a grill! On the other hand, I readily acknowledge that some prefer the tender sticky flavour of braised short ribs to the more toothsome delights of char-grilled: if that's your cup of boricha, then use the same marinade (but don't bother butterflying), cover with water, and slow braise until the meat is falling off the bone. Either way is great.
Magnolia, I've heard great things about the Ginger Pig. Take your butcher up on his offer toute suite (you might want to print out a pic of Moby's chart or the photo of the short ribs above to show him and to make sure you get what you want).
Here's the way we've always cooked kalbi (recipe comes basically from Flavours of Korea):
Kalbigui
1 kg beef short ribs, cut into 2 inch pieces
For the marinade
6 tablespoons soy sauce (I prefer Kikkoman)
2 tablespoons sesame oil
5 fat garlic cloves, crushed and finely chopped
2 in piece of fresh ginger, peeled, crushed and finely chopped
4 spring onions shredded on the diagonal
1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds
3 teaspoons sugar
Freshly ground black pepper
While keeping the meat attached to the bone, slice it away in 1 or 2 layers to butterfly it. Score deeply in a diamond pattern (it doesn't matter of some of the meat becomes detached). Place the ribs in a large bowl, mix all the marinade ingredients together, and pour over the meat. Massage with your hands to mix well. Refrigerate overnight (mixing from time to time). To cook, prepare a charcoal fire and when the coals have just gone white hot, grill until the fat is crisp and charred, about 5 minutes a side. Serve with steamed white rice, kimchi, and other namul or salads. (Note, the same marinade can be used on good sirloin steak, pounded lightly and scored into a diamond pattern, to make another Korean favourite, bulgogi).
-
I'm all for the fish shed. New ground!
Would be delighted to meet, either at The Fish Shed or The Nobody or the Drewe Arms in Broadhembury.
Understand, The Fish Shed is just that, a wet fish shed selling a great array of fish and shellfish, all landed at nearby Exmouth, with an Aussie style fish & chips as an added bonus. You either select any fish from what is on offer, or from the fish & chips menu (there are also daily specials) and David Kerley (or his grill chef) will cook it for you - batter fried or grilled - with excellent chips, either to take away or to eat in the outdoor courtyard in good weather or at outdoor picnic tables set in the cornfield (no kidding).
Sea bass & chips, monkfish & chips, divers scallops and chips, plaice & chips, or even just good old cod & chips, I'm sure we all agree, must be eaten the precise moment they are produced and handed over to you, standing up if you must, while the fish is still finger-burningly, pipingly hot, straight from the fryer, splashed with malt vinegar, a shake of salt, and eaten with the fingers. So a possibility would be to meet at The Fish Shed, order and devour our fish & chips not in a leisurely fashion but, what shall we say, con allegro, order a second batch of different fish to be prepared while we're eating the first (perhaps try the grilled this time), devour again, wipe the grease and homemade tartar sauce from our chins, and then repair 400 yards or so down the road to relax and settle in for some more leisurely and extended conversation over a few pints of Branoc at the famous Bridge Inn.
How does that sound, and when? Anybody else care to join us?
Marc
-
Hi wgallois,
Thanks for the great update on Exeter and surrounds. Barton Cross has been around for nearly 30 years, and it's almost that long since we were last there. Clearly time for a revisit! Sun Dogs is a new one on me, will definitely try it soon.
In fact we were working in Exeter yesterday and had time for just a quick lunch. We went to a place on North Street called The Conservatory and it was pretty good. Just a quickie 2-course lunch for £8.95, but I enjoyed a really rich shellfish bisque followed by lambs liver and onions, while K had an interesting chicken and walnut salad and a plate of pasta with a nice fresh tomato sauce. Washed down with some interesting Portuguese wines by the glass. Worth a try, especially for the bargain lunch.
(Speaking of bargain lunches, the Times Dine with Wine promotion is currently on again, and around here both Michael Caines at the Royal Clarence as well as The Galley, Topsham, are taking part again - 2-course lunch with a glass of Bordeaux wine for a tenner.)
Certainly agree about the Sharpham estate: excellent farmhouse cheeses, notably the ultra-rich rind-ripened brie types made from Jersey milk. I like their wines, too. Best cheese shop around now is Country Cheese on Fore Street, Topsham. Almost exclusively West Country, probably 50-60 different cheeses (including the full Sharpham range), all kept in immaculate condition. The breads, available two or three times a week, are good too.
Have you yet tried fish & chips from The Fish Shed at Dart's Farm? David Kerley (formerly of The Galley) is producing some really good stuff here, any selection of fish and shellfish from his wet fish counter, batter fried (batter made with local Branscombe beer) or grilled. His batter fried diver's scallops are simply sensational, while sitting out with a bowl of mussels and chips is almost like being in, well, Topsham. There are picnic tables in the cornfield and we sometimes pop along for a takeaway to enjoy with our own wine.
