Day one hundred ten

Our short ribs. Delicious!

Braising. What is important in the process?

Somehow I just realized that there was no updates since Friday...

On Friday it was a new menu for all teams. Our team cooked the following:
Braised Short Ribs
Parmesan Risotto (A la Milanese)
Jardiniere vegetables
Caesar Salad
Puree of Broccoli Soup

I worked on Risotto, Caesar Salad, and helped with Short Ribs. We were able to make a perfect ribs, many people said that it was great. Also we got a couple of
complements from other chefs. So it was really good. Again we sold out our dish (were able to save a couple of portions for ourselves).

How to make a perfect braised short ribs? It is really easy, just remember a couple of steps which are important. Sear the meat first. When you sear the pan has to be hot, but not smoking hot. The color should be light brown, not dark. You try to sear meat and not cook it through. Then, make sure that your braising liquid is flavourful, sweat vegetables, add  tomato paste and cook it for a couple of minutes, add wine, reduce it. Make sure that you have enough salt and pepper in the liquid. Be sure that you are braising meat and not stewing. The difference is the amount of water. For braising it should be 1/2 of thickness of meat. So half of meat are in the liquid the other half is not covered by liquid and is steaming. Cover pot very tight (if you do not have proper size lid, use foil, make sure that pot is covered tight). Braise in the oven, low and slow. We cooked our ribs at 325 F for about 3 hours. When meat is fork tender (you can easily pierce meat with fork and remove fork easily as well), remove meat from the liquid, place in holding container, add a bit braising liquid and cover, so meat is not going to dry. Strain liquid and reduce to the desired consistency. Serve.

Our Caesar Salad

With risotto it was a question how to held it for service. I cooked risotto for 70% of doneness and hold it in a pan. Then I finished it in batches, it took may be 4-5 minutes: reheat, add some more stock, cook a bit, add parmesan, ready.

With Caesar salad was interesting. We were ready to plate it but another team supposed to plate it first. However, they perfectly washed romaine lettuce, dried it, and store in refrigerator. By the service time it was almost frozen and they asked us to give them our lettuce. We said that we would not appreciate this, but we could plate salad first and we did this way.

It was another good day for us, except for the fact that one team member is still in opposition. It took him three and a half hours to cook puree of broccoli soup (it was mediocre). We were blamed for everything - did not tell him about time and so on... That was not true at all.

Another great thing is that from tomorrow there will be a new team sous chef, so it will be easier for me, as I do not have to handle this s..t at least for the week.