Warning about recipes. Read this first!

PEANUT SAUCE
Yield: About 2 C

METHOD
1. In a small saucepan, heat the peanut oil over medium heat. When hot, add the red curry paste and sautee until aromatic and slightly browned.

2. Carefully pour in half the coconut milk and whisk until smooth. Add the remaining coconut milk, peanuts, brown sugar, and peanut butter. Stir to combine.

3. Taste the peanut sauce at this point. Evaluate for salty, spicy, and sweet. Adjust as necessary. Only add the fish sauce if you need it, which you may not. I rarely need to add it due to the peanuts and peanut butter I use.

4. Heat thoroughly, being very careful to not let the sauce boil; it will separate and become greasy.

5. When hot, add cilantro, stir, and serve.

NOTES
Red curry paste – The key to this sauce. I do use a commercially produced paste (Mae Ploy), but it’s amazing. I also have my own red curry paste recipe that’s very good, but it’s just a hassle to make, considering the commercial alternative is about $4 for two cups.

Brown sugar vs palm sugar – If you know me at all, and are familiar with Thai cuisine, you’ll be wondering why I cheat and use brown sugar instead of the traditional and authentic palm sugar. The answer is simple: Cost, both time and money. I already have tons of brown sugar around the shop so it’s very easy to scoop and go, whereas the palm sugar is needed in very few recipes AND it has to be chopped off a large block before using.

The flavor profiles of brown sugar vs palm sugar are very similar. Both are sweet and have a slight bitterness to them from molasses. The palm sugar is more mellow in its sweetness, so if you try this recipe with palm sugar, you’ll probably need to increase it by 25% or so. But taste as you go, once it’s in, there’s no removing it!

Fish sauce – For the love of god: Turn on your brain before making this sauce. This dish is salt with salty, more salt, in a sauce of coconut milk. As will ALL salts, taste your dish before you add the salt, regardless of what the dish is. You may not need the salt.

COMMENTARY
This recipe is one of my most popular menu items of all time. Chocolate Truffle cake, chocolate chip cookies, peanut sauce, and pesto-alfredo sauce are the top four delicious items, in that order.

And so you now have the secret. But I believe it’s more than just the recipe that makes a dish delicious. It’s the chef who executes the recipe, and through that natural interpretation someone else’s peanut sauce will differ from mine just enough that I’m always going to have a job. I’m not worried about it.

Warning about recipes. Read this first!

TYROPITA
Yield: About 50 pieces

METHOD
1. In a dry saute pan (no oil), wilt the spinach over high heat. Add a little salt to help facilitate the wilting. Saute until completely wilted, then remove to a cutting board and roughly chop.

2. In a small sauce pan, over medium heat, melt the first measure of butter, then sweat the onions. When softened, add the flour and stir to make a white roux. This is extremely hot so don’t touch!

3. When the roux is simmering around the edges, slowly drizzle in about 1/3 of the milk while whisking. Yes, use a whisk to break up all the clumps. Then slowly drizzle in the remaining milk.

4. Bring to a boil for a few minutes until thickened, then remove from heat.

5. In a medium bowl, whisk the egg yolks, then slowly drizzle in the white sauce (bechamel) while constantly whisking. Add the nutmeg, feta, oregano, and spinach. Season to taste with the pepper (you probably won’t need salt).

6. In a small sauce pan, melt the second measure of butter, but don’t let it boil. remove from heat.

7. Unwrap the filo dough and lay out one sheet on your work surface. Carefully brush with butter, then lay out another filo sheet on top. Brush with butter again.

8. Cut in to 6 strips and scoop about 2 tsp of the filling on the end of each strip. Fold/roll each strip in to triangles (like folding the flag).

9. Lay out the folded tyropita on a sheet pan lined with parchment, and brush each pastry with more butter. Repeat steps 7-9 until all the filo is gone.

10. Bake at 375F for about 15 minutes until the pastry is puffy and golden.

NOTES
Filo is cheap, so buy TWO boxes in case there are damaged sheets in one box. Be careful, but no one’s going to die if you tear one or two.