Slacker, we could do worse than meet up here, and afterwards repair to the nearby Bridge Inn.
MP
-
Kalbi, prepared (trimmed and butterflied) and marinading
Plan is to select the best pieces for char-grilling and to soy braise the rest in the pungent marinade. Serve with steamed shortgrain brown rice, a green salad, and thinly sliced cucumbers, first salted then drained and squeezed, and dressed in vinegar, sugar and piri piri chilies.
MP
-
My beautiful short ribs!
Note the lovely interleaving of fat and meat. The rib in the back has been butterflied out and scored in a diamond patten, ready to marinade and then chargrill.
-
Major big time success, I'm delighted to report!
Went in first thing this morning (after the school run) to Dart's Farm, a remarkable food shopping concept combining genuine farm shop, food hall, deli, great wet fish counter, and butcher Gerald David from Exmoor (plus now Fired Earth and AGA to give an idea of the target market). Have been using this butcher for years and years, though I also use Arthurs here in town: we're lucky, both are excellent. But I've never before had any luck, as I explained, with short ribs.
So this morning, I caught Barry while they were slow (usually the place is heaving) and asked him for Jacob's ladder, with the qualification that what I really wanted was American short ribs. He brought me out a piece of what he said he would call Jacob's ladder, but he knew it wasn't quite what I wanted (though it was close). In fact what he next pulled out was exactly as Jack described: a whole fore rib, from which the short ribs would be cut off from the tips. Usually, he explained, they'd either cut the bone say 8 inches down (these are long foreribs) and tuck around to make a standing fore rib, or else they'd bone out and roll for a boneless fore rib joint. But he was quite happy to saw off 6 inches or so (to the point where it starts to broaden out and get too meaty), then saw those pieces in half again, and divide into perfect short ribs for me.
This is prime Ruby Red beef, bred for flavour not leanness and hung for a good 3 weeks. The delicious point about short ribs is that at this tip end of the rib, there are layers of meat and fat interleaved. This is what is so outrageously fantastic when cooked Korean style for kalbi: the meat first scored to the bone (or butterflied out, LA style) then marinated in soy sauce, garlic, ginger, sesame and spring onions, and cooked over hot charcoal (not too hot, not too low: the fire's gotta be just right so that the meat cooks while the fat sizzles and chars - no question, that charred, marinaded, slightly burnt fat is the best damn bit all and for me what makes kalbi one of the greatest foods on earth).
So the happy conclusion is this: with your help I've managed to procure a much longed for, previously unobtainable cut of meat and now know how to explain precisely what I want. Also Barry charged me top rib price (which is always the cheapest cut on special here, £3.95 per kilo, so I got over 5 kgs of beautiful American short ribs for around 20 quid, which I think is pretty darn good).
Now if I can find where imagegullet has disappeared to, I'll post a picture for ocular proof.
Incidentally, Gerald David sell on-line and are even now, so I was informed, supplying ribs of Red Ruby beef from Devon as well as Exmoor lamb to Simpson's in the Strand (for Simpson's they hang the beef 4 weeks!). Short ribs aren't on the normal meat list, however, and I'm not sure I'd trust ordering on line without first speaking to someone.
Marc
-
...So I guess what I'm saying is...buyer beware and all that!!
That's exactly what has happened to me over the years that I've tried, Magnolia. Disappointment and utterly costly disappointment at that (short ribs, after all, are NOT an expensive cut, that's the whole point of them, goddamit!).
This is why I haven't attempted to get them for what, probably nearly a decade now. So what's different? In those days, your average provincial High Street butcher was unlikely to venture beyond the straight and narrow; today we have two excellent local butchers who trumpet the source and breed of livestock and offer meat that is far better - and more interesting - than it was ever in the past. British beef is damn good and if I could get it, then the kalbi, I'm certain, would be absolutely amazing. So I'll have another crack at it tomorrow, armed with Moby's diagram, in first to Arthur's and then to Gerald David's to ask for Jacob's ladder...But I ain't holding my breath.
On the other hand, I have to say that it is not just British butchers who can be as stubborn as the proverbial ox. When my mother lived near Harvard Square in Cambridge MA, her local grocery stores was Savenors, a small gourmet shop made famous not least because Julia Child (who at the time lived around the corner) used to shop there. I remember going in and trying to buy some shin of beef for a daube that we cook often here. Shin is just perfect for the slow braising as it yields the most delicious gelatinous texture to this one pot feast. The butcher at this rather snooty shop wouldn't sell me shin, said it would be inedible, and insisted that I have chuck instead. It wasn't what I wanted at all and turned out dry and tough to boot. I learned my lesson though: not to be talked into having cuts of meat (almost always more expensive cuts) that I don't want just because the butcher can't be arsed to cut specially what I ask for.
