Braised Foods
Winter is here with a vengeance. With summer months away and a trip to warmer climes just not an option, your only solution is to fill the house with the smells of something delicious. Braising - cooking meat and/or vegetables in a flavored liquid - fills the bill like almost nothing else. Your kitchen is awash in fragrant steam and a comforting aroma seeps into the rest of the house. A braised dish is a perfect Sunday-afternoon dinner, although chicken, fish and vegetables can be braised in an hour or so, making them a good choice for the middle of the week as well.
Braises, soups and stews may seem the same, but there is a difference. For a soup or a stew, you cut ingredients into smaller pieces, submerge them completely in the cooking liquid and keep them submerged. For a braise, you typically use larger pieces and put them in a liquid that comes no more than halfway up the ingredients. As the ingredients simmer, the liquid cooks and tenderizes them, releasing flavors that enliven the broth.
Most of us think of braising meats like pot roast, short ribs, veal or lamb shanks and the like. Certainly most of my favorite braised dishes are beef- or lamb-based. But cooking vegetables in a little liquid, such as the cabbage dish below, gives them a sweetness that other quicker methods lack. Chicken, too, becomes moist and tender, and if the liquid is flavorful, a perfect foil for rice or couscous.
The technique of braising is pretty straightforward. If you are using beef or lamb, you typically select a tougher cut, such as brisket, chuck, short ribs, shanks and so on. Since these are less desirable, they are usually less expensive, offering the double payoff of good flavor and lower cost.
For the best results, brown the meat slowly and deeply. Whether or not you flour the meat, you want to season it with salt and pepper, plus any spices the dish calls for. Heat some olive oil in a frying pan and saute the meat over a medium-high flame. If you are using pieces, don’t dump them in at once. Give the pieces some room; otherwise the meat will steam and turn gray and the dish won’t have as much flavor. Let the meat brown on one side before you turn it. Brown it thoroughly on all sides and remove to a plate. Then add more pieces until you’ve browned all of it.
If your recipe calls for sauteed onions, garlic and aromatic vegetables (carrots, celery, etc.), add them next. For maximum flavor, cook the onions first until they are as brown as you need, then add the vegetables. Stir the bottom of the pot to loosen all those brown bits and incorporate them into the vegetables. I like to add the chopped garlic at the very end and stir it just until you can smell the garlic cooking.
Stock, wine, beer and apple cider are all good liquids for braising. If you use canned stock, dilute it with some water or other liquid. If you use wine, you don’t need to add a $50 Barolo, but do use something you would drink, not the dregs of bottles that have been in your cupboard for months. Deglaze the pan by adding a half cup or so of your liquid. Stand back and let the steam rise, then use a wooden spoon or heat-proof spatula to loosen all those brown bits. Add your meat and other ingredients, pour in the rest of your liquid and bring to a boil. Cover the pot, turn down the heat and let it simmer slowly. A simmer is when small bubbles come to the surface, not a rolling boil. If you like, skim off the grayish foam that collects on the surface for a clearer finished dish.
You can simmer over a burner or you can braise in a 350-degree oven, which is my preference. The oven provides even heat and the ingredients are less likely to stick to the bottom and burn. You don’t have to peek and stir so often, which means you aren’t tied to the kitchen for the whole time. Plus, the heat of the oven will warm your kitchen.
If you are interested in braising, look at Molly Stevens’ cookbook “All About Braising.” She gives a good explanation of the method and covers the topic pretty thoroughly, from vegetables to chicken, fish and red meat. If you are stuck in a pot-roast rut, she includes recipes from Morocco, China and Thailand, as well as Europe and the United States.
Recipes
Moroccan Chicken With Green Olives
Originally published Daily Hampshire Gazette, December 28, 2007 ]