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BBQ short ribs from Hot and Hot Fish Club

When the weather is bad and it’s hard to grill your ribs… chin up! This is one of the best ways to do short ribs even on a sunny day! This recipe comes from one of the best chefs in America, Chris Hastings of Birmingham, Alabama. His cookbook, Hot and Hot Fish Club Cookbook includes some of the favorites from his restaurant as well as stories of how the ingredients get from farm to table. We are lucky to have him in Birmingham look forward to many more delicious surprises from his team in the future!

So here are the ribs:

1/2 cup peanut oil

8 (2-inch thick) bone-in beef (or pork) short ribs

2 teaspoons kosher salt

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

4 cups equal parts roughly chopped onions,celery and carrots (mirepoix)

6 fresh thyme springs

3 garlic cloves, smashed and peeled

1 bay leaf

6 cups store bought beef stock

4 cups BBQ sauce (Chris lists his recipe here for homemade sauce, I use a medium heat, not-too-sweet store bought sauce)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Heat the oil in a cast iron skillet over high heat. Season the short ribs on all sides with salt and pepper. Sear the ribs on all sides until well browned, about 8 minutes. Remove the ribs and place into a 11x14 pan. Discard oil from pan and reserve browned bits on the bottom.

Scrape the browned bits into a medium stockpot and place over high heat. Add the butter and stir until melted. Add the mirepoix and cook until golden brown, about 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Stir in the thyme, bay leaf and garlic and continue cooking for about 2 minutes.

Add the stock and BBQ sauce and bring the mixture to a boil. Once it begins to boil, pour the liquid over the short ribs and cover the pan with a tight fitting lid or aluminum foil. Place into the oven and cook for 2 1/2 hours or until the meat pulls easily away from the bones.

Remove the ribs carefully onto a serving platter and strain the braising liquid through a fine strainer. Bring the liquid to a boil and lower heat to medium low. Simmer until it is reduced by 1/3, about 5 minutes. Serve sauce at the table over the ribs.

At this point, Chris throws the veggies out and serves the ribs with the sauce only. I prefer to keep the braised vegetables and serve them as well. Your choice!

Such a delicious dish and made even better served with succotash and cornbread from previous posts:

http://stovetoptodesktop.tumblr.com/post/51416697658/summer-succotash-the-alternative-side

http://stovetoptodesktop.tumblr.com/post/32803366324/go-to-sour-cream-cornbread

Enjoy!

Fourth of July Pies!

Happy 4th everyone! The Fourth of July is all about the food, well, let's face it, EVERY holiday in the South is all about the food. To help us celebrate, here's today's sweet and easy post featuring key lime and pecan pies!

KEY LIME PIE

1 baked pie crust (to package directions) and cooled

1 14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk

1/2 c key lime juice

4 egg yolks

2 cups heavy cream

1/4 cup sifted confectioner's sugar

limes for decoration

Beat egg yolks with an electric mixer until they are lemon colored and thick.

Heat lime juice on top of the stove until it reaches 160 on a candy thermometer.

Add a fourth of heated lime juice to beaten egg yolks and pour mixture back into heated lime juice in saucepan. Cook for 2 minutes until thick, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and let cool.

Add sweetened condensed milk and stir until thick. Pour into pie shell and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled.

Beat cream with an electric mixer on high until foamy. Gradually add the confectioner's sugar, beating until stiff peaks form.

Spoon whipped cream onto cooled pie and decorate with limes. Refrigerate until ready to serve. Enjoy!

NONNIE'S PECAN PIE

This recipe comes from my mother in law who, out of love for her granddaughter (my daughter) and concern that the legacy of cooking be carried forward in our family, created a cookbook of our family's favorite recipes! Great idea and wonderful Christmas gift! And this is the very best pecan pie I've ever had.

Ingredients ready to go. Place pecans in bottom of pie shell.

Add eggs to sugar then add remaining ingredients.

This is what the butter should look like softened.

Pour mixture on top of pecans and bake according to the recipe. You might think you're doing it wrong, but the pecans will rise in the baking process.

And it will turn out like this:

Add a dollop of bourbon whipped cream or serve heated with ice cream on the side. Now, that says Independence Day to me! Enjoy!

Stovetoptodesktop is on Facebook

Now you can follow along on Facebook ( just search stovetoptodesktop ) as well as the blog. Ask questions and get responses quickly about recipes, baking times, whatever you want to know! Excited to be able to talk with you about all things food! Enjoy!

