Short ribs and long stories

(me and the lovely Tracy T. preparing dinner)

Sometimes a hungry man prefers not to travel and instead, opts for the comfort of eating at home - or at least somewhere in his hometown. He may decide to take a chance with a new recipe, see how it turns out and decide whether it's worth sharing with friends or hiding it for his own pleasure. But if there's an opportunity to share, ok, show-off his culinary skills with friends and family, he'll jump at the chance. This was the case this past weekend when I joined a group of friends for a night of great food and LOTS of wine.

Now I've previously mentioned in this blog about a cookbook called The Flavour Principle, co-written by esteemed culinary writer Lucy Waverman, and wine and spirits expert Beppi Crosariol. I'm telling you it is so worth the $25.00 investment. There are some incredibly flavourful and quite easy to prepare recipes created by Lucy in that book. There is also the added bonus of Beppi providing some amazing pairings that comfortably match every meal featured, plus tips and suggestions on building your own bar.

So my friend Tracy and I attempted the Argentinian slow-cooked short ribs recipe from the book, along with a parmesan polenta and steamed green beans. The main course was paired with an Argentinian Malbec, and this was the result!

(Thank you Heidi for taking all the pics!)
Looks tasty eh? It was. Very. I'll add that should you decide to make the recipe, you can of course change it as recipes mostly serve as a guide. I think in this case though, I'm recommending that you leave it as is. The only thing I did differently was add some finely shredded orange rind on top of the meat for that extra bit of flavour.

You may or may not know this, but when you combine drinking and cooking you start to talk about what you're doing. You let your guests in on what you're putting together, why you're doing what you're doing, what ingredients are being used, just letting them become involved in the process. Yes, you may potentially bore them as they sit waiting for you to shut-up so they can eat, but that's the chance you take when Prosecco and Malbec take over your system. Well, I at least I like to talk about it. Tracy? Not so much, but she's a trooper. Here's a quick shot of Tracy and I attempting to explain what we're creating for dinner:



Hmmm no sound - is that a sign telling me maybe it's not meant to be heard? Ha, well I'll have to revisit this again to see if I can find a working copy.