I decided to make an impromptu stop at Fresh Farms on the way back into the city Saturday evening in anticipation of the upcoming weather. A quick browse around and some beautiful oxtail caught my eye and even better it was on sale for $4.99/lb. I got a close to three pound package and looked up a recipe for Jamaican Oxtail Stew on my iPhone and found this one from NYT easy enough to shop for. If you do follow it give yourself a little longer than the 2.5 hours it calls for.


Browning in Brown Sugar Batter


About four hours later...served over rice and peas. Ja Mon.

Fantastic photo, Beef, and highlights what was wrong with the stews my mother made (aside from the fact that I don't think she ever quite grokked 'low and slow' -- too much rubbery gristle): a nice garnish of fresh and green. That's one of the key things I've picked up from Food Network, Top Chef: after a roast, stew or braise, garnish with something bright and fresh: gremolata, scallions, chimichurri, ginger/scallion sauce, cilantro, etc. depending on the cuisine.

As I posted in the Snowbound Pantry Raid thread, last night was beef stew night. This was just my basic recipe using chuck, onions, garlic, potatoes, carrots and peas in a veal stock base. To Joel's point, a last minute addition of some fresh parsley brightened up the taste (added after this picture was taken).

Fusion gets a bad wrap and much of the time, it's deserved…disjointed and clashing results that rarely amount to more than the sum of the parts. That said, I'm a tinkerer and with my tastes jumping from continent to continent, my pantry often accumulates a bunch of odds and ends leading to experimentation.

A recent lamb dish was particularly noteworthy, braised with reconstituted porcini & ancho, shallot, garlic, ginger, and Chinese sweetened black vinegar. The lamb was removed, diced, and mixed back into the pureed and strained sauce. The end product was killer…deep and nuanced flavors that felt right at home in a few different cuisines (lightly dressed on pappardelle, as a guisado, Chinese stew, etc). Anyways, porcini, ancho, and Chinese black vinegar make for one heck of a braise.