(From smh.com.au)
BEEF SHIN
One of the toughest cuts of beef, the shin is also one of the most rewarding. There’s no euphemism to the name: this is the foreleg of the animal and because it’s one of the most worked parts, it’s filled with connective tissue. This means that you can’t skimp on the cooking time but when you go down the long-cooked route, you’ll find the meat holds its shape and rewards with incredible richness of texture. Beef or veal shin is most often sold as osso buco. Buy it to order from your butcher if you can – the osso buco in supermarkets is usually sliced far thinner than is ideal. A classical osso buco alla Milanese – veal shin braised with carrot, onion, celery, white wine and bay and traditionally served with a saffron risotto – is best made with slices at least an inch thick. For a great braise or curry, on the other hand, ask your butcher to take a large piece of shin and slice it along the bone lengthways to expose the marrow, then again across the bone into two-inch pieces. Cooking on the bone like this will result in a much richer, fuller flavour, with the marrow melting into the sauce.
Beef carbonnade is one of the great European stews. Brown some lardons of bacon in a large heavy-based casserole until it has released its fat, remove, then brown some large cubes of well-seasoned beef shin (preferably on the bone), taking your time and making sure each side gets nice and dark. Once the beef is all browned, remove, throw in 4 or 5 chopped onions and cook them down, scraping up the dark bits left in the pan by the beef. Add a couple of bay leaves, some thyme sprigs and a few unpeeled garlic cloves, then pour in a bottle of beer – Belgian beer is ideal, but you really just want something fresh and light rather than a stout. Coopers Pale Ale will work well. Return the meat and bacon to the pan, add a splash of beef stock or water to bring the liquid level up a bit and bring to the boil. Clap a tight-fitting lid on top and either turn it right down (a simmer mat is useful here) or put into a medium oven. Give it a stir occasionally (you'll need to watch it more closely if it's on the stovetop) and it should be done after about 2 hours. You can serve it straight from the pot with mustard, potatoes and a sharply-dressed salad but if you have the time, chill it overnight in the fridge. That way you give the flavours time to develop and you can lift any excess fat off the top before you reheat it.
LIVER
One of the great under-rated cuts, liver just needs a little love. Whether it’s from calf, duck, chicken or pig, liver usually benefits from a good soaking overnight in milk before cooking to extract blood and bile and combat any bitterness. It’s not essential, but the end product will definitely be improved with this little extra effort. The most important thing, though, is not to overcook it, lest it turn mealy. Livers large and small have veins running through them, and the larger veal, calf and (less common) pig livers should have these removed before cooking because they’re tough and chewy. The easiest way to remove them is to cut them out, or pull them out with tweezers. Veal and calf livers should also have the skin removed because it will tighten and shrink during cooking. Simply peel the fine skin from the flesh with your fingers beforehand. The best way to cook veal or calf livers is to slice them into thin steaks, dust them in a little seasoned flour and pan-fry them in butter until golden and no more than medium-rare. A creamy Paris mash and some melting caramelised onions never go astray here, and bacon, fried crisp, is another classic dance partner. Duck and chicken livers require less preparation and are less daunting for most beginners. Simply trim them of their connecting sinew and gall bladder (the yellow and green bits) and they’re ready to go. Pâtés and parfaits are favourite preparations here, but simply frying a small handful of poultry livers in a hot pan until cooked rare is also an unbeatable way to eat them. Deglaze the pan with a healthy splash of balsamic or aged red wine vinegar, verjuice or sherry and serve the livers with toasted brioche, figs and watercress or other bitter greens for an exceptional quick meal.
Never go past a classic – duck liver pâté. Make a reduction by cooking a large splash of Madeira or port with some thyme and finely chopped shallot until the wine is almost evaporated. Set aside. Heat a large chunk of butter in a pan over very low heat, add the livers (your proportion of fat to liver should be around 40 per cent), cook slowly until medium and just pink without browning. Cool, then process with reduction and shallots (thyme removed), season to taste with sea salt and freshly ground white pepper. Pass through a sieve, pushing as much mixture through as possible, then pour into little dishes and chill until set. Finish it off with a layer of Madeira jelly, some melted butter or even some pork lard or duck fat if you're feeling fancy.