Summer Garden Pasta from Ina Garten

So, sometimes when you watch Food Network there is a recipe that looks so good immediately you memorize the proportions and decide to make it for dinner. However, if you do forget the ingredients, the internet can be your best friend. I present, last night's dinner:

Summer Garden Pasta 4 pints cherry tomatoes, halved Good olive oil 2 tablespoons minced garlic (6 cloves) 18 large basil leaves, julienned, plus extra for serving 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes Kosher salt 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper 1 pound dried angel hair pasta 1 1/2 cups freshly grated Parmesan cheese, plus extra for serving Directions Combine the cherry tomatoes, 1/2 cup olive oil, garlic, basil leaves, red pepper flakes, 1 teaspoon salt, and the pepper in a large bowl. Cover with plastic wrap, and set aside at room temperature for about 4 hours.

Just before you're ready to serve, bring a large pot of water with a splash of olive oil and 2 tablespoons salt to a boil and add the pasta. Cook al dente according to the directions on the package (be careful - it only takes 2 to 3 minutes!). Drain the pasta well and add to the bowl with the cherry tomatoes.

Add the cheese and some extra fresh basil leaves and toss well. Serve in big bowls with extra cheese on each serving.

Really delicious. My sister is making this tonight and adding a little protein- pan sauteed shrimp. Sounds great- enjoy! Thanks Barefoot Contessa!

Hot Caramelized Onion Dip with Bacon and Gruyere. Yes, please.

Okay, you're right, I didn't take this shot. This recipe is from Coastal Living and this is the finished photo. I'm taking this to a party tonight and baking it there, but wanted to go ahead and post this for Memorial Day. So here's the recipe:

2 teaspoons butter

1 teaspoon olive oil

2 Vidalia ( or other sweet but not as good) onions, halved and sliced thinly

1/4 teaspoon sugar

1/4 teaspoon Kosher salt

1 Tablespoon sherry vinegar

1/2 teaspoon minced fresh thyme

3 pieces of bacon cooked crisp

3/4 c (3 oz) shredded Gruyere cheese

1/2 cup sour cream

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

Preheat oven to 400.

Melt butter and oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add onions, sugar and salt and cook until onions begin to soften and turn golden brown.

Stir in vinegar and reduce by half, stirring often. Stir in thyme.

In a large mixing bowl combine cheese and next three ingredients.

Stir in onions and bacon and transfer to a buttered shallow baking dish. Bake 20 minutes or until bubbly and lightly golden. Serve with toasted bread or your favorite hearty chip.

Summer Succotash- The Alternative Side

Memorial Day. In the South, that means ribs, baked beans and potato salad. Why not swap those sides for a fresh summer succotash? Completely delicious.

1 pint fresh lady peas

1 pint fresh limas or small butter peas

1 pint cherry tomatoes

1/2 pound of fresh okra, cut into 1/2 inch slices

6 ears fresh Silver Queen (or white) corn, cut from the cob

1 Vidalia (or sweet) onion, quartered

1/2 small sweet onion, diced

2 Tablespoons butter, unsalted

2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 Tablespoons fresh basil chopped

2 stalks of fresh thyme

Cook the lady peas and limas together as follows:

Rinse, drain and pick out any leaves or unwanted stems from peas.

Cut onion into fourths and add to 8 cups of boiling water. Add thyme and continue to boil for 10 minutes. Add peas and cook until tender, usually about 18-20 minutes. Remove from heat, drain, remove thyme stems and onions, and set aside.

Now to the corn. Remove husks and silks carefully. I had always sawed the corn off of the cob with a serrated edge knife UNTIL...the brilliant Jacques Pepin taught me the correct (and easier way) via this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alHc7jbN3QY

The whole video is wonderful but, for the corn demo, start at 20:48.

In a large saute pan, heat 2 Tablespoons of butter over medium heat. Add corn and season with kosher salt and pepper to taste. Saute until tender or golden. Remove from heat.

And now to the okra...

Wash and drain the okra. Cut into 1/2 inch pieces discarding the tips and stems. You can cut more than one at a time like this:

Heat olive oil in a medium skillet on medium heat. Saute small diced onion and okra together for about 10 minutes or until onion is translucent. Salt and pepper to taste.

Add halved cherry tomatoes to okra and cook for a few minutes more.

THEN... add the okra, tomatoes and the peas to the large skillet with the corn. Return to heat and let flavors marry for about 8-10 minutes. Serve with fresh basil sprinkled over the top. A little more work than potato salad, but SO worth it! Enjoy!

Really Great Spicy Pecans

These pecans are a delicious and spicy way to kick off cocktail hour. Don't just save this for holiday season- nice to have anytime!

