Beef Short Ribs and Orzo Casserole

Sunday April 12 was dedicated to one thing: getting to 9pm and episode one of the fifth season of "Game of Thrones." But we still had to eat. During our morning coffee ritual, Ann asked the question, "Do you have any meat?" As in, were there any unloved proteins in the cooler at work?

Poking around the cooler at work yielded some local beef short ribs: the amount Martin's delivered last week was just too much to fit in our braising pan. And Ann had a plan to make an orzo casserole, so we grabbed some of that too while we were in town. I sensed that the short ribs pleased Ann greatly: she's definitely the carnivore in our family. I could live pretty happily without any meat at all, except for pork. But if I have to eat beef, there is none better than our local beef from Martin's Angus Beef.

Beef Short Ribs

Back at home, I rubbed the ribs with salt and pepper and put them in a 350F oven so that they would be done by dinner time. They ended up in the oven for 5 hours and were as tender as could be.

Lunch

Meanwhile, the kitchen full of great smells was driving us crazy. There is nothing to stoke hunger more than something delicious roasting away in the oven and perfuming the entire house with hunger-inducing scents. We desperately needed to eat some lunch as we binged on the new season of the "Breaking Bad" prequel "Better Call Saul" before watching the last couple of episodes of "Game of Thrones" season 4 in preparation for the season opener, so I warmed up some focaccia in the oven and pulled out a local goat cheese crottin and a salame. If you feel like you've seen this before somewhere on this blog, you might be right. Bread, cheese, and salame is one of our favorite casual meals.

Orzo Casserole with Gruyère and Dill

Ann wasn't feeling super well, so I made her orzo casserole by tossing cooked orzo with a quick chicken stock velouté, grated Gruyère, and fresh dill. The sprinkle of grated pecorino on top browned very nicely after about 45 minutes in the oven.

Orzo Casserole, Roasted Beef Short Ribs

When I say that beef doesn't float my boat, I really mean steak doesn't float my boat. Braised or gently roast beef is a very different matter. I thoroughly enjoyed this delicious meal and judging from the lip smacking sounds across from me, I would say that Ann did too. Even Carter made a rare appearance to eat something other than peanut butter or cereal.

Chipotle-Marinated Grilled Pork and Pineapple Salad

Shockingly yellow daffodils in full glory on Monday at dawn heralded a beautiful spring day, signaling from the moment that the dogs and I stepped outside that morning that we were going to eat dinner outside on the patio for the first time this year, as long as the weather gods did not send us a late afternoon thunderstorm. And I knew then that I was going to grill something for dinner. I am not immune to that same urge to put meat to fire that infects everyone else this time of year. It has been how many cold, dreary, months of leaden skies since I have fired the grill?

And then just after noon while I was at work, the text arrived, "some kind of huge salad for dinner?" Hmm, well, that did kind of put a kink in my plans for something grilled, and by something grilled, I meant a burger, a big, fat, voluptuously delicious, grease dripping down the chin, burger.

Chipotle-Marinated Grilled Pork and Pineapple Salad

My burger-lust unsated and shelved, I started working plan B. Plan B was some means of combining grilled meat with a salad. And Plan B happened to be formulating just as I walked by a huge pile of pineapples at the market. Grilled pineapple? Yeah, I'm a fan. Now what? Heat and sweet? Yes sir! Chipotle and pineapple. It just has to be pork. I'll get some thinly sliced pork shoulder, marinate it in chipotle, grill it, some pineapple, and a sweet pepper, and then build a salad on that. Perfect!

Grilled Pork, Pineapple, Peppers and a Salad on Top

Feeling these same spring urges that I felt, Ann put a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc in the fridge so that it would be cold by the time we both got home. We sat out on the patio and drank our first bottle of white wine of the year. There is something special about that first bottle of white out on the patio, the same patio that had been covered in snow for so many months. Spring, it seems, is finally here!

This dish was beautiful and a good choice for outdoor dining, but damn it, I want a burger!

Crab and Smoked Salmon Benedict

Crab and Smoked Salmon Benedict

I'm really not much of a Benedict fan, but Ann is and so I set out to make one for her on Easter Sunday. She wanted to put the Benedict on a crumpet, but there are no crumpets to be found in our town, and I did not have the desire to make them, although I have promised to make crumpets for her sometime soon.

Lacking crumpets, I borrowed a little bit of creamy Arborio rice pudding from work and mixed in a good bit of grated Pecorino Romano cheese and some fresh chives from the garden. I formed the rice into perfectly circular forms using a ring mold and then seared them in a black steel pan, hot holding them in a very slow oven while the rest of lunch was cooking. Next up were the crab cakes, which also went into the oven to stay warm.

Then I attempted to make a hollandaise and failed utterly. It happens even to us professionals. I was trying to make too small a batch with the wrong equipment. So I went for the handy dandy squeeze bottle of pimentón sauce in the fridge.

The assembly was very straightforward: rice cake down, finely minced smoked salmon next, then crab cake, then poached duck egg, then pimentón sauce, and finally, a few snipped chives.

Although it looks great and was well cooked, the dish didn't really work for me. All the flavors and textures were too similar, a white on white experience for me.

Shrimp and Vegetables

"I want something light!" Ann said on Monday when I asked her what she wanted for dinner. "Your choice, but make it light." We were both suffering from overindulging in meatball subs on Sunday evening. Knowing that we had some shrimp in the freezer, I stopped at the market on the way home and picked up some vegetables.

Shrimp and Vegetables

And knowing that we had a meeting that would keep us out until nearly 8pm, when I got home from the market, I marinated the shrimp in garlic and a couple of packets of sweet-and-spicy pickled turnips and steamed the larger gai lan (Chinese broccoli) stems, then refrigerated them for later. The other vegetables are sugar snaps and baby corn.