OXTAIL
Once something you’d have to buy frozen or from your butcher, fresh oxtail is now a common sight in supermarkets. Simply put, they’re cattle tails (traditionally from an ox, a castrated bull, hence the name) and are usually sold cut in sections about five to eight centimetres thick. Sometimes the pieces from the tip can be a bit too small to bother with, but on the whole the flavour packed into a tail is complex and dense. You could cut a whole tail yourself and cleave your way through each joint to get your pieces, but it’s best to get the butcher to do this for you. There’s not a lot of meat on each section of bone, so you’ll need about four to six pieces per person for a main course. The fat around the outside of the tail is a little too rich for most people and can be trimmed, steadily skimmed off during cooking, or removed after chilling. A few pieces of oxtail thrown in the pot can impart incredible stickiness and body to other braises. If you’re making a classic oxtail broth, soak the pieces in cold water for a few hours first to draw out the blood.
Kori gom tang is a Korean oxtail soup that you'll find yourself craving and it's so simple, too. The key to its success is your use of seasoning to highlight the flavour from the perfumed broth. Soak around 1½ kg of tail pieces, then throw into a pot with a large knob of peeled and sliced ginger and around 4 litres of water. Bring to the boil and give it a good skimming to remove the scum. Throw in a head’s worth of peeled garlic cloves and 3 or 4 coarsely chopped green onions and simmer over a low-medium heat for about 2-3 hours or until the broth is infused with heady flavour. In the meantime, keep skimming to remove all the fat that surfaces. Remove the oxtail and either pull off the meat or leave in whole pieces, depending on how lazy you're feeling. Make up a spice mix of salt, freshly ground black pepper, chilli powder and crushed garlic cloves and add to the soup with a little extra left for serving. Scatter lots of finely sliced green onion on top, drizzle with a little soy sauce and serve with kimchi and rice.
HANGER AND SKIRT STEAK
The hanger steak, also known as onglet, is a cut of beef from the end of the diaphragm near the kidneys. It’s so named because it hangs from this section of the animal, right next to the outer skirt steak. The skirt steak, which gets its name from the pleats of fibrous muscle that resemble the pleats of a skirt, is slightly tougher but both have wonderful flavour. Because of their relative leanness, it’s a good idea to serve these cuts of beef a little bloody. Grill them over hot coals until rare, seasoned only with a little salt and pepper, or serve them South American-style with chimichurri. To tenderise the meat beforehand, marinate the steaks overnight in red wine. If blood’s not your thing, they also work wonders slow-cooked in pies or minced for pasta sauces.
A little birdie tells me this one's a cracker. Season your hanger or skirt steak well with salt, pepper and coarsely crushed cumin seeds, then scorch it over a hot barbecue until rare to medium-rare. Rest it for a few minutes covered with a loose layer of foil in a warm place, and then squeeze over some lime juice. Around the same time you throw on the steak, have some corn on the go, barbecuing until nicely charred. When done, remove the kernels and toss in a bowl with a good handful of torn coriander leaves, very ripe diced tomato, an extra squeeze of lime and a drizzle of olive oil. Slice your steak and serve it with the corn salsa and some sour cream.
CHEEK
Yes, that cheek. The cut refers to the facial muscle of the animal and only the beef or pork varieties are sold for cooking (though should you be presented with a whole sheep’s head, the cheek meat is not to be missed). It’s a very lean but also very sinewy cut of meat (the sinews must be renoved before cooking) and is most often used for braising or slow cooking. Pork cheeks, also known as chaps, make up one part of the classic preparation known as Bath chaps, in which pork cheeks are brined for a few days (while still attached to a boned-out head), simmered in water, cooled, then served with pickles, mustard and buttered bread. Be warned: it may be difficult to find a butcher who’ll supply you with cheeks and you’ll need to order them ahead. If beef cheeks aren’t available, beef brisket cut into pieces of a similar weight makes a good substitute.
