In The Kitchen

Contrary to what Ariel might tell you, I don't ALWAYS have instant success with my cooking experiments - that's just for fiction! Last week I tried my hand at cooking sweetbreads, a dish I often enjoyed at The Riviera, done as only Chef Daniel could do it!

The results were a bit shaky though, because unless you know exactly what you're looking for, it's hard to look at a piece of totally white meat (after 2 hours of soaking followed by blanching) and determine what's the outer membrane you're supposed to remove, and what's the edible meat.

The Galloping Gourmet wanted me to add truffles, but the only kind of those that I keeps around the house are chocolate, and I didn't think that was what he meant! Another one of my wonderful cookbooks advised soaking the meat, and then pressing it between two plates under a table leg for 2 hours! Can you imagine trying to keep Freud the Cat away from that!

I accidentally over floured the sweetbreads before sautéing them, so when I added the red wine, the whole mixture was rather thick, and as I thinned it with stock, the sweetbreads lost all the coating I had just finished browning! Anyway, I opted to keep most of the gravy aside for a dish that garnered considerably more praise--oxtail stew.

Ox-Tail Stew

Cut the visible fat off 3 lbs. of ox-tail pieces, and brown them in a bit of olive oil a heavy (preferably cast iron) Dutch oven. Add a chopped onion and as much garlic as you like, and continue to cook until all sides of the meat are nicely browned.

Add 2 tins chopped tomatoes, complete with the juice, and a 'mire poix' of 1/2 cup of chopped carrot and celery, along with some crushed bay leaf, some thyme, and a few peppercorns.

Add stock to cover the meat, and simmer for 2-2.5 hours, until the meat is fork tender.

Turn off the heat, and remove the tail pieces from the stock.
Take 1 cup of stock, and keep it aside.

Add 1 tablespoon tomato paste, 2 medium diced potatoes, 10-20 baby carrots to the stock (if the carrots are not really 'baby' carrots, you may want to chop them), and 1/4 - 1/2 c chopped celery and simmer for 15-20 minutes.

While the vegetables are cooking, remove the meat from the bones, and cut it into bite sized pieces.

Now, make a roux with 3-4 Tbsp butter and 1/3 cup flour. Melt the butter, and add the flour a bit at a time until it forms a thick paste. Slowly add the reserved stock to the roux, stirring constantly to be sure there are no lumps. Add 1/2 cup red wine and let it cook for 3-5 minutes.

For the last 10 minutes, add 1 cup of cauliflower pieces.

Finally, return the meat to the pot, then add the gravy a bit at a time, stirring it in to be sure it doesn't lump.

Adjust the seasonings with salt and pepper, and serve with a small green salad with balsamic vinaigrette dressing, and sliced pumpernickel bread with butter.