Cooking with "All About Braising" by Molly Stevens (Part 1)

[Marlene]

i did them this weekend. of course, i prefer the bone-in ribs, but the costco ones lured me because (1) i was there and (2) they looked awfully good, even without their bones. they were fabulous....i took them to a friend's house, and even though we had had a million appetizers, people were groaning over their goodness, and fighting over the left-overs. reallly, really tasty and tender. i braised them about 3 1/2 hours and did not tie them. (i added a touch of tomato paste when sauteing the veg, but otherwise followed the recipe faithfully.)

thanks, marlene...can't wait to do them again...hopefully it will be braising weather here soon!

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Glad you liked them! They truly are my favourite way to braise short ribs.

[Rover]

I made the Lamb Shanks Braised with Lentils & Curry and really liked it, so did my guests. Molly's recommendation of "passing lemon wedges or a small cruet of good-quality red wine vinegar at the table" was an excellent suggestion - it does add a nice little zing to the finished dish.

The description of earthy flavours is entirely accurate and those elegant little Le Puy lentils work very well.

I'll keep this in my ever expanding lamb shank collection.

I'm going to be enjoying some leftovers this evening.

Rover

[eje]

Red Cooked a whole bone in pork shoulder last night.

For a sauce, I added about 3/4 pounds of seeded fresh jujubes (Chinese Dates) near the end of the cooking time, cooked until soft, pulled them out, and pureed them with some of the braising liquid.

So tasty!

[eje]

Forgot, my wife took some pictures of our dinner preparations.

Shelling (cranberry?) beans:

Dragonfruit (jujubes in bag in backgroud):

Adding Jujubes to cooking pork shoulder:

Cranberry beans, Tuscan Kale, and pork hock:

Dragonfruit, cut:

Yeah, the courses were a little schizo with the roast pork with jujube sauce being Asian in style and the greens and beans being American/Southern. Our friends brought mashed sweet potatoes over as the starch.

Strangely, everything tasted really good together. I guess I got lucky.

The dragonfruit was a post-dessert treat.

Edited October 1, 2006 by eje (log)

[Marlene]

Made the Caribbean Pork Shoulder from Molly's book on Saturday night. This recipe continues to be one of my favourites.

[tejon]

I made Chicken and Pork Adobado tonight. Delicious, though the pork didn't get as tender as I would have liked in the amount of time given. Next time I would start the pork simmering first, giving it about a 15-20 minute head start on the chicken and braising for an hour and fifteen minutes instead of the 40-50 minutes suggested. This one is a keeper, with slight modification.

[Eilen]

I just got this book for my birthday and decided to start off simple with the Yankee Pot Roast Redux. It's still in the oven but it smells great and the little piece of meat I couldn't resist tearing off was delicious. I've always used the Cook's Illustrated method for pot roast but not anymore! Excellent time of year to acquire this kind of cookbook...

[snowangel]

I just got this book for my birthday and decided to start off simple with the Yankee Pot Roast Redux.  It's still in the oven but it smells great and the little piece of meat I couldn't resist tearing off was delicious.  I

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In our house, I don't tear off pieces, rather they just "fall" off .

Do go through this topic and make notes in the book. I think there's a general consensus that she recommends too high a temp. This topic has lots of hints on how to get the most out of the recipes and perhaps improve on them. I gave copies of the book last year for Christmas to my three close college buddies, and sat and made notes in each on on the recipes that needed notes!

[Della]

I made the chicking fricassee with artichokes and and mushrooms the other night and it was really good! The flavors melded together and the sauce was to die for (at least IMHO). Definately a keeper!

Dropped oven temp to 300 but other than that did the recipe exactly as directed.

[Chufi]

Made the chicken with soy sauce, star anise and orange today. I always have good, thick syrupy ketjap manis in the pantry, so I used that instead of the soy sauce and sugar. I do feel that soy sauce and sugar is definitely not the same as ketjap manis, so if you can find ketjap I would highly recommend using it for this recipe.

I used a fresh hot chili, chopped up, and before thickening the sauce with cornstarch I strained it because I wanted a smooth sauce.

The chicken came out very tender and flavorful, and the sauce is fantastic.. I wanted to spoon it up like soup. Beautiful flavors from the anise and the orange.

