Comfort Foods and Indulgences

I can't remember exactly where I had my first taste of beef short ribs. A restaurant? Someone's house? I do know they were served over cheesy polenta and together they did this little dance in my mouth (I think it was a rumba). Anyway, the meat was so tender and overall was a very good food memory.

Fast-forward in time, I now love making short ribs at home. The process is so easy and your reward is a very flavorful dinner everyone loves. However, I never cook short ribs and serve them right away. I usually make them in the morning or put them away until the next day. I like to let the fat settle at the top and remove it before serving. This type of dish always tastes better after the flavors meld.

If you've never heard of beef short ribs, the best cuts come from the lower (ventral) section, between the 6th and 10th rib, often called the short plate. The short plate is what gives them their name (not the fact that they are short). The meat itself is on top of the bone, about 1-2" in height. Make sure to select a package with meaty hunks as lots of times they are packaged with more hidden fatty pieces inside.

I am an A+ eater and a B- cook.  Sad, but true – I’d be so much better off if it were the other way around.  I have a couple of A+ dishes in my repertoire, but by and large, I haven’t had the time to hone my kitchen skills.  Having to bring home the bacon and cook it too is hard work!  So I’ve eaten out as much as I’ve eaten in for the last 20 years.  Nowadays, I’m trying to reverse the trend.

I began my career in Manhattan around the same time that many famous, formal temples of gastronomy like Lutece and La Cote Basque were being replaced in the hearts and wallets of many New Yorkers by small, unpretentious, artisanal restaurants that cared more about the content than the packaging.  So I consider myself very lucky to have been there when Trattoria d’Alfredo changed the rules of the game.  Alfredo Viazzi introduced New Yorkers to simple, inventive, Italian regional cooking, as familiar to us today as spaghetti and meatballs were then.  I loved how this gracious, Savona-born, WWII partisan fighter, writer and cook presided over his flock nightly; I loved that he opened a supper club nearby where his actress/singer wife performed; and I loved the exquisite mocha dacquoise cake made daily for the restaurant by James Beard’s partner, pastry chef Gino Cofacci.

“So I’ve been eating butter.” I said this to some friends in Alexandria, Virginia the other weekend and they stared and laughed at me when I revealed this fact. Yes, I’ve been eating butter. I’ve sampled it plain, cold, room temp, melted, salted and unsalted, cooked and clarified. I have also scheduled an EKG, stat!

Growing up enthralled with all things pertaining to food, I have instinctively and educationally been instilled with the how’s, when’s, and why’s concerning butter. True, it IS a Southern staple, but every region and culture has a form of this delectable condiment and ingredient. The Brits, the French, the Danes and Italians all boast their own better butter and in my lovely corner of the world, I wanted to very well understand and comprehend why I like the butters I use.

I have watched Mimi, Mrs. Mary, and Mama throw in butter here and there, melt it down, dice and cube it for pie crust, garnish biscuits with pats of it, and even top off filets with a dab just before removing them from the iron skillet or grill. I have listened to Granddaddy’s stories from his childhood on milking the cows and churning said milk into butter. Butter “back in the good ol’ days” was moreover a country family’s chore or farming family’s answer to “what to do with all this fresh milk?” Cows had to be milked and nothing was wasted…butter could be consumed and stored for a bit. City and townsfolk had to buy their butter –those living in bucolical settings made it!

This may well be our favorite appetizer. The combination of the prosciutto with the luscious fig jam is so good and then the creamy goat cheese - well, you just have to make these.  And (shhhh...) they are so easy!

All you need for these little wonders are a good fresh baguette, a jar of fig jam, some salty prosciutto, plain goat cheese and some fresh basil.  The fig jam is an item which is now found in any grocery store.  You just have to know where to look for it.  Some stores carry it with the jams and some carry it with the international foods.  I know Whole Foods has this brand of jam and they always have some tucked in with all the cheeses.

This stuff is incredible - if you've never had it, you'll want to eat it with a spoon.  Or put it on toast.  Or make a sandwich with it.  Or put it on scrambled eggs.  Okay, you get it.  For the prosciutto, make sure you buy a good quality prosciutto - because there are so few ingredients, this appetizer is only good as the quality of your ingredients.