Wednesday, January 11, 2012

RECIPE: Blueberry BBQ Braised Short Ribs, Sweet Potato Cakes and Brussels Sprouts - NO ALCOHOL.

Brace yourself this is going to be a long one.....

Kevin and I decided to go completely sober for the entire month of January.  No alcohol means more time for us to experiment with new recipes.  This past weekend's meal was Sweet Potato cakes, Roasted Brussels Sprouts tossed in a fish sauce vinaigrette with Braised Short Ribs in a Blueberry BBQ sauce.  



Did I mention my Grandma bought me a badass food processor for Christmas???  


Grates sweet potatoes in a flash and also sounds like I'm sawing wood in my apartment because it's so loud.  But I LOVE IT!!!!




 Recipe for the sweet potato cakes below:

sweet potato
onion
egg
flour
salt/pepper
oil

Shred the sweet potato, and place its on paper towels to dry it out.  Chop the onion, I used half of an onion.  I recommend squeezing the sweet potato out; it may take a few times to get all the water drained. Mix the onion, egg, flour (about a tbsp- might need a little more), salt/pepper into a bowl with the sweet potato.  Heat oil on medium high heat, and fry thin sized cakes. 


While we waited for the rest of the food to finish; I placed them on a cookie sheet in the oven to stay crisp.  


So the bad news is I don't have detailed pictures of the short ribs braising or the blueberry BBQ sauce making.  Before I remembered to take pictures, the process was already done.  Above is a picture of the short rib simmering in the sauce.

The recipe for this deliciousness is:
short ribs
flour
olive oil
onion
frozen blueberries
ketchup
honey
brown sugar
apple cider vinegar
chopped garlic
chopped ginger
salt/pepper

Lightly flour the short ribs, in a large pot (preferably a dutch oven but I don't have one of those - maybe next Christmas), heat a splash of olive oil on medium high heat.  Place the shorts in the pot and quickly brown the the ribs on each side about 2 mins each.  Remove the ribs, add a little more oil to coat the bottom of the pan and sauté the onions for about 5 mins, add garlic.  After a few mins, add the remaining ingredients.  Add ribs back to the mix and bring to a boil.  Once boiling, lower the heat to a simmer and cover for 4 hours.  

To make the sauce, once the meat is cooked, remove from pot.  I used the magical hand immersion blender I was lucky enough to also get for Christmas (from Kevin).  Adding in a little flour at a time until it reached my desired thickness.  You can use a food processer, blender or strain the blueberries out if you want and just whisk the flour in.



The final and last item we made were the brussels sprouts.  We peeled the outer layer, chopped off the ends and cut them in half.  Make sure to place any layers that might have fallen off on to the baking sheet; these are the pieces that crisp up nice.  Coat with a little olive oil and lightly season with salt and pepper.  Bake in a 400 degree oven for about 15 mins.  While you wait make the fish sauce vinaigrette.  

Wish I could take create for creating this recipe but I totally took it from the Momofuku Cookbook Kev bought me for Christmas (Yes I am one lucky girl - just to mention, I also bought him the same gift, great minds!)


Our version of the fish sauce vinaigrette:
fish sauce
water
rice wine vinegar
sugar
garlic

Whisk the above together, add to taste and then toss the brussels sprouts with the sauce.  



Enjoy all the goodness that was been created.



I might have left out a minor detail; only thing I actually made for this meal were the sweet potato cakes.  Kev made the short ribs, blueberry BBQ sauce and the brussels sprouts (well i did help nail down the taste of the fish sauce vinaigrette)


Not sure if told you how amazing this blueberry BBQ sauce was; so good I could drink it.  So good, that we used it the next day to eat with random food from the fridge.  So friggin good, I want to bottle it so I can give everyone I know a taste.

All in all this was a huge success.  Look out for a post coming soon detailing our "lamb challenge" that we will be doing this weekend.  Yayy for SOBANUARY.!!

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