So if those short ribs, cut from Moby's Jacob's ladder, are what I want, well, then, I'm not going to have them (he says with brave determination).
Marc
-
Thanks for the diagram, Moby, very similar to in The Joy. Is this for British cuts or American, I wonder. And I'll definitely ask my butcher for Jacob's Ladder or Flanken though I wonder if these are regional or local terms?
M
-
If you look in the Joy of Cooking...
Thanks, Endless, now how did you know that I'd happen to have a copy of 'The Joy' on hand? Well, I suppose everyone does, no? (In fact, I've got two copies, the first my mother's battered copy, jacket falling apart, published in 1952, and our own anglicized version, published in 1963 reprinted 1974 by JM Dent). This is a book, as everyone knows, that has changed significantly with each new edition, and the latter ones, in our experience, are no where near as good as the earlier - or perhaps it's just that my mother's version produces foods that taste like, well, like my mother cooked... But I digress.
Thanks, Jack and Moby, for your suggestions. In my experience, it's not ever quite so easy, I think because the British way of butchering a beef side is fundamentally different from the American (just as continental cuts are fundamentally different). To produce short ribs as I want them would mean the butcher losing other bits (probably roasting joints?) that the British public demands. Cutting against the grain, just goes, well, against the grain, it seems and butchers are reluctant to do so. So, although over the years I have attempted to get short ribs here, I've never quite succeeded.
But dammit, I'm determined to get my kalbi this time! I think therefore that Jack's DIY suggestion might be the best bet: to purchase a whole wingtip rib joint, say four or five ribs?, then have the meat boned out and rolled, leaving a good inch or so of meat on the bones, and then have the butcher saw across the ribs, cutting them into short pieces. Is that sort of what you mean, Jack, and does it make sense?
Speaking of another favorite cut, impossible to find here, what about London broil? Flank steak just ain't quite the same, not in my book anyway. A good local butcher, Piper's Farm, offers something called feather steak, but though tasty and inexpensive, it has a nasty sinew or tendon running through the middle.
MP
-
One of my favorite US cuts of meat is short ribs but there is not (that I know of) a UK equivalent. I've got a very accomodating local butcher who has great beef, and I'd like to explain, precisely and in a foolproof manner, the cut of meat that I require, where it should come from, how to prepare. If he can do it correctly, I'll gladly stock up the freezer for short ribs are undoubtedly one of the most satisfying and delicious of all cuts, for my taste at least.
What do I like to do best with short ribs? Numero uno is kalbi-gui, Korean barbequed short ribs, marinated in soy sauce, lots of garlic and ginger, spring onions, sesame oil and toasted and crushed sesame seeds. We like two-inch (or so) short ribs, really meaty and with a good layer of fat that will go crunchy and charred when cooked over hot coals. My grandmother used to butterfly the meat, laying it back from the bone and scoring in a diamond pattern before grilling.
Or else, since it's getting cooler and there is no point in denying any longer that summer is indeed gone, we might prepare kalbi-tchim, short ribs braised in soy sauce, garlic and ginger, cooked for a good couple of hours until the meat is literally falling off the bone, and the resulting sauce in thick and sticky. Or braise in wine or beer with tasty organic root vegetables.
So my question is very simple: how do I describe to my butcher the preparation of this simple and basic cut of beef? I've tried over the years, had fore ribs sawed into pieces, tried top rib, etc, but it's never been quite right. So I'd love to hear from anyone with intimate knowledge of US and UK butchering techniques who can help.
Marc
English breakfast
in United Kingdom & Ireland: Cooking & Baking
Posted · Edited by Marco_Polo (log)
While we're on the subject, what about the unpalatable sounding hog's or white pudding. It seems to be popular here in the West Country, but it looks and, well, sounds so bloody disgusting that I've never tried it, never seen it as an option in a fry-up anywhere, nor do I know anyone who has ever admitted eating. But my butcher has it so someone must buy and eat it on a regular basis. Don't think it's a northern thang, so anyone down this way care to enlighten me on what I've been missing all these years.
Needless to say this hog's or white pudding seems to bear no resemblance or relation whatsoever to that most sublime, creamy, finely textured delicacy, the boudin blanc.
Come to think of it, black pudding has become a trendy item that appears more and more regularly just about everywhere, so I wonder: could white pudding be the next big thing?! When GR starts waxing lyrical about it, then I know we're doomed.
MP