If you need to, you can freeze these things IQF-style after you roll them and brush them with butter. Bake them off as needed.

COMMENTARY
Wow, no commentary this time. I wonder if I’m feeling ok?

Warning about recipes. Read this first!

BEEF SHORT RIBS
Yield: 2 servings (approx 8oz uncooked)

METHOD
1. Season all four sides of the short ribs with salt and pepper. In a medium saute pan over high heat, sear all four sides of each rib. Remove ribs to an oven-safe dish.

2. Sautee mushrooms in the same saute pan, which will soak up all the fat, and then start to release their moisture. Just before the mushrooms are nicely seared, add the garlic and finish searing the mushrooms stopping before they become soggy. Remove to the oven-safe dish with the beef.

3. Deglaze the pan with the red wine and stock. Bring to a boil, then pour over beef and mushrooms. Add the whole thyme to the dish.

4. Cover well, and braise in the oven for 5-6 hours at 275F.

5. Remove ribs from sauce, cover, and chill. Chill sauce.

6. The next day, remove solid fat from the top of the sauce. Reheat the sauce and bring to a boil. Reduce by 1/3 or 1/2, then add the ribs and reheat thoroughly. Be careful with the meat, it should be very tender at this point.

7. Remove ribs, keep warm, and season sauce. Skim sauce of any excess fat or scum, if necessary. Drizzle sauce over ribs and serve immediately.

NOTES
8oz of raw beef is a decent portion for a plated meal, but chowing down at home, I can eat a full pound of these things, easy.

COMMENTARY
I love a good braise, and nothing braises quite like beef. A braise means low, slow, and moist; it’s the complete opposite of roasting (but I violate that rule when I “roast” a turkey).

The crucial step to a good braise is to make the dish THE DAY BEFORE YOU NEED IT! If you make it ahead of time, let the meat chill, and then reheat and season, the gelatin present in the meat will have a lower melting point the second time around, making the meat even more tender and succulent than if you try to serve it right out of the oven when you first make it.

Fattier, tougher meats work best for a braise. Although I will braise a chicken, it takes a little more care because it will dry out, even though it’s sitting in all that moisture.

Top Chef fans, viewers, and other professional chefs: It KILLS me when one of those “chef-testants” say they’re going to braise something during a 30 minute Quick-Fire challenge. HELLO!!! Not a braise!! For fuck’s sake, why doesn’t Coliccio call them out? Any first-year student knows the definition of a braise. Why are these (supposed) super-talented chefs butchering the language and using terms so lazily? As a mentor of mine taught me: Words have meaning and power. Use them properly!

And now my rant is done. For now.

Warning about recipes. Read this first!

HUMMUS
Yield: 28 fl oz

METHOD
1. Drain chickpeas, then place in a pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil and cook until they’re EXTREMELY soft. You should be able to mush them easily between your fingers. Drain and reserve cooking liquid.

2. Combine chickpeas, lemon juice, garlic, and tahini in a food processor and puree until mostly smooth, then slowly drizzle in both oils. Puree until extremely smooth, and add a little of the reserved cooking liquid to thin out, as desired.

3. Season to taste

NOTES
#10 can of chickpeas yields 64 oz drained chickpeas

COMMENTARY
Are you Greek? Turkish? Lebanese? Egyptian? Let the brawling begin over the origin of hummus. Personally, I don’t think it matters. Let the hate mail flow.

The secret to this recipe is something I learned from a Lebanese friend: Boil the crap out of the chickpeas. I used to just puree the canned chickpeas, right of the can, but it never got super-smooth. There have been times when I boiled the chickpeas until they actually started falling apart. Maybe that was taking it a little too far, but the point remains. So anyway, thanks Joe, for the tip!

A lot of restaurants I’ve been to serve a very thin, pale hummus, and I think that’s because of more water, but also increasing the ratio of tahini. But practice this recipe and do what you want with it, to your own tastes.

Enjoy!