Edited October 8, 2006 by Chufi (log)

[Eilen]

Do go through this topic and make notes in the book.  I think there's a general consensus that she recommends too high a temp.  This topic has lots of hints on how to get the most out of the recipes and perhaps improve on them.  I gave copies of the book last year for Christmas to my three close college buddies, and sat and made notes in each on on the recipes that needed notes!

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Thank you Susan, I shall do just that. I actually did start off at 300F, then turned my oven down to 275F for the last couple of hours. The meat turned out great--I used a chuck roast--the liquid was a bit too salty but that was my fault.

[Jensen]

I feel like I'm a little late to the party but I am so ready to start braising!

My old non-stick hard anodized braising pan has been relegated to the shop (the non-stick surface lifted), to be replaced with Daniel Boulud's braising roaster (can't afford Le Crueset). Amazon tells me that it shipped yesterday.

In anticipation of its arrival, I visited Tawanda Meats' web page and ordered their "Winter Warmers" package.

This thread is just filled with great tips. Now I just need a copy of the book!

[Anko]

What a terrific thread! Time to finally get my feet wet...

Chengdu Pork with Daikon Radish

We frequent a great Szechuan restaurant here in Palatine, Illinois, so I wanted to try this dish. The key is the Szechuan peppercorns, which took an afternoon to find.

The twist here is that the braise happens with the lid off (so then is it really a braise?) which I suppose, concentrates the heat. And given the end result, that might not have been too desirable.

As for the end product, it was fantastic. It was strange getting those "mysterious" Szechuan flavors at home. However, I didn't get feeling back in my tongue and gums for a few days, so I'll probably cut back on the hot bean paste and peppercorns a little next time. But I guess that would be missing the point.

Next up: Pork Belly and Boy Choy

[snowangel]

Meant to add that I did the Coq au Vin the other night. It is a mighty tasty, but not very visually appealing dish, as shown here.

The only change (other than temp) that I would make in this recipe is that I would not include chicken breasts. Add some extra thighs and save the breasts for something else. Or, add them later in the braise.

[Chufi]

Made the end-of-summer green beans today and they were fantastic. Even my husband who doesn't really like green beans loved them. They braised for an hour and were really sweet and succulent.

I followed the recipe exactly except .. I used fresh thyme instead of dried oregano.

I did have to boil quite vigurously at the end to concentrate the sauce.

A keeper!

[Eilen]

I decided last week to do the short ribs with wine and porcini. I'm thinking now that I should have read through this thread before starting. The result was good, but not great for the amount of work/time put into the recipe. I did change a few things, I put crumpled parchment inside the pot directly over the meat, tied the ribs in case they fell apart, and started about fifteen degrees lower than called for. I had a heck of a time keeping the simmering constant. Sometimes the liquid wouldn't be moving at all, so I turned the heat up only to check twenty minutes later and it was simmering too quickly.

Oh, and I soaked the porcini for a few hours instead of the half hour called for, which may have been a mistake as the flavor overpowered anything else. I think next time, I'll just use Marlene's recipe, which I've done a few times and has been so far my favorite.

Would anyone say the chicken and pork dishes are better, in general, than the beef braises?

[Bella S.F.]

We made Marlene's short ribs on Sunday. The flavor was amazing. We tasted the gravy before we added the mustard and it was so rich and yummy that we did not add the mustard. It was wonderful over garlic mashed potatoes. The only thing I wasn't thrilled with was the texture of the meat. One of the times that We checked the pot and turned the ribs, it was boiling a little too strongly. I don't know if that could have anything to do with the meat ending up a little chewy. Now I want to adapt the same recipe to something else, perhaps a roast or a stew.

Thanks Marlene! By the way... where did that recipe come from?

[Marlene]

We made Marlene's short ribs on Sunday. The flavor was amazing. We tasted the gravy before we added the mustard and it was so rich and yummy that we did not add the mustard. It was wonderful over garlic mashed potatoes. The only thing I wasn't thrilled with was the texture of the meat. One of the times that We checked the pot and turned the ribs, it was boiling a little too strongly. I don't know if that could have anything to do with the meat ending up a little chewy. Now I want to adapt the same recipe to something else, perhaps a roast or a stew.

  Thanks Marlene! By the way... where did that recipe come from?

