German Butterballs with Carrot Puree and Rhubarb Short Ribs

Clintonhillbilly here. We made a list today of all of the meals we plan to make this week and all of the ingredients we needed to buy. Then we went to the farmer's market in Mar Vista on our way to a friend's house for brunch and got as much as we could there, and the Duchess stopped by Ralph's later for the rest. The thing about cooking so much is that the kitchen gets so messy every day! Maybe we are making too many things? Well, I am planning to enter a short rib recipe contest this week on food52.com, so I picked up some bone-in short ribs at the farmer's market. I've only cooked short ribs once before, in a slow cooker, and they were okay but not great. I made up a recipe for a rhubarb barbecue sauce awhile back, so I turned that sauce into a braising liquid by adding more red wine and vegetable broth. I browned the ribs in a cast iron skillet and then poured in my sauce with a sprig of rosemary and some celery, carrots and garlic. It came out very well! But the short ribs were mostly fat as it turned out.

The Duchess roasted some German butterball potatoes we got at the farmer's market, and they were delicious! They really do taste buttery, even more intensely so than Yukon Golds. She topped them with a carrot puree she made a few days ago involving cumin, chickpeas, yogurt, and honey, and it was excellent.

Our attempts at yuca chips with our newly purchased mandoline didn't end up so well-- lesson learned, when you have paper thin slices you have to watch them much more carefully to make sure they don't burn.

We had a little salad of a spicy greens mix from the farmer's market with chopped apple, sliced red onion, and olive oil and malt vinegar that was a nice snack while we were cooking everything else. I really like malt vinegar on salad, and I think it goes especially well with apples.

Finally, the Duchess made a green curry chicken recipe with tofu by Aarti of Aarti Party on Food Network. It was surprisingly bland. The original was with chicken, but still, I don't think that would have made the difference between a good and bad recipe. Our spices are old though, and I'm sure it would have been better if we ground them fresh. And maybe the onion was too big/powerful? She also made a pomegranate-cucumber raita to go with it with Greek yogurt which was quite nice.

Recipe of the day: Braised Short Ribs with Rhubarb Wine Sauce

Sauce:
A few small stalks rhubarb
1/2 cup coffee
1 1/2 cup red wine
1 1/2 cup vegetable broth
1 tbsp yellow mustard
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp worcestershire sauce
1/4 tsp cloves
2 tbsp ancho chili powder
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup ketchup
1 tsp salt
several grinds fresh black pepper
sprig of rosemary

Ribs:
2 short ribs
1/2 red onion, cut into large chunks
4 garlic cloves
1 celery stalk with leaves

The quantities of ingredients are approximate because I kept adding things as I went along. Originally I had less wine and broth, but the cloves were a bit overwhelming so I added more until it tasted right. Also, the ketchup I used was unsweetened, so if you have sweetened ketchup you may want to add sugar more sparingly.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Cook rhubarb with a little water and half the sugar until soft and mush, then mash up with a fork. Add all other sauce ingredients and bring to a boil, then simmer for about twenty minutes.

Brown ribs in a cast iron skillet. With a properly seasoned cast iron skillet, oil is not necessary. Pour off some of the rendered fat, then add onion, garlic, and celery. Pour sauce over ribs and vegetables, and cover with foil. Place in the oven for twenty minutes, then loosen foil and turn heat down to 325 degrees. Leave it in here for at least an hour, until the meat is super-tender and can easily be pulled off the bone with a fork.

To serve, take out the ribs and spoon a little sauce over them on the plate. It's a pretty rich dish, and it went well with potatoes, but I also think it would go well with rice.