From the mind of Betty Sims- a great, creative cook in Decatur, Alabama.

Pecans soaking in the sugar mixture. Drain after 10 minutes.

Pecans tossed in the spice mixture before baking. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes, stirring once. Delicious.

Marinated Baked Chicken Breasts

This chicken is a always a crowd pleaser. If you want the crunch of fried but don't want to stand over hot oil when company is coming, this completely works!

This recipe serves 12 but can be doubled easily (for a big crowd) or halved (of course) for less.

2 cups sour cream

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

4 teaspoons Worcestershire

2 teaspoons celery salt

2 teaspoons paprika

1/2 teaspoon garlic salt

1 Tablespoon Kosher salt

1 teaspoon pepper

12 boneless skinless chicken breasts

1 1/2 cups ritz cracker crumbs

1 1/2 cups Saltine cracker crumbs

1 cup shredded Parmesan

1 cup butter

Combine first eight ingredients. Add chicken, cover and marinate in refrigerator overnight or for at least 8 hours.

To crush the crackers, you can smash them while they are still in their sleeves and then pour into a ziplock bag.

Add Parmesan cheese to cracker crumbs. Pour mixture into a shallow dish to coat chicken. Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

Coat each chicken breast in crumb mixture and add to a shallow pyrex dish. Melt butter and spoon half of it over the chicken. Bake for one hour at 300 degrees. Spoon rest of melted butter over chicken and bake for 45 minutes more. Enjoy!

My New Favorite Dressing

So, out of all the salad dressings I have tried recently, this is my new favorite. Simple, always, but so great and stores in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.

2 Tablespoons white wine vinegar

1 1/2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

1 1/2 teaspoons deli mustard

1 Tablespoon honey

1/2 teaspoon fresh flat leaf parsley, chopped

2 small green onions, finely sliced

Kosher salt and fresh black pepper to taste

3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

Mix all ingredients except olive oil very well. Then slowly add the olive oil by whisking it in. Adjust your seasoning to your taste.

Serve over fresh spring greens with arugula. Thrown in some dry roasted pine nuts

and crumbled feta cheese and you've got lunch! Special and really delicious.

Perfectly Ripe Strawberry Pie

Run, don't walk, to your favorite market and smell the strawberries! Seriously amazing and sweet right this minute. So, how do you feature this spectacular fruit of late spring? Strawberry Pie, of course.

Straight from Cotton Country Cooking, I used the filling part of this recipe and changed the crust to my mother-in-law's delicious cookie crust.

Here's the crust:

1 1/2 cups crushed Keebler Pecan Sandies

5 Tablespoons butter, melted

1/2 cup chopped pecans

Mix together and press into a pie plate. Bake at 350 for about 10-12 minutes. Let it cool completely.

Fill with the strawberries and top with the glaze (in recipe above).

Pile on the fresh whipped cream and garnish with strawberries however you like. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

For those of us that remember Shoney's strawberry pie, this will take you back. But, this one's even better! Enjoy!

Super Quick Go-To Chicken Salad

So, what do you do with the left over roasted chicken? Chicken salad, of course. Great low carb option that’s so good you feel like you’re cheating.

2 cups chopped chicken breast with skin removed

1/2 c chopped toasted almonds

1/3 c Hellman’s (and only Hellman’s) mayonnaise

1/3 c sour cream

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1/2 teaspoon white pepper

Stir everything but chicken and almonds together. Then add chicken and almonds and mix well.

Variations on a theme: add 1/2 cup chopped apple or 1/3 cup finely diced celery or 1/3 cup Craisins or 1/3 cup sliced red grapes or have fun mixing to your taste. Possibilities are endless!

Serve on crisp iceberg lettuce wedge or toasted multi grain bread. Enjoy!

Easiest Raisin Muffins Ever

So, I thought I might share a very quick recipe for some pretty easy muffins to have on hand for anytime! The batter keeps in the fridge for up to 4 weeks so you can take it out as you need it. Or cook them all at once because it freezes well also!

This is everything you need UNLESS you want to add applesauce and walnuts and really, who wouldn't?

1/2 a 15oz box of Raisin Bran

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup canola oil

2 cups buttermilk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1 cup chopped walnuts

1/2 cup applesauce

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Mix dry ingredients together in a large bowl.

Add the remaining ingredients to the dry mixture and stir well. Fill lined muffin tins 2/3 of the way full.

Bake for 15 minutes and enjoy how great your house smells!

Serve warm with butter or your favorite cream cheese.

My choice is...

...softened butter. Enjoy!

Brief break from the blog

Remodeling the house and on a bit of a blog break! Hopefully will be back by March.