For a great braised cheek, firstly render some pork fat by slowly cooking a large amount of pork back fat in a saucepan with a splash of water in the base to prevent the fat from sticking and burning. This is going to take about an hour. Take some of that lovely fat, (keep the rest stored in a jar for future use) and add your flour-dusted pork or beef cheeks (2 cheeks per serve is good) and cook over medium heat, turning, until golden brown. Remove from the pan and set aside, then sweat a very large, finely chopped onion and 4 crushed cloves of garlic until lucent, adding a little more fat if needed. Deglaze the pan with a good slug of drinking-quality Barolo or white vino (white will give you a lighter stew). Let it reduce to half the amount, then return the cheeks and throw in some rosemary sprigs and chicken or beef stock to cover the cheeks (chicken will give you a lighter finish). Add a can of crushed tomatoes and cook, covered, very slowly for about 3 hours until the meat is almost falling apart. Serve with some creamy white polenta and glazed carrots for a hearty Italian-style meal.
PORK NECK
This is one secondary cut that’s up there with belly in our book. Maiale e latte is a recipe that springs to mind with this cut: the neck is cooked slowly in a bath of milk until the milk separates and integrates with the fat to create a curdled cheesy sauce. Pork neck, simply roasted, also pairs well with sage and apples or pears or fennel. Make sure there’s enough fat covering it to keep it nice and moist. The neck is usually sold boneless, so it should be rolled and tied before cooking to ensure that it keeps its shape.
The “mahogany glazing” effect produced with this dish brilliantly demonstrates the benefits of slow roasting. Between the meat juices and the addition of a sugar – in this case honey – the outside of the meat becomes caramelised and sticky with a good crust. It's super-simple. Get the oven temperature preheated to 130C. Marinate the pork neck in a mixture of finely chopped ginger and garlic, a large drizzle of honey and a little splash each of soy and fish sauces. Place into a roasting pan with some water in the base and roast for 1-1½ hours, then turn and roast for about the same time or until mahogany in colour and tender. You'll need to keep adding water to the pan to prevent it from burning, or even use some baking paper to line the base. You can also do this on a coal or wood-fired barbecue on a low temperature for extra smoky flavour. The result will be even better if you use a rare breed free-range pork. If you need to get a bit more colour into it, increase the temperature and give it a good flash of heat. Serve it sliced with a spicy green papaya salad.
LAMB NECK
Here’s another cut which offers plenty of bang for your buck. It’s a tough cut with a lot of connective tissue and you’ll find it appears in butcher shops cut a few different ways. Lamb neck chops, usually from the scrag or the best-end of the neck, are common and you can also get the neck boned from the middle, cut and tied, and ready to go. To make a magnificent ragù, cook a whole lamb neck in red wine with herbs and lamb stock, then break the meat up into chunks and serve with pasta or a bed of lentils. The chops are ideal for stewing and adding to shepherd’s pie or stobhach Gaelach, the potato-based Irish stew. They’re also the perfect base for a classic Lancashire hotpot.
The old school of thought with traditional Irish stew is to incorporate two potatoes into the mix: a floury potato to thicken and a waxier one for looks and texture. Don't spoil it by adding too much liquid based on that common misconception that it should be soupy. Fill a casserole with a good layer or two of lamb neck chops, don't worry yourself with browning them, add 1 sliced onion, next add your two different types of peeled and sliced potato. Perhaps a desiree for waxiness and a russet Burbank for flour factor. You can add some carrots here too, but it's also a belief that all vegetables should be white for a proper Irish stew. Pour over around 3 litres of chicken stock or water or enough to cover by about 2cm and season well with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Bring to the boil, then transfer to a 150C preheated oven and bake, covered, for 1½ hours or until lamb and potato are tender. Scatter over lots of chopped parsley to finish.
