Roy's Braised Beef Short Ribs, Purple Potatoes and New Plates

Well, my new everyday dishes saga continues and just went to a new level.

We decided to invite over some new couple friends for dinner.  The husband has been playing golf with mine for over a year and after all this time, we scheduled a night to finally get together, meet each other's spouses, break bread and enjoy a bottle (or four) of wine over dinner.

Now mind you during the week leading up to this dinner my everyday salad plates were cracking and breaking one by one.  The pressure was on!!  I didn't want to serve dinner on our wedding dishes and come across too fancy...trying to keep it more casual but tasteful and those cracked, chipped dinner plates weren't going to have it.  Not to mention I purchased a new table runner and hurricane candle holders for the dinner...okay, maybe I did get fancy and go a little overboard.

So, I finally found a style I think I like.  I only purchased four salad and four dinner plates for our quaint dinner...think of it as a trial run.  I still haven't decided if I want to purchase more and make them the "official" daily dishes or not...stay tuned.

For our dinner menu on the new dishes I served Roy's Braised Beef Short Ribs, Mashed Purple Sweet Potatoes and Lemon-Garlic Haricot Verts with Toasted Almonds, paired with Angeline Pinot Noir.  Beautiful colors and flavors!

These Braised Beef Short Ribs come from one of our favorite most treasured restaurants...Roy's Hawaiian Fusion in Kona.  It is always the last meal we enjoy at the end of our trip, for a special evening before we depart Hawaii after a vacationing on the Kona Coast.

When we lived in California, we were so excited to have one only 15 minutes from us in Rancho Mirage.  Unfortunately the nearest Roy's to us now is a 12 hour drive away in Las Vegas...good thing I have commandeered some of their classic favorite recipes.

Braised Beef Short Ribs
Adapted from Roy's Pacific Rim Cuisine Restaurants

4 Servings

1/2 cup canola oil
4 (10-ounce) beef short ribs (boneless okay too)
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup flour
3 carrots, peeled and chopped
2 large onions, chopped
1 rib celery, chopped
1 cup red wine (preferably Cabernet Savignon)
3 bay leaves
2 quarts beef stock
10 black peppercorns, whole

Honey Mustard Glaze

1 cup whole grain mustard
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup white wine (preferably Chardonnay)
1/8 - 1/4 cup garlic, chopped (depending how much you like garlic)
1 bunch basil leaved, chopped

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Heat oil in a roasting or braising pan over medium heat.  Season short ribs with salt and pepper.  Lightly dredge in flour.  Shake off any excess flour.  Sear all sides of short ribs until golden brown.  Add carrots, onions and celery to roasting pan and saute until tender, about 2 minutes.  Deglaze pan with red wine.  Add the bay leaves, beef stock and peppercorns.  Cover roasting pan with aluminum foil and bake until ribs are knife-tender, about 2 to 2-1/2 hours.

While short ribs are braising, mix all the ingredients for Honey Mustard Glaze in a bowl and set in refrigerator until ready to use.

When ready, remove short ribs from liquid and set aside.  Heat gas or charcoal grill to medium heat.  Brush short ribs well with the honey glaze and grill briefly to set the glaze.

While short ribs are searing off with the honey glaze, set roasting pan on stove and heat vegetables until sauce consistency.  Add more beef stock if needed.

Remove bay leaves and pour vegetable sauce over grilled short ribs.

**Prepare the purple sweet potatoes just as you would regular Yukon mashed potatoes with salt, pepper, butter, heavy cream, sour cream, etc.

One Year Ago:  Blackberry Coffee Cake with Pecan Streusal
Two Years Ago: Beer Battered Fish and Chips

Asian Shrimp Salad, Age Spots and Angeline Wine

Could someone out there please clarify and explain to me the meaning and purpose of age spots?!  I haven't even hit my half century milestone birthday age yet and I am starting to look like a Dalmatian with all my age spots.  Since I wake up with sore, achy muscles every morning, cannot remember what I did last week and continue my battle with "silver highlights" in my hair, I'm pretty sure that I don't need reminded of my age by those obtrusive spots arriving on my body every other week.

A few years ago I noticed a spot on my chest, since I wear a lot of v-neck style shirts.  I was concerned that it may be skin cancer so I proceeded to my dermatologist in California.  He took a three second look at it and said so matter of fact, "Oh, it's just an age spot".  WHAT???!!  Well, in my vain manner, I asked him to freeze it off...I mean really, I wasn't even 45 years old yet and that just would not do.  

So, he proceeded with my request and got a little overzealous with the dry ice and froze a little too deep of skin layers.  So, now instead of a dark spot in the middle of my chest, I now have a white spot.  See what that vanity got me - nothing!  Lesson learned...don't try to alter mother nature, you'll never win - just deal with it.

To take my mind off my spotty self, I came up with this salad from three other spinach-shrimp style salads I came across, plus added in some refrigerator items that needed used up.  It was so unbelievable, the girls inhaled the shrimp and asked for seconds.  The infused shrimp tasted like we were sitting at Benihana's grill table, they were that authentic. Yummy!!

Paired our pear accented salad (no pun intended)
with Angeline Pinot Noir wine.

Asian Shrimp and Spinach Salad
(Serves 4 as a dinner entree)

Dressing:
1/4 cup olive oil
1 small shallot, finely chopped
2 Tbl. red wine vinegar
2 Tbl. rice wine vinegar
2 Tbl. fresh orange juice
1 Tbl. soy sauce
1/2 tsp. grated peeled fresh ginger
1 Tbl. Dijon mustard
1 Tbl. honey
1/8 tsp. crushed red pepper
Salt and Pepper to taste

Shrimp:
2 pounds large shrimp, peeled, deveined and tails off
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 limes, juiced
2 tsp. honey
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tsp. grated peeled fresh ginger
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper

Salad:
6 slices bacon, cooked and chopped
8 cups baby spinach
1 pear, peeled and diced
1/2 cup dry roasted peanuts, salted

For the shrimp, in a large bowl whisk the soy sauce, lime juice, honey, garlic, olive oil, ginger, cumin, salt and pepper.  Add the shrimp to the marinade, toss to coat, cover bowl with plastic wrap and let refrigerate for at least 20 minutes.

While the shrimp is marinating, cook and dice the bacon, wash baby spinach leaves and dice the pear (sprinkle a little lemon juice on pear to keep from turning brown).

Prepare the salad dressing by whisking all the salad dressing ingredients together in a small bowl and set aside.

Heat the grill to high.  Remove shrimp from the marinade.  Skewer and grill for 2 to 3 minutes per side, until just cooked through. Remove from skewers, cover and keep warm.

Toss the spinach to coat with some of the salad dressing and place in the center of your individual serving plates.  Arrange the bacon, pears, and shrimp around spinach and spoon more of the dressing all over.  Scatter the peanuts over the salad.

Enjoy!