Winter Braising

Published on Wednesday, January 13, 2010, by Lessley Anderson / Edit Post

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Chef Eric Skokan, owner of the Boulder, Colorado, bistro Black Cat, makes almost all his dishes using food he grows. But in the snowy Rocky Mountain winter, almost nothing grows. So he reaches into his root cellar, where he stores parsnips, celery root, turnips, and other typically ignored vegetables. Skokan’s secret weapon is the braise: an ancient, astonishingly simple form of slow cooking. He makes things like veal tongue braised with parsley root, rabbit braised with turnips, and diver scallops on a bed of braised radishes topped with hazelnuts.

Yes, it’s possible to eat varied, locally sourced winter meals if you learn how to braise.

WHAT IS BRAISING?
It’s essentially throwing things into a sealed pot with some liquid and sticking the pot in the oven on low for a long time. Braising makes tougher cuts of meat like short ribs and shoulder falling-off-the-bone tender. Or you can do all-vegetable braises, too (try this Cabbage Kimchi-Style recipe from Daniel Boulud).

YOU CAN GET CREATIVE
Extra flavorings you put into your pot (like dried mushrooms, miso, or smoked paprika) can take your creation in myriad flavor directions. “Right after Thanksgiving I cooked French green lentils with rice in the turkey broth with celery salt, carrots, and onions, and put [in] lots of fresh thyme,” says Jessica Prentice, a chef and one of the original worker-owners of the Three Stone Hearth community kitchen in Berkeley, California. This Daniel Boulud recipe even incorporates chunks of gingerbread.

WHAT EQUIPMENT DO I NEED?
No special appliances, just a big, heavy-bottomed pot. The benefit of slow cookers and automatic braising devices is that you can leave them on all day while you are away. (If you braise in the oven, it’s safer to be home.) But if you don’t have one, three hours at home on the weekend folding laundry and puttering around—while it’s snowing outside—is eminently doable.

Mix-and-match ingredients for braising

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POST A COMMENT |8 Comments

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  • for lynda1951- a bunch of bourbon salmon recipes at this page:

    http://www.grouprecipes.com/bourbon-salmon

  • I love recipes like this one where you can mix & match dependng on what ingredients you have on hand, what's local, and what you like. And there's nothing like building an appetite when the aroma of a hearty meal is permeating your kitchen.

    I like to use a heavy ceramic cookpot, like this one http://bit.ly/7jScz3 -- it does a great job holding in the heat and cleanup is a breeze.

  • Mountaincachers,

    You are absolutely correct on that point, by no means is scallops or any shellfish (for that matter many fish) local to Colorado. The locavore movement suffers some what in states like this due to our lack of growing region and while we can get some fantastic root veggies (look at what he offers as ideas to braise) when it comes to seafood we are a bit limited. Depending on how...+READ

    Mountaincachers,

    You are absolutely correct on that point, by no means is scallops or any shellfish (for that matter many fish) local to Colorado. The locavore movement suffers some what in states like this due to our lack of growing region and while we can get some fantastic root veggies (look at what he offers as ideas to braise) when it comes to seafood we are a bit limited. Depending on how local you insist on eating, with in 100 miles, with in 1000 miles, will change in Colorado just how much you can get based on what grows on say the western slope vs the front range. I would love it if we had a lot more access to some of the things that California and other warmer climes could grow every where or year round.

    I added in my two cents for where the product comes from more to give some more info more than to try to justify the Locavore title to the article (as I actually had the same thought) Identifications like that tend to get places in hot water when it comes to sourcing.

    As for your question lynda, are you just looking for a general marinade using Bourbon as a flavoring agent or a particular recipe from a restaurant?-COLLAPSE

  • Does anyone have a recipie for Salmon in Burbon marinade?

  • kyleesha, I think bbqme's point wasn't whether or not you can get fresh, delicious seafood in Boulder. The title is about being a locavore, but what is described sounds more like seasonal cooking, with some ingredients not being at all local.

  • If you're short on time but have one of those tougher cuts of beef, a pressure cooker does wonders, too.

  • Working at another restaurant just down the street from the Black Cat, what most of us do is use a single source provider from the cost. Most of these wonderful people are in contact with the day boats and will contact the restaurants regarding what the catch is that day. We will have it shipped to us and have it by the next day.

    These people work hard to provide those of us in the middle of...+READ

    Working at another restaurant just down the street from the Black Cat, what most of us do is use a single source provider from the cost. Most of these wonderful people are in contact with the day boats and will contact the restaurants regarding what the catch is that day. We will have it shipped to us and have it by the next day.

    These people work hard to provide those of us in the middle of the country with fantastic coastal fish and shellfish as fast and fresh as we can get it, while protecting the fishermen and day boatsmen who's job it is to catch this wonderful product.-COLLAPSE

  • You can get locally sourced diver scallops in Boulder, CO?