When we got home, it was not more than five minutes on maximum flame to bring this stir-fry to the table. We each finished our own bowls with a bit of soy sauce and a touch of spicy chile paste.

Light, bright, easy.

Meatball Subs

Meatball Subs, Marinara for Dipping

Ann and I kicked around a few ideas about dinner early Sunday morning and very quickly, Ann decided she wanted meatball subs. Although we just had them recently, why not again? Meatballs make a great sandwich. Eating them is something of a mess what with all the marinara dripping out of the sandwich, so I made these a little drier and served a bowl of marinara on the side for dipping. Win!

These meatballs are ground pork shoulder with a bit of Salvadoran chorizo left from breakfast, mixed with olive oil, panko, basil, oregano, garlic, and salt. The meatballs go raw into a baking dish and I pour over a quick marinara made in the blender. They bake covered at 350F until they're done or we're ready to take them out, whichever comes first.

To assemble the sandwiches, split the bread and open it up. Brush the cut side with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Broil until the cut side of the bread is brown; alternatively, grill the bread or cook on a griddle, whatever works to get the bread toasted. Lay in the meatballs, top with marinara and then with provolone and then run back under the broiler until the cheese melts. Try not to burn yourself on the first bite!

Writing this made me think of something I hadn't thought of in decades. I used to live on meatball subs in college at UVa, back in the day, at the now demolished university-run snack bar called the Glass Hat. I loved these subs then and I love them now.

Potato and Chorizo Breakfast Scramble

It was noon on Sunday and Ann and I were at the restaurant foraging for ingredients for meatball subs for dinner and we were starving, not yet having eaten. We needed to eat and were discussing what to make for breakfast when she mentioned that we had a bunch of yellow potatoes at home. From there, we got pretty quickly to "Let's pick up some chorizo on the way home and do a breakfast scramble."

Delicious Potato and Chorizo Breakfast Scramble

Dice one yellow potato per person and cook it three-fourths done in a sauté pan. Crumble the chorizo into the pan and brown it. By the time the chorizo is done, the potatoes will be done. Beat well one and a half eggs per person, season to taste (I use salt, pepper, and sriracha), and pour over the potatoes and sausage. Stir occasionally until done.

There is something quintessentially breakfast about potatoes, sausage, and eggs and I'd eat this for breakfast every day if my belly wouldn't grow to be the size of a house!

Linden Vineyards/Pig Out

A few weeks ago a letter arrived at the restaurant inviting us to come to the Linden Preview Tasting on the 22nd. I suppose that this is in lieu of the traditional barrel tasting after all the hoopla with ABC in 2012 about giving people samples of untaxed wine. Seriously. ABC couldn't see that all these people who had a few samples of untaxed wine then went and spent a small fortune on wine and generated some serious sales and excise taxes. Bureaucrats in action. After all the to-do, I am not sure where the law stands, but it seems that barrel tastings are back in swing, though this one only featured a single wine in barrel (or egg, as it were).

The Preview Tasting Line Up

Just before we left the house to drive down to Linden, I rubbed a pork shoulder with my special pork dry rub, placed it on a bed of onion slabs, and put it in a slow oven to roast while we were away, intending on having pulled pork for dinner when we returned. Once at Linden, we chatted with Jim Law for a minute and then headed down into the cellar, where we were joined a few minutes later by Kenny G, our sommelier.

Kenny G

The first wine was part of the 2014 rosé which is not yet blended. We sampled straight out of the concrete egg and I must say that this is the best Virginia rosé that I have ever tasted. Jim told me that it is 100% Cabernet Sauvignon from certain blocks purposefully picked early. Contrast this with prior years when the wine has been made largely via saignage: a vast difference.

Next we tasted the 2013 Chards: Avenius, Boisseau, and Hardscrabble. Avenius is still angular and disjointed showing lots of grapefruit and citrus and acts more like a Sauvignon Blanc than a Chard; give it 5 years to come together and I bet it is awesome. Boisseau is pretty decent this year again as they are picking earlier to preserve acid. Hardscrabble is a mouthful, bountiful neutral oak, sappy acid, and lots of flavors going on. On balance, I love the 2013 Chards.

Then the reds from 2012 in the same order. Avenius has this superior blueberry nose and again is disjointed: the fruit, the acid, and the tannins are all separate. It's a really interesting wine to me and I am looking forward to when it comes together in a few years. Boisseau is a young but ready-to-drink crowd pleaser. The wines from this hot site are always forward. The 2012 Hardscrabble is a baby for sure, tasting youthful and grapy, with a nice underpinning of acid and tannin. I love this wine now, but give it 10 years: it will be a thing of beauty.

Annie is not Happy!

Our Own Private Rosemary Plant

After the tasting, we ordered a bottle of Hardscrabble 2010 and some food and ended up sitting upstairs because it was too chilly outside and the main room was jammed. It is some serious hardship to have to drink Hardscrabble red.

Lunch

After an hour or so over a leisurely lunch with Kenny, we headed back to the house, not really wanting to be out all day. As we pulled into the garage, the wondrous scent of pork assaulted our senses. We managed to hold out for an hour or so, but not much longer than that.

Look at the Bark on this Beast

After a total of five hours in the slow oven, I pulled the pork shoulder out and gave it a poke with my tongs. Ready for sure! I left it on the counter to cool while we watched a bit more TV and continued to drink more Hardscrabble red. Next thing I know, my wife is at the counter pulling the pig to bits and stuffing face! I joined her. So much for a proper dinner. We stood at the counter and jammed way too hot pig in our faces until we could no longer stand! Damn I make some awesome pig! Pig out!