Merry Christmas

Wishing you a happy Holiday Season with the ones you love!

Shortbread Cookies from the New York TImes

Christmas time, Christmas cookies. Delighted that today's New York Times was thinking about it too! Let's see how this recipe holds up. The variations they suggest are intriguing and are listed here:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/09/09/magazine/shortbread-cookie-recipes.html

I stuck with the traditional flavors but added vanilla. Recipe is easy to follow:

2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature

3/4 cup sugar

1 egg yolk

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup cornstarch

1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon salt

Use an electric mixer on low to combine butter and sugar for about 30 seconds. With mixer still on low, beat in egg yolk followed by flour, cornstarch and salt until the mixture barely holds together.

Place dough onto a sheet of plastic wrap and allow to refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. Can be rolled into a log shape now for sliced round cookies or keep in a ball for rolled cookies cut with cookie cutters.

Preheat the oven to 275. Either slice the cookies and put onto an ungreased baking sheet or roll dough out onto a floured surface to about 1/4 inch thick and cut with cookie cutters and put onto a baking sheet.

Bake for 25-30 minutes until firm but not at all brown. Cool for a minute then transfer carefully with a spatula to wire rack to completely cool.

(Believe it or not, these are baked! The photos on the recipe look nothing like my cookies. I'm guessing they browned some up for the photography!)

I am dipping some of mine in melted semi-sweet chocolate to make a crescent shape. Just couldn't resist! Enjoy!

P.S.- I just found this video of Mark Bittman, the author of this recipe, and his cookies look like mine and not the photos in the New York Times. Whew!

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/48989002/ns/today-food/t/back-baking-mark-bittmans-shortbread-cookies/#.UMVA6Y4T-GQ

#christmas cookies #Christmas #Shortbread cookies

The Always Perfect Steak. Really.

My husband shared this recipe with me from The Week magazine about five years ago and we have enjoyed it so many times! It is (as are most of the recipes on this blog) incredibly easy but completely delicious. I use filets about an inch thick and usually get them at Whole Foods meat department. They will cut them to order at your request.

So with much pleasure, I give you the always perfect steak.

Start by trimming the excess fat from the steak. Preheat oven to 450.

Using kosher salt and fresh ground pepper, season all sides of the meat well.

Heat cast iron skillet on the burner set to high and "let it get scary hot." Then add a thin layer of canola oil, or your favorite oil with a high smoking point. Wait until the oil is so hot that you can see a first wisp of smoke. Carefully place seasoned steaks into skillet and sear for a minute or two.

Turn the steaks to brown the other side for one to two minutes. Pick up the entire skillet and put into the oven for five to seven minutes depending on the thickness. Check with a meat thermometer- as a guide 115 degrees is very rare end of rare.

Take the skillet out of the oven and let the meat rest for at least five minutes. Spectacular aroma.

Enjoy with your favorite sides and a bottle of wine. Bon appetit!

#steak #filets #special meal #easy steak recipe #seared steaks

Just in time for Thanksgiving- Caramel Cake.

Our very favorite cake around here is caramel cake (which is really your favorite yellow cake with as many layers as you want to make) with the most fabulous, rich caramel icing slathered between each layer AND spread all around the outside. Oh my. Seriously, all you need is a fork and a glass of cold milk. This recipe comes from Cotton Country Cooking and (as you can tell) my copy is well worn! The only difference is I always use salted butter instead of margarine.

2 1/2 cups of sugar and 1 tablespoon of flour in large pot- stir together amd add 1 cup of milk.

1/2 cup of sugar in cast iron skillet. Start both the sugar/milk mixture and the skillet sugar on high at the same time.

Milk/sugar mixture will boil and...

skillet sugar will turn a beautiful caramel color.

Add skillet sugar to milk/sugar mixture and be careful stirring it in. It will boil up a bit.

Put the candy thermometer in and cook until slightly below soft ball stage.

One way you can tell if you have reached close to soft ball is to drop a small amount of the hot icing into cold water. If you can pick it up and form a soft ball, it's ready.

Remove from heat and add the butter. Mix well to incorporate the butter.

Now comes the hard part -beating the sugar into icing. Just follow the directions from the recipe and you will get there. You will definitely learn why this is a labor of love to make.

Ice the layers, working quickly so that the icing does not harden too fast.

Don't forget to share the icing covered utensils! Enjoy and Happy Thanksgiving!

#birthday cakes #caramel cake #caramel icing #thanksgiving cakes #southern caramel cake #caramel frosting #Caramel Cake #Cotton Country caramel icing

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