Braised Oxtal with Anise Star

Ingredients
1 Oxtail   3 lb or so
1 red onion
3 garlic cloves
2 cups red wine
4  star anise stars
1-2  bay leaves
8 prunes
beef stock if you want I just used water so I would have the Oxtail taste.
2 clementines
Curly parsley for decoration

Delicious.

I bought a whole Oxtail.

Simply chop it to fit the dutch oven pot or what ever you are using.
There are joints between the bones, you can go for those or simply hack with the butcher's axe.
If you must, just ask the butcher to cut it to smaller parts.
I go with less parts so it is easier to debone at the end.

Fry it in 1 tbsp of oil for 8 minutes till you get some nice color.

Alright
After 8 minutes remove it and place it to the side.
Add the chopped onion.

the garlic and a little of the parsley.

cook for 3 minutes till you get a sear.
Then pour in the wine
Add the star anise , the prunes and the bay leaves.

Add water to cover the most of the meat.
Then place in the oven for 3.5 hours at 300 F.

When you are done, you should be able to easily de-bone the meat using a pair of forks.
Remove the bay leaves, the anise stars, chunks of fat and if you have any gristle.

So, the liquid level can be changed by how you like your sauce.

This is the pasta I used, Pappardelle.

I also added the clementine or blood orange, I removed the seeds etc and it was  added then cooked for only 2-3 minutes to keep their partial shape.

Well this is the results, it is a little sweet for meat and delicious.
But don't take my word, try it yourself.

Lamb Breast

Lamb Breast.



So let's describe it.
This cut is
Skin
Fat
Meat
Fat
meat
Bone
The fat content on this piece of meat is very high. So take into account you will need to hit the gym
afterwards.

It takes 3 hours or so to cook it and I got it 90% right on the first time.
Here is the link to the video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpqrwDZEwqY

It's probably one of the better video explanations I have seen.
Watch and learn.

Enjoy the cut.

Turkey Kebabs

Turkey Kebabs  

So, you are hungry and want a quick meal.

Love Kebabs and can't stand sausages.

Can't find someone to sell you Kebab skewers.

Well, you hit the right site.

Let's get it on.

I went to the market and met a farmer who grows turkeys. So I bought some ground meat from her. You can get two main types, breast meat, which will be whiter and faster to cook or rich tasty darker meat from the other parts. I went for the darker meat.

About 1 pound for 2 people is a good measure of daily protein.

In general meat, sticks with meat, that sticks with meat. Now when you cook it like a sausage it is not very good. You need something in the middle. It also lowers the cost of the meat. I usually add mint, however it was out of season and they only had some trashy,dead,half rotten samples from Colombia. Since I live in the USA I opted NOT to get that trash and bought some nice curled parsley. Chop it fine, I added half the bouquet.

Same thing with Green onion or scallions

Chop 4-6 stalks.

The goal is to create a spacing between the meat. So it does not need to be very fine.

Add 1 egg, I got some organic, free range, humanely slaughtered ones, they were big and delicious.

Mix in the meat and work it with your hands for 2 minutes.
Notice how it clings to my hands and it will feel watery-ish or slippery

 Ok, so find some bread crumbs and add some to the mix.
The bread crumbs help create a glue-ier or a more glued consistency.
Which will help you to shape the kebab. If you added too much add some oil or water.
I just simply add some little by little till I can shape it.

I got some Kebab Skewers, which are the sticks for shaping kebabs on so you can easily flip them.
However they were too thin and a waste of money. So since the Amriki don't sell proper ones. I simply use my cutlery. For example a knife.

Simply shape the mixture on it and leave yourself a handle or don't, I am tough so I roll my kebabs
with my bare hands, I also eat glass and lift cars with one hand.....

This is the Kebab, put it in the oven on the rack and put something beneath it.
This is turkey so it does not have much fat however a little still falls.
So the base will catch it and keep my oven clean.

The knife in the middle helps for 2 reasons.
1. It helps keep the shape
2. The metal heats faster than the meat so it helps to cook the meat from the inside.

Check it after 10 minutes, every 2 minutes grab a nibble or cut a part open.

What, it's not like I am a Chez 5 star place. So It will be a little messy.

 I added a nice salad of chopped lettuce and chopped cucumber.
The yogurt can be plain or mix some garlic and lemon into it.
You can also tzaziki it which means grind some cucumber into it.

Delicious and takes 20 minutes from start to finish once you know your stuff.
Which is enough time to make rice or Quinoa as a side.
This dish is well worth learning as you can cook it once a week for dinner even if you have a job.
If you want Lamb, simply replace the meat. I alternate between the two to keep my wife's mouth watering at the mention of the word "kebab".

Happy NY.

Ghana peanut butter soup

Ghanaian peanut butter soup.

So, met this woman and she kept going on an on about her favorite dish. Ghana peanut butter soup.
The food in Ghana is simple. Usually it revolves around something called "fufu".
Fufu from the documentary I saw is made with.

(Foto from treehugger- thanks)

 a root called Cassava.

The root is boiled and pounded into a consistency of a dough.


This is a woman doing that labor, by the looks of it in the documentary it seems to be a workout
and barely worth the calories.
Since I don't have the tools or the inclination to spend two hours pounding something I made Amaranth.


But back to the soup.
The recipe is simple.
1/2 peanut butter - I got mine from whole foods they have a machine that grinds it fresh.
2 pieces of chicken leg - I skinned then de-boned them then de-grisled them then chopped them to bite size
1 potato
10 mushrooms quarters - this is optional I just added mushrooms cause it is winter.
1 hot pepper - I used a Fresno pepper but you can use stronger ones
http://missvickie.com/howto/spices/peppers/peppersdict.html
The above is a link to peppers so you can recognize them.
1/2 cup of cilantro -  I just like adding some green.
2 garlic cloves
2 small onions - I don't go for sweet ones but you can.
1 can of tomatoes- I used chopped so I could have some tomato texture.


The cooking is simple.
Fry the chicken for 5. You can add oil I skipped this as it is new years diet.
Add the chopped onion fry for 3
Add the vegetables you want, just make them small
add the potato, make it small.
I ground the pepper, cilantro, 1/4 onion in a food processor however it died in action so I ended up working
on my fine chopping skills.
Add this concoction too.
Then add the tomatoes and water.
The last part is the peanut butter simply melt it with hot water and add it too.
Adjust the seasoning and leave it for 90 minutes.

Now, some pieces of advice.
Don't touch your eyes after working with hot peppers (I never listen to this one)

So after 90 minutes you should have delicious soup.
In Ghana they eat the soup with the pounded Kassava root that took 2 hours of pounding.





I skipped it and simply made Amaranth.
1 part amaranth to 3 parts water on low heat.

Yum, try it.
I am going to get me another serving.