PORK HAND AND HOCK
The hock and the slightly alarmingly named hand are joined on the lower front legs of the pig. Both are available from butchers uncured (“green”) but they’re usually sold corned or pickled. On its own, hock is very useful for flavouring soups and braised pulses, while the hand is wonderful roasted. Cured, they both need to be cooked in stock or other liquid. There’s nothing more gelatinously sticky than a cooked pig’s trotter but the hock and hand, in that order, come pretty close. These cuts have a vast amount of skin and bone, so plenty of natural gelatine is extracted when they’re cooked, leaving diners with a lip-smacking experience.
There is nothing so divine as a corned piece of pork cooked in hay. Strange as it may seem, you can taste the barnyard flavours – this is country cooking, through and through. Firstly, buy some hay. This may be a little challenging to those who live in the city, but any large rural or pet produce store should have it, just make sure it's organic and untreated. Scatter a large crop of hay in the base of a large stock pot. Place the corned hand and hock on top, then cover with another generous crop of more hay. Cover all of that completely with water and slowly bring to the boil. Cook it gently over a low heat for at least 3 hours until the pork is very gelatinous and tender. Carefully drain it, throw away the hay and serve the ham hot or cold with a zesty, portly Cumberland sauce.
BEEF SHORT RIBS
The term short (or spare) ribs refers to the ribs from the forequarter flank of the rib cage, and the intercostal muscle that lies between them. The meatiest of the rib cuts, they’re an excellent cut if you like cooking meat on the bone. A slow braise is ideal so that the meat can tenderise and separate from the rib. Afterwards, the ribs should be cooked quickly on a grill or crisped in a pan. Bourbon-barbecue short ribs are a fine example of good party food. Messy and finger-lickin’ good, the ribs are braised in a bourbon-punched barbecue sauce, and then grilled until they’re almost black and sticky. Marucha, a term used in asado cooking (Argentinian barbecuing), refers to wood-fired short ribs. In this case, instead of having an initial slow cook, the ribs are marinated overnight in a vinegary solution to tenderise the meat and then barbecued for an equally delicious result.
Double cooking the one dish is common in China. Master stock is religiously used first to slowly poach meat until succulent, followed by a quick deep-fry or stir-fry to add crispness and texture. It's all part of Yin-Yang philosophy that all things must balance out. First, slowly poach the ribs in a stock made from water seasoned with soy, rock sugar, ginger, green onion, mandarin peel, cassia bark and star anise until it's juicy and falling apart; a couple of hours would be recommended. Then remove the ribs, cool and pull the meat from the bones into large pieces or, if you prefer, cut into individual ribs on the bone. Next, get a wok smoking hot. Add a good splash of peanut oil, then a decent amount of shredded ginger, garlic and Sichuan pepper. Throw in some dried chilli for colour and heat, then the rib meat and a good handful of green onions and stir-fry quickly to just crisp on the outside. Finish it all off with a little soy and Shaoxing wine.
BEEF FLANK
The flank is another cut of beef used in asado cooking – rolled and stuffed, it’s known as matambre. In layman’s terms, the flank is pretty much just the belly of the animal, sitting underneath the sirloin and near the ribs, although there’s no bone involved with this cut. It’s a flat piece with good marbling that, when cooked on a wood fire, needs little else done to it: you can cook it rolled, stuffed or simply grilled as steaks or in one larger piece.
If you have a wood-fired or even a coal-based barbecue, light a fire well before cooking and let it sustain a good heat when the flames die down. In the meantime, give your flank steaks a bit of a seasoning. You can go all out here and use something complex, like a Jamaican jerk rub, but less is usually more. A little freshly ground coriander and white pepper will do just fine. The steaks won't take too long to cook as you want them medium-rare, so get your accompanying chimichurri ready before you cook them. Blend some coriander and parsley leaves with salt, pepper, paprika and olive oil. Add some vinegar or lemon juice to taste and set it aside. Cook the steaks for about 3-5 minutes each side and top with lashings of sauce. Eat immediately.
