How to Braise? Start by dry heat cooking, and then switching gears totally and moist heat cooking. Braising is one of my favorite techniques. The cooking time is not thrifty. Braising requires a long cooking time compared to other cooking techniques. Where braising shines as a thrifty cooking technique, however, is in its ability to take cheap, low-quality ingredients and turn them into delicious gourmet dishes. Your butcher friend will help you learn about some of the cheapest cuts available and, if you’re able to braise, you can turn them into some of the tastiest dishes around – especially in the winter months. Beyond meats, braising allows you to take very inexpensive vegetables like cabbage, or carrot, or rutabaga and turn them into healthy and delicious side dishes. Your family is really in for a treat once you’ve mastered braising!
Braising’s Best Friends:
Lamb shoulder, beef brisket, pork ribs, beef ribs, rump roast, turkey legs, duck legs, chicken, shellfish, pork hock, lamb shanks, pork belly, flank steak, fish, cabbage, leeks, potatoes, root vegetables, apples, pears.
When
braising meat, or vegetables, you
might caramelize the ingredient first in order to bring out the sweet and nutty
flavors in the meat or vegetable (we will get to caramelizing more below). Caramelizing is achieved by steady, high
heat. If the heat is not high enough when you put your ingredient (beef brisket
or lamb shank, etc.) in the roasting pan, instead of caramelizing the medium
heat will cause the meat or vegetable to spill their moisture and boil in it.
This isn’t what you want! Straight up, you don’t want this to happen or your
result won’t be as good.
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How do I caramelize successfully? Firstly, one achieves, nut brown, caramelized meat by using a heavy bottomed pot or pan and bringing it up to maximum heat quickly. Make sure your meat is completely patted dry of blood and seasoned, and add just enough oil to cover the bottom of the pot. Let the oil smoke for one to two seconds, and place the meat in the pot and allow it to sizzle UNTOUCHED –don’t play with your food – for at least 30 seconds before you reduce the heat to 75 per cent, and allow it to slowly brown for several minutes, depending on the type of meat. Got it?
Once your meat has a lovely brown exterior it can be removed from the pot. Pour the excess fat into a container to be saved (this fat is money, don’t just chuck out your bacon, duck, or beef fat. Keep it in the fridge and USE IT). Add in your lovely diced or brunoise vegetables, like onion, garlic, carrot, celery, and maybe some potato and, using a wooden spoon (the lifetime-lasting thrifty kitchen tool), use the vegetables to remove all of the brown bits of caramelized meat from the bottom of the pot. Then, sauté your vegetables in that meat essence until they too begin to soften and brown – caramelize. Add your meat pieces back to the pot and cover with warm stock, red wine, or water. Bring the liquid to a boil quickly and then reduce the temperature so that it simmers. Now, a chef may decide to cover the pot and put it into an oven to braise. But that isn’t thrifty, so we’re recommending you braise in the pot with a lid on top of the stove for between one to five hours, depending on the meat. You will be left with delicious, healthy stock that can be made into a sauce or soup or in which you can freeze your braised meat.
Enjoy Farm Fresh Herbs and Lettuce Year Round!
For vegetables like green cabbage, you will begin with sliced onions, caramelized in a pot, then add the sliced cabbage and stir it until it has wilted a bit. Pour in a half a cup of wine vinegar, 1 cup of white wine, and 2 to 3 cups of chicken stock, vegetable stock, or water. Then bring it to a boil and reduce the heat to medium low and simmer until the cabbage is tender. Add a knob of butter (1 tablespoon) for flavor and shine. This is a basic cooking technique for cabbage.
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