For the past few nights it has been cold and rainy in LA and the perfect weather for a hearty and satisfying dinner. After trying many recipes for short ribs, I think this one stands out as the best. I paired it with mom’s recipe for garlic mashed potatoes.
Braised short ribs with garlic mashed potatoes
Here are the ingredients you will need:
4 pounds short ribs (I get these from Costco)
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 medium onion
2 carrots, chopped
1 large tomato
3 celery ribs
1/2 head garlic
1/4 bunch fresh thyme
1 1/2 cups dry red wine
2 cups low sodium beef stock
4 potatoes
1/3 cup sour cream (I like Trader Joe’s)
2 tablespoons butter
1 whole head garlic, roasted
garlic salt
one 4 pound package of short rib meat from Costco
Heat the olive oil in a large Dutch oven. Add the thyme to infuse the oil. Cut the short ribs into 2 inch pieces and salt and pepper all sides.
Cubed salt and peppered meat
Put the cubed meat in the dutch oven and sear on all sides. Remove and put them on a plate for future use.
Seared meat
Place the onion, garlic, celery, carrot, and tomato into a food processor and blend into a smooth pulp. This looks a bit strange but it will taste great later on.
Sauce ingredients in blender
Blended sauce
Add the vegetable pulp to the dutch oven and season with salt and pepper. Cook for five minutes. Pour in the red wine and beef stock and bring to a boil. Place braised ribs into the dutch oven evenly throughout the sauce and reduce the heat to a simmer.
Short ribs cooking in dutch oven
Simmer 2 1/2 hours until meat is tender. I cover the dutch oven with a lid. Wrap head of garlic in aluminum foil and roast in a 350 degree oven for 45 minutes. When cool, unwrap and squeeze our garlic and reserve.
ingredients for mom's mashed potatoes
Peel and chop potatoes. Put pieces in a pot of boiling hot water and sprinkle with garlic salt. Boil potatoes until ready to mash. Drain potatoes, turn off heat and return potatoes to pot. Add roasted garlic, sour cream, and butter, and mash!
Plate mashed potatoes and top with short ribs and sauce. Enjoy!
Last Thursday evening the Langham Huntington Hotel and Spa held a press event to introduce their new California-bistro style menu for the Terrace restaurant. Chef de Cuisine Loren Lawe, along with the guidance of Executive Chef Denis Depoitre and Executive Sous Chef Christophe Pellier, created the menu with the intention of bringing new flavors to the hotel and the community. Pastry Chef John Quinn created the dessert menu.
Chefs Loren Lawe and Denis Depoitre
The new menu is comprised of an assortment of appetizers, salads, sandwiches, pastas, entrees and “plateaus,” which are meals designed to share among two to eight people. Here are some pics of the new items on the menu:
Osso bucco with creamy polenta and fried parsnips
Western bone-in rib eye with roasted veggies and bearnaise sauce
Roasted duck confit with sweet yams, sauteed cabbage and duck rillette
ham black truffle macaroni and cheese
Slow braised short rib with pastroville artichoke and micro cilantro salad
Whole roasted chicken tagine and couscous
Pastry chef John Quinn showed us how to make sculpted marzipan desserts, here is our favorite – the teddy bear.
marzipan Teddy
Chef Quinn also created dozens of delicious and beautiful desserts, below is the stunning dessert table.
Dessert table at Langham
My friend Dalbert (seen above getting tea to the left of the table) and I selected these tasty treats to sample.
yummy desserts
You can listen to a short interview with chefs Lawe and Quinn on the interview link.
I spoke with Langham Huntington Hotel and Spa Chef Loren Lawe and Pastry Chef John Quinn about the new menu they created for the Terrace restaurant at the Langham. The menu features California-bistro style upscale comfort food.
When the days grow shorter and colder I begin to want to cook more comfort foods. I usually eat out two or three times a week and often do not have the time to make a satisfying winter dinner. On Sundays when I have a few afternoon hours free I head to the kitchen to make some standard classics. Here is a recipe I made last night for a simple and delicious roast chicken, with pics.
Here is what you will need:
1 medium roasting pan
1 4 – 5 pound roasting chicken (I usually get an organic one at Whole Foods)
1 full head garlic
1 lemon
1 bunch thyme
2 carrots
1 parsnip
bag of small red, yellow and purple potatoes
bunch of orange beets
1 onion
3 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper
Vegetables for bottom of pan
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Cut up onions, potatoes, beets, carrots and parsnips (peel these last three) and put them into the bottom of the roasting pan. Chop up a few sprigs of the time, add olive oil and salt and pepper and mix together.
Veggies in pan
Unwrap chicken and take out giblet bag (don’t forget to do this!). Wash chicken well inside and out and rub with 1/2 cut lemon. Salt and pepper entire chicken, don’t forget the inside.
chicken
Stuff chicken with thyme (wrap thyme with butcher string into bundle), 1/2 lemon, and cut garlic (cut whole garlic head in half and stuff it into the inside of the chicken (it’s okay to keep the peel on)).
lemon, thyme and garlic to stuff inside chicken
After stuffing with thyme, lemon and garlic, tie chicken legs together with butcher string. Place chicken on vegetables in the roasting pan. Heat three tablespoons butter in the microwave and when done pour over chicken.
chicken before putting into the oven
Put chicken into oven and roast for 1 1/2 hours, making sure to baste every 1/2 hour. After taking chicken out of oven let it rest for 15 minutes so the juices redistribute. Carve and enjoy!
time to eat
I served a simple chopped salad with the roasted chicken and vegetables, using the ingredients below (basically what I had in my fridge last night):