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The recipe originally came from Bon Appetit, but they had so much liquid in their's I had to cut it way back and I made a couple of other changes. I think the boiling strongly will contribute to a chewier meat. It's really important to braise so that the liquid is barely bubbling.

[snowangel]

Yep, Marlene's right. Barely burbling, and since I think most ovens cycle on and off, if it's not really burbling, don't worry, unless that continues for quite some time. Plus, the more peeking you do, the less burbling you'll see. Remember, every time you open the oven, and haul the LC out and open the lid, you are losing heat!

[C. sapidus]

I made the soy-braised chicken thighs with star anise and orange peel. We had ketjap manis around so we used it. The chicken was tender and juicy, and the sauce was very nice if a bit bland for my taste. Next time I’ll use a few more chilies and perhaps reduce the sauce further.

I had to increase the temperature from 325F to 350F before the braising liquid started bubbling. Our oven seems to run cooler compared with others who have cooked from this book. For what it is worth, the oven thermostat and a separate oven thermometer agree exactly.

Anyway, here is what it looked like.

[snowangel]

I made the soy-braised chicken thighs with star anise and orange peel. We had ketjap manis around so we used it. The chicken was tender and juicy, and the sauce was very nice if a bit bland for my taste. Next time I’ll use a few more chilies and perhaps reduce the sauce further.

I had to increase the temperature from 325F to 350F before the braising liquid started bubbling. Our oven seems to run cooler compared with others who have cooked from this book. For what it is worth, the oven thermostat and a separate oven thermometer agree exactly.

Anyway, here is what it looked like.

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Beautiful, Bruce!

But you remind me that when I did this dish, I did up the chilies. One other recipe that I found "lacking" was the bisteccas, where she calls for the roasted poblanos (and please, forget the potatoes, and opt for another starch, please!), in which the amount called for is clearly inadequate. You mentioned that you needed to up the heat (which I didn't when I made this dish), but aside from the temp issues, I do think that Molly could be upping the umfh factor on some of these dishes. A bit more of the chilies, a couple more poblanoes, a bit more lime...just a bit more of what can make these dishes so spectactular.

[artisan02]

I made Chicken and Pork Adobado tonight. Delicious, though the pork didn't get as tender as I would have liked in the amount of time given. Next time I would start the pork simmering first, giving it about a 15-20 minute head start on the chicken and braising for an hour and fifteen minutes instead of the 40-50 minutes suggested. This one is a keeper, with slight modification.

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I made that tonight and found out the pork took much longer to cook. I think I ended up cooking the entire dish about twice as long... Part of that may be due to the fact that I am at about 6000 or more feet elevation.

Christine

[Eilen]

On Thursday, I decided to make the Chicken Breasts braised with Hard Cider and Parsnips--it turned out wonderful! I didn't change much of the original recipe; just dropped the hard cider to 1 1/2 cups and substituted a cup of light chicken stock for a bit more balance--I felt all cider would have been a bit too sweet. It felt like a very autumnal dish with the cider and the sweet parsnips and a bit of bacon to even out the sweetness. I really recommend this dish.

Tomorrow night, it's Molly's braised game hens with sage stuffing! Can you tell I'm pleased to finally have this book?

[santo_grace]

I made the Braised Pork Chops with Creamy Cabbage. While I was very pleased with cabbage and the taste of the pork chops, they chops were not as tender as I would have liked. They were a bit thicker than the 1" she called for. Do you think I should have let them braise longer?

[meredithla]

I'm trying to catch up with this thread. I've gotten the book from the library and made the braised endive with prosciutto-LOVED IT! I made Marlene's short ribs instead of an ABB recipe. They were wonderful and my husband asked for a loaf of bread to sop up the delicious sauce. I'm making it again this week.

I've also made the sausages with plums, a good fall/winter combo (although my plums were not very good).

Then tried with Whole Chicken Braised with Pears and Rosemary. We didn't love it. The pear and the rosemary didn't really come through. I'd rather have a roasted chicken. However, a few days later I took the leftover chicken and the stock/sauce and simmered quinoa in it until it was absorbed, added the extra chicken and scallions. Bingo! The flavor of the stock was so rich. I also peeled the skin off the chicken and crisped it up to cracklings. Rave reviews.