My grandma's croquet

This is one of my favorite dish growing up. The night my grandmother makes her special croquet means I will end up over-eating, again. I don't know the exact measurements of all the ingredients, so I can only approximate everything here. I have added some of my personal touch into this dish and surprisingly they turned out pretty good. Here is how I did it ...

4 medium size potatoes
2 chopped scallions
~ 1 pound of lean ground beef
shaved parmesan cheese
salt, pepper, soy sauce, sesame oil to taste

Remove all potatoes skin and boil in hot water. When potatoes become very soft, drain the water and let them cool. Put the cooled potatoes in a large mixing bowl and mash. Mix in chopped scallions, shaved parmesan, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes.

Marinate ground beef with soy sauce, salt, pepper, and sesame oil. Cook it in saucepan until done. Drain all sauce and let it cool.

Combine the chilled ground beef into the mashed potatoes.

When ready, use your hands and form the potato mixture into small round shapes. Coat the croquets with small amount of flour for browning purpose. Brown the croquets in a saucepan with canola oil and butter.

Spicy Beef Shank Stew

Inspired by the beef shank entry on Not Eating Out in New York, I have decided to give beef stew a try. I found a similar recipe on Food Network and gave it my own twist. Nothing was particularly difficult in this dish, it was just really time consuming and I did not have a big enough pot. So I ended up using this industrial size pot that I bought by mistake on Target.com.

My twist is that I put in Kaofu, a Shanghainese delicacy that my grandmother makes once in a while. It is dried bran dough and it soaks up all the sauces when cooked. It is really delicious and it is one of my favorite food growing up. I also added TONS of hot pepper flakes because I am addicted to spicy food. The only mistake I made was leaving the bone marrow in, which made the stew really oily. Joe didn't seem to mind but I had a hard time eating it. Next time I am going to start cooking this much earlier because it takes at least 3 hours to get the beef tender. So if you want to tackle this, make sure you start cooking in the afternoon!


This is what Kaofu looks like, you need to soak it in water before you cook it.

Alternated version of Emeril Lagasse's Osso Buco a la Romagna

Ingredients
1/4 cup olive oil
4 (1 1/2 inch thick) veal shanks, about 12 ounces each
3 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups chopped onions
3/4 cup chopped celery
3/4 cup chopped carrots
1 1/2 tablespoons minced garlic
2 bay leaves
1 1/4 cups red wine
1 canned tomato paste
3 cups beef stock or canned low-sodium beef broth


Instructions
Place the oil in a Dutch oven and heat over high heat. While the oil is heating, season the shanks with 1 1/2 teaspoons of the salt and 3/4 teaspoons of the pepper and dredge in the flour to coat. Shake to remove any excess flour. When the oil is almost smoking, add the shanks and cook until well-browned on both sides, about 4 minutes per side. Transfer the shanks to a plate and set aside. Add the onions, celery, and carrots to the pan and cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are softened and lightly browned around the edges, about 4 minutes.




Add the garlic, bay leaves, rosemary, remaining salt, and remaining pepper and cook for 1 minute. Add the wine to the pan and stir to combine. Add the tomatoes and beef stock and return the shanks to the pan. Bring the cooking liquid to a boil, cover the Dutch oven, reduce the heat to medium low and cook, covered, for 2 1/2 to 3 hours, or until the shanks are very tender and beginning to fall away from the bones.


Sorry, not a pretty picture ... but you get the point.