SILVERSIDE
You can buy silverside in its raw form, but you’re probably better off buying it already corned, when it’s labelled as corned silverside. The name of the beef cut derives from its shimmery quality, but it’s actually a cut from the back end of the animal on the top of the leg, just below the rump. The cut is divided in two varieties, the outside and the flat-side, but silverside is usually sold from the outside cut. Uncorned silverside can be roasted, but it needs to be cooked with the fat-side up and must be basted regularly because its lack of internal fat means it can dry out quite easily. The best way to cook silverside is to buy it already corned (or pickle it yourself) and then simply poach it slowly over a couple of hours and serve it with carrots, potatoes and mustard sauce.
Place a good-sized piece of corned silverside in a large pot. Cover completely with water. Add a mirepoix (coarsely chopped onion, carrot and celery) and a few herbs (parsley, bay and thyme). Bring it all to the boil slowly, then simmer until the silverside is tender, giving it at least 1½ hours. When the silverside is almost cooked, drain the stock vegetables from the pot and add some baby new potatoes. While that's cooking until potatoes are tender, make a roux of equal quantity butter and flour (about 50gm each) and cook in a saucepan until starting to turn a sandy colour. Add about 500ml cold milk a little at a time and whisking well after each addition (you can make a larger quantity, but for a good consistency, the ratio should always remain 1 part butter, 1 part flour, 10 parts milk or stock). Just before serving with your sliced silverside and boiled potatoes, stir through a good amount of finely chopped parsley.
BEEF BRISKET
Cut from the chest of the animal, brisket has a good fat covering and is often sold with a few ribs and connecting costal cartilages attached. It’s especially popular slow-cooked in the Asian and Jewish traditions, and Chinese or kosher butchers are great sources. Pot roast it, or consider an awesome salt beef or pastrami. When salting or curing beef yourself, skip the saltpetre demanded by some recipes. A preservative used in commercial curing, its function is purely to maintain the pink colour of the meat. Use regular salt and you may end up with a grey/brown cast to the meat, but the flavour won’t be compromised.
To salt beef, take 1½kg coarse sea salt and mix it up with 500gm raw sugar, some juniper berries, black peppercorns, thyme, bay leaves and 4 litres of boiling water. Cool the mix to refrigerator temperature, and then pour over a slab of beef brisket in a non-reactive dish, covering the beef with the curing mix. Leave it for 5 days to cure, then drain and cook in a large pot of water over a low heat for 3 hours. Warm some bagels, spread them with mustard, pickles and some cress, then top with warm salt beef.
LAMB SHANK
How could we not include the lamb shank in a list of good-value cuts? Shank is the section of meat and bone that sits above the knee joint and below the leg. Lamb legs can be bought from the butcher with the shank attached, but because of the shank’s popularity, many butchers usually have the cut on hand. There are various ways you can cook shanks and the slow forms of cooking work best: in soups, casseroles and wet roasts to name a few. The shank has a strong flavour so you can successfully mix it with strong aromatics and herbs, and it’s versatile enough for heavily spiced food including curries and tagines. Allow two shanks per serve, even though many recipes call for one, because you can never have too much of a good thing.
In the spirit of one-pot cooking and for a rich, sweet and spicy tagine, throw together some browned lamb shanks, 1 thickly sliced onion, a couple of smashed garlic cloves, 1 sliced carrot, a cup of chickpeas (that have been soaked overnight and drained), some chopped chilli, a can or two of crushed tomatoes, a couple of tablespoons of honey and some chicken stock to cover. Then add the spices: ground paprika, chilli, allspice, and toasted and coarsely ground coriander seed, cassia, cloves and green cardamom. Cook slowly in a casserole with a lid for about 2-3 hours or until the meat is falling from the bone, adding a good handful of dates in the last 30 minutes. Scatter over some finely chopped preserved lemon, chopped coriander and some toasted almonds and serve with fluffy couscous. This can also be made in a pressure cooker if you aren't equipped with a tagine or the fire to cook it on.
